Canadian Identities:

-- General Views

-- Its formation and Related Issues

1. Settlement Colonies

2. Language and Cultural Identity

3. Gender/Race Relations

4. Gender/Cultural Identity

-- From Two Solitudes to

Many: National Myths & Realities

MICHAEL J. FOX

Keanu ReeveCaptain Kirk

Jim Carrey

ALANIS MORISSETTE

k.d. Lang

Celine Dion

Paul Anka, Neil Young,Peter Jennings

Saturday Night Life: Dan Aykroyd

Pamela Ander-son Lee

Megan Follow asAnne of Green Gables

Which of the following are Canadians?

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.

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.

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.

Internet Jokes on Cultural Differences

Colonization 2: Settlement

Canada: U. K. Metaphor:Miranda

Colonization 3 : Internal colonialism = racism against the

immigrants; Quebec

General Themes (1): Settlement Colonies

Colonization 1: invasion, exploitation & cultural imposition India: U.K. e.g. “moth” in The Godthe Caribbean: Holland, Spain, France, U.K. Metaphor: Caliban

Colonization 4: neo-colonialism U.S.

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

Indian subcontinent metaphor: masala; midnight’s children, god of small things; cracking earth.

General Themes (2): Language & Cultural Identity/Hybridity

the Caribbean – terms & metaphor: creole; metissage; colors, houses and animals

causes: Europeans +

Africans + Asian indenture laborers

Canada -- metaphor: mosaic

causes: settlement +

cultural colonization + immigration +

Multiculturalism Act (1988)

e.g. “Syntax”

causes:language, religion, race and caste

multiple invasion/colonization;

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.

General Themes (3-1): gender relations

Marital & Social Relations: “Honor”; Fire Antoinette Allegory: The Adjuster, ,

The Handmaid’s Tale; “Blossom”“Blossom”

Race/Gender power parallel: women as double-

victims (WSS; Earth)

marriage as a constaint (“Her Mother”; Annie John)

opposite: Clare’s hunting experience (Abeng)

Canada’s national identity//Gender

Atwood’s “Tricks with Mirror”

Handmaid

General Themes (3-2): race/gender (class) relations

the Caribbeans in Toronto (Rude; “Blossom”)poverty, drug, sexisminverse racism, defense mechanism & survival skills

3. fear, lack, and ways of resistance & self-assertion: Clare, AntoinetteHandmaid, “Rain Child”

2. Departure & Memory: Baggage, film screen

(“Imaginary Homeland”) Annie John “Self-Destruct” in Rude Photos; House burned

(The Adjuster)

1. A girl/child’s growing process: (education)

SB, “Gainda,” “Her Mother”

SA, Antoinette, Annie, Clare

“The Found Boat”

General Themes (4): gender/cultural identity & migration

From Two Solitudes to MANY:

National Myths & Racial Realities

e.g. “Who Are We?”

"As Canadian as possible, . . ., under the circumstances."

“The Canadian North”: Its Myths and “Realities” The Group of Seven

Myth 1: Victim Mentality

“Garrison Mentality” “Victim Mentality” vs. American individualism e.g. Atwood在 Survival中視加人為自然力量的「集體受害者」，主張加拿大文學即是移民文學，哀悼「離家及失落」。換言之，加拿大文學的「後殖民」主題之一即是文化及地理上－－或內在與外在－－的流離失所.

But who are the victims?

e.g. “Can Lit.”

by Earl Birney

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.

“Tricks with Mirrors” from You Are Happy

“November”

“Kill what you can’t save

what you can’t eat throw out

what you can’t throw out bury

What you can’t bury give away.”

What do the Mirrors mean here?

What tricks does the mirror/speaker do to “you” with mirrors?

“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.

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.

Ghettoized?

V e r t i c a l

Mosaic

Examples of Self-Conscious Artists: Laiwan

Laiwan, born in Zimbabwe, of Chinese origin; emigrated to Canada in 1977 to leave the war in Rhodesia.

http://www.belkin-gallery.ubc.ca/laiwan/

An Example of Multi-Media Artists: Laiwan’s “The Imperialism of Syntax”

What does syntax mean? What are the consequences

of “being subject” to another’s syntax?

What are the speaker’s ways of survival and resisting the other’s syntax?

What are the differences between the Chinese and the English versions?

An Example of Multi-Media Artists: Laiwan’s “The Imperialism of Syntax”

“subject” to their rules Self-forgetting,

ridiculed Talk back Chinese: not mother

tongue, openness to another interpretation

An Example of Multi-Media Artists: Laiwan

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/waic/laiwan/laiwan02_e.htm

ETHOS: writing with found objects, detail seven panels of laminated Vancouver bus transfers, 1982