Here’s a picture of me the way you can usually find me – with my nose behind a book!
Hello, readers! Welcome to my blog for the course ENGL 372. My name is Victoria and I am delighted to be your host for this website! Just to give you a little bit of context about myself, I am a fourth year English literature major, with a minor in philosophy. This is my last semester at UBC!
This course concerns itself with Canadian Literature in the broadest sense: we will not simply relate stories of colonial settlers, or adhere to the fanciful version of Canada that denies and/or excuses its colonial past. Instead, we will seek to unearth the stories of both settlers and Indigenous groups alike, with the aim of considering why the stories that survive are the ones that do, and why those that have fallen to the wayside have been so neglected. The Canadian œuvre of literature has been long dominated by white settler voices, and it is high time to decolonize our canon. This course will strive to do that.
As someone who has been a settler on Canadian land for my entire life, I once found myself clinging to the vision of Canada as a multicultural melting pot, and prided us on being an almost utopian society. It has especially tempting in recent years, for Canadian and American popular culture alike, to establish the superiority of Canada over our counterparts to the south. However, I have been forced to question this story of Canada as my own research, as well as university classes I have taken here at UBC, have challenged my misplaced idealism. Canada is not perfect; we are, in fact, far from it. The simple fact that residential schools remained open until 1996 – only three years before I was born – is enough to put this narrative in extreme jeopardy, if not destroy it altogether. Thus, I expect this course to show Canada in all of its ugly glory; I hope that it will challenge my own beliefs and allow me to become more knowledgeable about the ways that these fanciful narratives permeate our lives, especially in regards to Indigeneity.
Finally, I would be remiss in failing to acknowledge that I am currently writing this blog on the unceded territories of the səl̓ilwətaɁɬ təməxʷ (Tsleil-Waututh), Skwxwú7mesh-ulh Temíx̱w (Squamish), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
I look forward to getting to know you, my fellow classmates, this semester!
Works Cited:
Kliff, Sarah. “No Doubt Aboot It: Canada Is Better than America in at Least 7 ways.” 01 July 2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2021.
“A Timeline of Residential Schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission | CBC News.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 25 Mar. 2014. Web.
Glad to see another English Literature major! My own minor is in Medieval Studies, but it looks like we will both be graduating this May if our classes go alright, so yay us!
I liked your comment about challenging your beliefs on how you view Canada. I feel like I am very much in the same boat as I too had an epiphany while studying at UBC that Canada may not be as perfect as I had imagined it once to be. Thanking for sharing your experience thus far. I look forward to reading more from you 🙂
Hi Cayla! Thanks for the comment! I love interacting with fellow English majors, and Medieval studies sounds so fascinating! Congratulations on your (our) impending graduation. I look forward to discussing more with you as the course progresses!
Hi Victoria,
Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience. I was wondering if there perhaps was a particular experience that lead to the re-examination of Canadas image, and how you think of the countries future and the path and the work that needs to be done. (sorry I know that they are quite heavy statements.) I also wonder what your though is on Americans dismissal of Canadians complaining about Canada’s history and ongoing problems. Personally I find it both frustrating and also as a form of gaslighting. Also thank you for sharing the Vox article, its always so intriguing to see the Americans idealize Canada, while over looking the experiences of Canadians. I look forwards to reading and learning from your perspective and opinions in regards to the texts we will be studying. 🙂
Hi Mia, thanks so much for your questions! Don’t worry that they’re heavy – that’s the stuff we’re here to discuss!
I don’t think I could point to one definitive moment where that led me to re-evaluate Canada’s identity; I would describe it like waking up from a nap, slowly, hesitating, but inevitable. However, one moment that really felt like a final epiphany was reading Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian in my first year at UBC. It was the first time that all of the things I was discovering piecemeal were laid out for me, as clear as day and no longer deniable.
As far as the dismissal by Americans of our problems, I confess I never have really thought about it much – but on first thought I am inclined to agree with you that it is extremely frustrating. Perhaps part of it stems from a romantic notion of Canada that they don’t want to relinquish, as Canada is almost like a safe haven for them – I’m thinking here of when Donald Trump became President-Elect in 2016, and the Canadian Immigration website crashed soon after from overloaded servers. I think this shows that perhaps for Americans, Canada is the utopia they can escape to if things ever get really bad in America; to acknowledge that we have similar colonial and racist attitudes would mean they have nowhere left to turn.
I don’t know – perhaps I’m reading too much into these things! Either way, I thank you for your thought-provoking comment. I’m excited to continue this discussion with you as the semester progresses!
Hi Victoria,
It is so nice to see a familiar face in this class, I believe we had a few classes together last year (Bo Earle’s Romanticism course and Dr. Paltin’s Modernism course). Congrats on having one more semester to go– we’re so so close! I found your description of the course to be quite beautiful and poetic. I love how you used the word “unearth” to discuss how we will unpack the stories in this class. I also enjoyed how you mentioned how your education at UBC has shaped the way your viewed Canada’s multiculturalism. I too had a very similar experience where my idealism of Canada’s multiculturalism was quickly shattered within the first few years of my undergrad. I hope to read more literature in this course which will continuously help me challenge this idea of a “perfectly inclusive” Canada.
Thank you again for the land acknowledgement, it felt quite genuine to hear it at the end of your post. It felt less ritualistic and more authentic to me.
I’m looking forward to our future virtual encounters!
Cheers,
Amanda
Hi Amanda, yes! I remember how we used to run from course to the next because they were back to back and super far away! I’m glad to “see” you again. I’m also glad so many people have been able to relate to my experience of coming to the realization that Canada might not be as perfect as the media makes it seem. And I’m glad that my land acknowledgement came off as genuine! While I think land acknowledgments are important, I worry sometimes that as a settler, my land acknowledgements might come off as tokenizing the gesture, or as insincere, when I do not mean it that way at all. However, I felt that it would have been hypocritical of me to talk about relearning my notion of Canada without recognizing who my land actually belongs to!
I am excited to work with you again! It will feel so good once we’re done!