life narratives – never be daunted in public

In class we discussed how Fred Wah’s bio-text Diamond Grill can be read as creating a counter historical narrative. We examined how he used the historical documents from the Chinese Head Tax and infused it with references to significant historical dates, the work and lives of Chinese immigrants in Canada, and racial slurs in order to interrogate the ways in which a nation’s history is constructed and understood. Wah reveals how history and identity are deeply entwined. This raised the question in me of how other life narratives have challenged the dominant historical narrative and national identity of Canada.

I would argue that history and life narratives work both against each other and with each other to create identities. Dominant historical narratives, particular in regards to nation building, can exclude particular groups or individuals from the national narrative. However, the telling of life narratives from those on the margins can work to subvert the dominant historical narrative. Coming from Winnipeg, the historical figure of Louis Riel and the controversy that has surrounded his role and the role of the Métis people in the formation of Canada exemplifies the ways in which a life narrative, told in a variety of forms and by a variety of authors, can move a marginalized figure, culture, and counter history towards the centre. I examined the commemoration of Louis Riel and identity for a history class last year and I find that study relates to issues surround life narratives. To explain what I mean, I have to go into a little history of how the story of the life and death of Riel has been told. Having officially been executed as a traitor, Louis Riel’s identity within the dominant Canadian historical narrative was initially as a dishonourable rebel, mad with religion. This understanding pushed Métis contributions to Canadian society to margins as well. However, English language works on Louis Riel in the 1950s and 60s began to describe Louis Riel as a hero and called into question how race and culture played a role in how his story had been told. Historically this was also the time in which Canada began to officially adopt a bicultural identity and multiculturalism entered into the political discussion. As his story was retold, his perceived identity within national history began to change. In 1971, after a campaign, an abstract statue of Riel was unveiled on the Manitoba Legislative grounds. Statues, like documentaries, photographs, and tattoos can all be used to tell a life narrative. Statues in particular commemorate a life or an event. They speak to how we use the story of a particular moment to define and identify ourselves as communities. This statue depicted Riel as a nude, tortured, and tormented figure. A cylindrical shell enclosed the statue with an inscription of a quote from Riel that read, “I know that by the grace of God, I am the founder of Manitoba.” The statue’s artist, Etienne Gaboury, stated that he wanted to put “Riel in a cage to bring out the anxiety and to express the conflict of Riel.” However, the Manitoba Métis Federation was outraged. They found the narrative of Riel that the statue created through its image and inscription to be an insult to a national founding father. Over the next twenty-five years controversy abounded. The statue was eventually replaced with a new depiction that told a story of Riel as the Founder of Manitoba and therefore a founding father of Canada. Consequently, Riel’s story and identity required the inclusion of the Métis as active participants in the creation of Canada. It moved a western Canadian and minority story towards the centre. Métis leader Ferdinand Guibouche declared, “He has been a symbol of hope, symbol of anger, symbol of our determination, symbol of our strength.” He became an icon, both for the Métis people and beyond.

In 2003, Toronto cartoonist Chester Brown published the graphic novel Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography. Brown identified his own anti-government perspectives in the story of Riel. In the article, “Corporeal Politics and the Body Politic: the re-presentation of Louis Riel in Canadian identity” Brian S. Osborne calls Riel the “most useable person in the Canadian past.” Brown seems to be confirming this in his work. According to the inside cover of the book, it was featured on “best of the year list” and that Time magazine wrote, “Louis Riel coalesces many of the themes Brown had explored in his earlier works: the relative “truth” of nonfiction, the relationship between madness and religious experience the dubious intentions of authority.” If Time‘s review is accurate, then is Brown really telling Riel’s story or is he telling his own?

Looking at the historical figure of Louis Riel and how his biography has been constructed in history books, biographies, physical representations and commemorations, newsreels, and film shows how life narratives can play a role politically and socially and how this role can change over time. It can point us to how the “truth” of a story or how true accounts of history are dubious at best. Power plays a role in the construction of history. In thinking about the themes, political motives, and social contexts that can exist within and around life narratives, questions of ethics, and truth are also raised. Who has the right to tell the life story of another individual? How does the political motivations of the author affect the way a life narrative is told? Is this problematic if the story being told is of a historical figure whom particular groups have strong ties to? How do physical images influence the stories being told? As we continue to study life narratives, I wonder if we will continue to find the subject and action of telling our stories to be more and more complicated. This blog is already longer than I intended and I feel like I only began to scratch the surface.

I work in a bookstore. Having already enrolled in this course, I began to notice the amount of biographies and memoirs that went through my till this holiday season. There were a lot; the two most popular were I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban by Malala Yousafzai and An Astronaut’s Guide to Life by Chris Hadfield. The store had hundreds of copies of both of these books. They were placed in multiple locations throughout the store to ensure that customers would be able to find them. And, due to spots on talk shows, magazine blurbs, and traditional print advertisements describing their authors as “inspiring” and “extraordinary”, many people came in looking specifically for these books. These two life narratives were marketed as stories worth telling and worth reading and by purchasing the books the public appeared to agree this belief. Just like a Facebook status is affirmed and validated by the amount of comments posted in response, a life narrative in the physical form of a book is economically validated by the amount of copies it sells. The more copies that sold, the more were sent in to replenish the stock, the more the book was placed under the spotlight.

It brings to mind the idea of “filter bubbles” that Eli Pariser puts forth in his 2011 TED Talk “Beware online “filter bubbles”“. It is not only invisible, online algorithms that decide which stories take precedence. Stories are marginalized in a variety of ways, particularly through marketing. Although network broadcasters, television producers, publishers, and retailers do not create a personalized bubble in the same way that search engines and social media sites do, they attempt to supply us with what we want, which often means feeding us the same stories and stereotypes that we already consume. I would argue that there is a similar danger in this marketing as in the algorithm filter bubble that Pariser suggests. He suggests that algorithms do not have the same embedded ethics that broadcasters had at the onset of journalism. However, a look at the marketing machine that surrounds the release of a memoir begs the question if these embedded ethics have been pushed aside in favour of economic gain. (I may explore the question of ethics and commodification further in regards to the publishing of crowd-sourced life narratives, including PostSecret, Six-Word Memoir, and the Vinyl Cafe Story Exchange .)

Economic power plays a role in which stories find an audience. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her 2009 TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” describes how the ways stories are told and received is often a matter of power. She states, “How [stories] are told, who tells them, when they are told, how many stories are told are really dependent on power.” Like Pariser, she reminds her audience that there is a danger to only hearing one type of story or life. For Adichie that danger is the re-enforcement of stereotypes which are incomplete and “robs people of dignity.” We like to think of this time as an era in which all stories are told and heard. Facebook, Twitter, and Six-Word Memoir all market the idea that all our stories are worth sharing. However, in reality, many stories, memoirs, or life narratives are pushed to the margins through access and marketing, both online and in traditional print forms.