Hello to my fellow ENGL 470 students. My name is Marissa, and I study english literature and international relations at UBC Vancouver. I’m currently living on campus (the photo you see is my average view on the way to class) and I’m excited to take my first online English course with all of you.
I am taking this course because I am interested in Canadian identity and how we as Canadians perceive ourselves, especially through our literary canon. I am intrigued by how we tell our stories and the effect these stories have on our cultural identity. As someone whose knowledge of Canadian literature begins and ends with Margaret Atwood (who herself has thought about and written about what constitutes Canadian literature), I am glad to see a focus on the often untold or ignored perspectives of First Nations people and look forward to examining how our history of colonization and cultural genocide affects the Canadian literature canon. I want to gain a deeper understanding of Canadian literature and all its quirks, its historical context, and its relationship with First Nations people and literature.
This is a very interesting thesis that analyses how the Canadian colonization of First Nations people has affected their representation in Canadian literature. Much of Canadian aboriginal writing is a reaction to colonization, and since we are so defined by our relationship as colonizer and colonized, that relationship inevitably exists in the Canadian literature canon as well.
Some of the questions that I hope can be answered in the course:
What makes Canadian literature Canadian?
What currently constitutes the Canadian literature canon? How did it get that way? How will it change in the future? Could we and should we change the canon and how it is defined?
How has Canadian colonization of First Nations people affected Canadian literature?
I look forward to our discussions.
Works Cited
Cathart, Caryn. “The Top 10 Lines from Margaret Atwood’s “Survival”.” House of Anansi Press. 6 Aug. 2015. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.
LaRocque, Emma. Native Writers Resisting Colonizing Practices In Canadian Historiography And Literature. Thesis. University of Manitoba, 1999. Winnipeg: U of Manitoba, 1999. Print.
Hi Marissa,
I enjoyed looking over the 10 quotes from Atwood’s book that you shared. Number 4 seems to say that Canadians need to be careful not to recognize Aboriginal people as an after thought, because they are not, but are in fact inhabitants of Canada. I hope you don’t mind me commenting and expounding on some of my thoughts about number 4. I am afraid that a lot of victimization has resulted within Aboriginal people of Canada, and to some extent it is reasonable. If I had been torn away from my family as a young child and lived in conditions that lacked love, security, and my language, I feel I would have a right to work through my victimization until I was ready to release it. If it is not released, one cannot rise up to be all they are meant to be. I have in a sense been ripped away from my family and natural rights as a child, and it is a process to heal. Healing means finding ones way to success, and overcoming (in many different forms). Identity is found deep within. It is available in the universe to all of us. All people have suffered, and many Canadians have suffered great tragedy and have only survived by accepting and acknowledging the help this universe offers (in many different forms). People want and need stories. If a story never got told, and someone can tell it, then let it be told. If there is no storyteller: like in my case with a deceased mother and relatives that were tight lipped and refused to tell me her story, then it must be accepted that there is no story that can be passed on. I am certain Canadian stories are as vile and beautiful as any other country’s. We can only be told the ones that are kept textually or orally, and we will only know the stories we know and tell currently and in the future as we continue to speak as a people of Canada. But we should strive to be as truthful as we can.
Thanks for commenting, Kimberly. I find it interesting that this Atwood’s Survival has actually been criticized for painting Canadians as victims, while ignoring that many writers have struggled against colonialism and oppression (that criticism is summarized here: http://tinyurl.com/h4he9we). For example, there are many aboriginal writers who, as the thesis I used in my blog post suggests, are resisting colonization through their literature. So I do agree with you that Aboriginal people and literature are an afterthought when it comes to our understanding of Canadian literature, the Canadian story, the Canadian cultural identity, etc.
That is a good point about storytelling. It’s unfortunate that some of our stories are lost to us. It’s also unfortunate that there are stories we ignore…Like you said, we only know the stories we tell!
Hello Marissa;
Thank you, your blog looks good and your hyperlinks are interesting. It is especially interesting to look back at Atwood’s quotes from Survival – I believe Atwood would cringe at the thought of what #4 is staying today; a big part of her thesis in this book included seeing the Canadian character as ‘victim’ in Canadian literature, so this quote is ‘out of context’ with her larger ideas.
The second link, the PDF would not open for me 🙂
You should delete the sample page please.
A great beginning, thank you.
Oh – and please be sure to respond to all the comments on your blogs.
Thank you for the feedback! I will fix the PDF link ASAP. That’s funny, I just posted a reply regarding Robin Mathew’s criticism of the “victim” before I read your comment and I found myself with agreeing with much of it, although I agree it does seem to be out of place overall.
Hi Marissa! I enjoyed your blog post, and it really struck a chord of interest with me as well. I constantly struggle with the idea of what it means to be Canadian. Whether it be cultural identity, nationalism, or literature, it’s true that there is a foggy line… or is there even one?
Perhaps what it means to be Canadian is irrelevant in terms of one’s race, language, or cultural background… But, is it enough to say that ‘Canadiana’ is encompassed solely by those who occupy the land? What is truly Canadian?
Knowing that the history of Canada holds so much tragedy and turmoil, racism and oppression, what does it mean to be patriotic as a Canadian? How does a modern, second or third-generation Canadian connect with the history, let alone the literary canon?
Like yourself, my questions are… unanswered 🙂
Looking forward to developing on this topic more with you!
I constantly struggle with this as well. Canadian identity has always been fraught with insecurity, as we tend to position/compare ourselves against the U.S. And I agree, how do we define patriotism when we live in a colonizing nation? Your comment made me think about Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the U.S. anthem in solidarity with Black Lives Matter…does a good American honour the anthem, or is being critical of your nation patriotic in itself? The more I think about what it means to be Canadian, especially in the context of our colonialist history, the more I am greeted with questions as oppposed to answers. Thanks for commenting 🙂