Hi there and welcome – bonjour et bienvenue! *
I’m going to start – in ‘Canadian’ fashion – with an apology; the name JOE CANADA! seems a bit contrived. It would have been easier if my name was Anna (I could have gone with Canadianna). It is, however, the first and therefore best thing I came up with and will remain until a better title presents itself.
This blog is part of English 470 at UBC – a course in Canadian Studies taught by Dr. Erika Paterson who can be found here (you’ll need CWL access). We’ll be looking at Canadian stories and interrogating these; we’ll investigate storytelling as an act and question the internet’s role. The course will culminate in a conference around intervention in Canadian literature, where students will collaborate to strategize means of shaping literary narratives on and in Canada.
Beyond the obvious material, I do expect that we’ll be looking at First Nations narratives (I’m not sure if these will be transcribed oral stories or more recent writings). I also would not be surprised if we were to look at some French-Canadian stuff. Both of these tie into concepts of home, of land and ownership, and of Canadian identity; fertile ground for exploration. I do hope that we look at some Canadian history to put the works into context – a particularly good Canadian cartoonist (Kate Beaton) often looks at that sort of thing in her work.
I’m interested in exploring the dominant narratives in Canadian lit, and uncovering some alternative viewpoints. The Canadian mythos is a young (and troubled) one, and I think it’s vital that our literary canon – a major constituent of our cultural identity (or identities) – reflects sensitivity to the ever-present racism that led to land seizures, residential schools, internment camps and race riots.
Say hi in the comments if you want. Nice to meet you!
– Joey Levesque
*Ce blog sera en Anglais, parce que le cours tombe sous les auspices d’un département d’Anglais. Je n’ai pas l’intention d’ignorer les Canadiens francophones ou quelqu’un d’autre!
Works Cited:
Beaton, Kate. “Various.” Hark! A Vagrant! 1 Jan. 2006. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
Paterson, Erika. “Instructor’s Bio.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies: Canadian Literary Genres – 99C Jan 2014. Web. 6 Jan. 2015.
Well Well, very nice to meet you indeed – Joe. A great introduction and an excellent example of a blog post: Great title, excellent hyperlinks [only one is not working] , fitting [and witty] visual, and academically impressive with correct citations. A great example actually – I am gonna post a link of Face Book for people who are feeling uncertain with this new writing skill. Thank you. Erika
Thanks, Erika! I appreciate it!
Hi Joey, I’m one of your classmates and am responding to your blog as per our assignment. I enjoyed reading it, but am a bit troubled by your comment at the end, stating that “ce blog sera en Anglais, parce que le cours tombe sous les auspices d’un département d’Anglais. Je n’ai pas l’intention d’ignorer les Canadiens francophones!” Your comment seems to suggest that English and French are the only languages in Canada (or the only ones worth noting). Did you know that Canada has roughly 50-80 indigenous languages (the exact number is hard to determine due to the difficulty in distinguishing languages from dialects)? While English and French may be the only two official languages at a federal level, they are far from the only important languages in Canada. Did you know that 75% of the population in Nunavut speaks Inuktitut? Schools there are taught entirely in Inuktitut until grade 3, bilingually through grade 5, and in English after that. While the youth are learning English at school, much of the older generation is unilingual, only speaking Inuktitut. While I use Inuktitut as an example, there are numerous other indigenous languages across Canada. The Northwest Territories has 11 official languages and English and French are but two of them!
Hi Heather – I did know that – I’m Ojibwa and Métis!
I don’t think my post implied that those are the only languages in Canada (they are certainly the only two in which I have written fluency). I’ll amend the post to address that. I have made an effort in the past (and will continue) to express my academic interest in First Nations issues – you can find a work of mine titled məθkʷəy̓” in the First Peoples Writing section of UBC’s Indigenous Studies Undergraduate Journal.
I appreciate your comment – I would make the suggestion that dialects can be distinguished from languages in that languages are codified and generally have an army (see Max Weinberg) – the distinction is often politically-motivated and may not be useful. A useful criterion for the evaluation of dialects (including ‘languages’) is that of mutual intelligibility – I would argue that dialects vary across several continua (social, geographic, class, gender, etc.) and that the resolution at which they are distinguished from one another is at least in part reflective of the priorities of the evaluator – the state, the academic, whoever. There is a certain prestige attached to different dialects – whether ‘elite’ or ‘covert’ – and the apt communicator would be well-advised to take their audience’s dialect(s) and expectations into account.
Hey Joey,
Thanks for the response! I’m having trouble copying and pasting my reply into the comment box, so will PM it to you on Facebook instead. Check your other messages folder!
Heather
Thanks for the response! I’m havinghighly political. I took a hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ language course a few years back and was horrified to discover that there is no name for the language, but rather three separate names for the three dialects of it. As such, we are always “forced” to refer to it as a dialect. I prefer to refer to it as a language, at least until a name for the language is developed! I came across similar political discrepancies when doing research on language loss in Northern Africa a few years back (I’ve only returned to university this September after 3 years away). I will have to read Max Weinberg to see if he can offer me a viable definition of either term. Can you recommend a specific article or book? By your definition, Portuguese and Spanish could be considered dialects; however, I have never heard them referred to as such. Until that time comes, I will continue to refer to indigenous languages as languages.