Canadian Postmodernism

1
Canadian Postmodernism Postcolonialism

• Introduction
• Overview
• Canadian Postmodernism and Postcolonialism
• Margaret Atwood

2
General Questions

• What do you know about
• The Canadian
• The Postmodern
• The Postcolonial
• Globalization
• Margaret Atwood and
• The Chinese-Canadian Writers?

3
Overview

• The Canadian 2nd largest nation with high tech
  development settler-invader (post)colonialism
  leading to split identity and unity in
  disunity.
• The Postmodern cultural dominant (parody,
  pastiche, constructivism, challenge of
  metanarrative) in the conditions of high-tech
  telecommunication and international capitalism.
• The Postcolonial issues of identity in relation
  to marginality, power, alterity, resistance, and
  historical revisionism

4
Overview (2)

• Globalization growing intensification of global
  interactions and restructuring on the economic,
  political and cultural levels.
• Margaret Atwood a major Canadian writer
  concerned with womens positions both on the
  personal and political/national levels

5
Overview (3)

• SKY Lee metafictional constructions of five
  generations of Chinese-Canadians
• Larissa Lai Reconstruction of Chinese myths
  (fox, Nu Wa) in order to re-write (Chinese-)
  Canadians post-national identities in
  contemporary society or near future
• Please see course description for common issues

6
Canadian Postmodern Postcolonial Identities

• General Views
• Postmodernism
• Definitions
• Definitions and Issues
• Postcolonialism
• Settlement Colonies
• Postcolonialism s Three Fronts
• From Two Solitudes to
• Many National Myths Realities
• 4. Debate and Controversies

7
Which of the following are Canadians?
Saturday Night Life Dan Aykroyd
Jim Carrey
MICHAEL J. FOX
Keanu Reeve
Captain Kirk
Megan Follow asAnne of Green Gables
Paul Anka, Neil Young,Peter Jennings
Pamela Ander-son Lee
k.d. Lang
ALANIS MORISSETTE
Celine Dion
8
Internet Jokes on Cultural Differences

• Aussies Dislike being mistaken for Pommies
  (Brits) when abroad.
• Canadians Are rather indignant about being
  mistaken for Americans when abroad.
• Americans Encourage being mistaken for
  Canadians when abroad.
• Brits Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else
  when abroad.

Uncertain Identity
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Internet Jokes on Cultural Differences

• Americans Spell words differently, but still
  call it "English".
• Brits Pronounce their words differently, but
  still call it "English".
• Canadians Spell like the Brits, pronounce like
  Americans.
• Aussies Add "G'day", "mate" and a heavy accent
  to everything they say.

In-Between Identity
10

Internet Jokes on Cultural Differences

• Aussies Are extremely patriotic to their beer.
• Americans Are flag-waving,anthem-singing, and
  obsessively patriotic to the point of blindness.
• Canadians Can't agree on the words to their
  anthem, when they can be bothered to sing them.
• Brits Do not sing at all but prefer a
• large brass band to perform the anthem.

Uncertain Identity
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Canadian Identity Self-Assertion

• Who Are We?
• Molson I am Canadian (http//www.youtube.com/wa
  tch?vDzn0UiiOYLs ) (William Shatner
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vh1CwZgb_iAIfeature
  related http//www.youtube.com/watch?vdt596dfz
  Yq8featurerelated )
• Hey,I'm not a lumber jackOr a fur traderAnd I
  dont live in an iglooOr eat blubberOr own a
  dog sled And I don't know Jimmy, Jally or
  Suzie from CanadaAlthough I'm sure they're
  really really nice

Stereotypes e.g. Do you know Jimmy?
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The More Positive Distinction from the American

• I have a Prime Minister not a President I speak
  English and French not American And I pronounce
  it about not "a-boot" I can proudly sew my
  country's flag on my backpack I believe in
  peace-keeping not policing Diversity not
  assimilation And that the beaver is a truly
  proud and noble animal A toque is a hat a
  chesterfield is a couchAnd it is pronounced
  "zed" not "zee" "zed"!Canada is the 2nd largest
  landmass!The 1st nation in hockey!And the best
  part of North America!My name is Joe and I am
  Canadian!

Politics, national symbols, language and identity
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Postmodernism (0) Definitions

• --?????(Postmodernism)?cultures which challenge
  language and the other types of Truth,
  foundation and tradition. (Poststructuralism as
  one example.)
• -- ?????(Poststructuralism)?theories which
  challenge the stable structure of language
  (binaries) and traditional value systems sees
  their meanings as slippery, multiple and
  contingent (?????).
• --?????(Postmodernity)?The socio-economic and
  intellectual conditions which make postmodernism
  possible.

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Postmodernism (1) Definitions Issues

• Definition
• postmodernism -- ?????????????
• Period or style ???????????????
• Postmodernism and postmodernity (postmodern
  conditions ???? ????????????) - the former
  reinforcing or critiquing the latter.
• Interpretation against interpretation, difficult
  wholenss or hybridity
• Postmodern Identity Depthlessness vs.
• History, Memory, Capitalist culture and Identity
• The role of the author authority, originality
  and authenticity
• The boundaries of humanity

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What is Postmodernism? (2)
Negative Positive
Flattening of subjectivity Pastiche Ambiguity Eclecticism Pluralism De-Centering Boundary-crossing
Literature Film Surfiction, metafiction pastiche Parody Ensemble film Sci-fi . . .,etc Historiographical metafiction metafilm
Urban space Society as spectacle overall commofication Plural space Multiple historical signs De-zoning or democratization of urban space re-creation of historical spaces

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2. Canadian Postmodernism

• The postmodern condition e.g. Marshall McLuhan)
  The medium is the massage (the influence of
  print technology and media)
• A strong self-conscious (or metafictional)
  impulse which does not give up on realism (e.g.
  plot or realistic description)
• In Film -- Atom Egoyans treatment of
  electric/electronic devices of reproduction and
  David Cronenbergs treatments of technologies and
  dual identity

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Postmodernism (3) as Boundary-Crossing

• Boundaries between
• fact and fiction
• disciplines
• the private and the public
• high art and popular culture
• nations
• human and non-human
• Why? Next week.

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Postmodernism(3) Cultures

• ????? (postmodernism)-????(???????????????????)
• ?????(depthless)???(pastiche)???(metafictional)??
  ???(ambiguous)??????/??(de-doxification)???(eclect
  icism)???(boundary-crossing)???(pluralistic),
  etc.

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Postcolonial Issues (1) Settlement Colonies

• Colonization 2 Settlement
• Canada U. K.
• Metaphor Miranda
• Colonization 3 Internal colonialism racism
  against the immigrants Quebec

• Colonization 1 invasion, exploitation cultural
  imposition
• India U.K. (Prospero)
• the Caribbean Holland, Spain, France, U.K.
• Metaphor Caliban
• Colonization 4 neo-colonialism U.S.

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Canadas Miranda Identity

• Diana Brydon Re-writing The Tempest
• Miranda -- the dutiful daughter of the empire
  (77).
• Prosperos values are internalized by Miranda
  but redefined through her interaction with
  Caliban (86).
• They show how Canadians have internalized the
  process of their colonization they are
  themselves Prospero and what he colonized is a
  vital part of themselves. ? Dennis Lee
  Namelessness Placelessness.

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Canadian History

• 1534 --New France
• 1670 -- Charles II of England established
  HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
• 1867 -- Canada become a confederation of former
  colonies (The British North America Act)
• 1947-- the creation of the status of Canadian
  citizen
• 1967-- expo '67 in Montreal
• 1982-- The Constitution Act ended British control
  over amendments to Canada's Constitution.
• 1988-- Canadian Multiculturalism Act

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Summary Canadian Identity

• Compared with the States, it merged quite late,
  slowly and peacefully in the 20th century.
• Defined in contrast with the Americans -- White
  North (but not the West), Irony (but not
  Innocence), victim mentality (but not heroism),
  Mounties but not cowboy, etc.
• Charateristics (?) Gentleness violent hockey,
  Two solitudes.

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Postcolonialism Three Fronts in Canada

• Brydon Critics in Canada have contributed to
  postcolonial theory on these three fronts
• understanding Canada as a settler-invader
  society
• healing the colonial wounds inflicted on
  Indigeneity through the development of
  decolonizing Indigenous research and activist
  strategies and
• understanding postcolonialism as a global
  phenomenon. (59 in Moss)

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From Two Solitudes to MANY

• National Myths Racial Realities
• e.g. Who Are We?
• "As Canadian as possible, . . ., under the
  circumstances."

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The Canadian North Its Myths and Realities

• The Group of Seven

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National Myth 1 Victim Mentality

• Garrison Mentality
• Victim Mentality vs.
• American individualism
• e.g. Atwood?Survival?????????????????,????????????
  ?,?????????????,???????????????????????--??????--?
  ????.

But who are the victims?
e.g. Can Lit. by Earl Birney
27
Myth 2 Two Solitudes

• Duality -- caused by settler-colonization and
  neo-colonialism
• French and English
• British, American Canadian
• e.g. Tricks with Mirrors
• The victims are not necessarily powerless.
• Interactions between the victimizer and the
  victimized.

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Myth 3 Mosaic and MulticulturalismImmigrants to
Canada

• Early 20th century Italians and Jews
  discriminated against
• the postwar new-comers at first mainly British,
  and then Dutch and German
• in the 1960s -- Mediterranean peoples, notably
  Italians, Greeks and Portuguese,
• in the 1970s -- a steadily growing number of
  Asians--from India and China via Hong Kong
  especially and of people of ultimately African
  origin via the Caribbean.

V e r t i c
a l
Mosaic
Ghettoized?
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Is Canada Postcolonial?

• Depends
• focus on Canada as a member of the British
  Commonwealth
• focus on the vastly different histories of the
  countries in that Commonwealth
• view Canada as both an invader and settler
  colony
• view Canada as holding two solitudes and/or other
  solitudes
• see Canada as a nation of immigrants

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Is Canada Postcolonial?

• see Canada continuing the colonization of First
  Nations people
• isolate Canada as a member of the G8 and a
  powerful player in globalization
• isolate Canada as a country with pockets of
  poverty
• define Canadian primarily as not American
• think of a Molson I am Canadian identity
• consider multiculturalism in Canada to be more
  than a series of folklore festivals and/or
• consider Canada to be a nation of writers from
  widely diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds
  (Moss 7-8)

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Margaret Atwood
The Circle Game (1966, poetry) Survival
(1972, non-fiction) The Edible Woman (1969,
novel) Surfacing (1973, novel) Lady Oracle
(1977, novel) Dancing Girls (1977, short)
Life Before Man (1979, novel) Dancing Girls
and Other Stories (1982, short stories) Bodily
Harm (1982, novel) The Handmaid's Tale
(1985, novel) Bluebeard's Egg (1987, short
stories) Selected Poems 1965-1975 (1987,
poetry)

• Concerned with Canadas cultural identity and
  histories Womens Positions
• Survival (1972)
• Duality Tricks with Mirror Two-Headed Poems
  (1978)
• Victim mentality

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Margaret Atwood (2)
Selected Poems II 1976-1986 (1987, poetry...
US) Cat's Eye (1989, novel) Wilderness
Tips (1991, short stories) The Robber Bride
(1993, novel) Good Bones and Simple
Murders (1994, short stories) Alias Grace
(1996, novel) A Quiet Game(1997, The Blind
Assassins (2000)

• 42 books 13 novels
• Postmodern, self-reflexive mode
• mixing poetry and fiction, mixing a lot of genres
  (Gothic, detective story, fairy tales, family
  romance, comedy, allegory, etc.)

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Poems

• Duality and Womens Self-Preservation This is a
  Photograph of Me Tricks with Mirror
• The Journals of Susanna Moodie (1970) the
  experience of a mid-nineteenth-century English
  settler in Canada, derived from two books by
  Moodie, Roughing It in the Bush (1852) and Life
  in the Clearings (1853).

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Tricks with Mirrors from You Are Happy

• Mirror
• Identity narcissism, self-absorption,
  entrapment, stasis.
• Note Atwood compares writers to trickster.
• The trickster figure embodies contradictions,
  often using humor, parody, and satire to expose
  hypocrisy and pretension.

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The Handmaids Tale Plot

• The simple, constrained life of a handmaid and
  her memories.
• Her life shopping, eating, bathing, waiting,
  ceremonies intercourse, birthing, Salvaging.
• Night sections memories, meeting Nick, etc.
• In-between the commander and his wife
• Commander meetings in the study,
• Jazebel,
• Wife Nick

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Reference

• Laura Moss, ed. Is Canada Postcolonial?
  Unsettling Canadian Literature. Waterloo, Ont.
  Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003.