canadian multiculturalism: past & present dionne brand

Canadian Multiculturalism: Past & Present

Dionne Brand

Postmodern City Texts 2010 Fall

Outline

Introduction Canadian Multiculturalism in

Brief Dionne Brand What We All Long For

Evolution of Multiculturalism in Canada

Ethnicity Multiculturalism (1970s)*

Equity Multiculturalism (1980s)*

Civic Multiculturalism (1990s)*

Integrative Multiculturalism (2000s)

Focus Celebrating differences

Managing diversity

Constructive engagement

Inclusive citizenship

Reference Point

Culture Structure Society building

Rights and responsibilities

Mandate Ethnicity Race relations Citizenship Identity

Problem Source

Prejudice Systemic discrimination

Exclusion Globalization, security

Solution Cultural sensitivity

Employment equity

Inclusiveness ???

Key Metaphor

‘Mosaic' ‘Level playing field'

‘Belonging' ‘Two-way street'

•Source: •Fleras, Augie and Jean L. Kunz. 2001. Media and Minorities: Representing Diversity in a Multicultural Canada. Thompson Education Publishing.

Multiculturalism: Questions

Cultural Distinctness, Assimilation or Social Integration

Immigration Policy: How many is too many?

Identity: Babel or Pluralism (Unity in Disunity)

Two Examples Meeting Place (1990) Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)

(41:00; 52:00; 57:00)

Dionne Brand

A novelist, poet and essayist. A Marxist, Lesbian and Non-Elite

• Not here, nor there:

布蘭德自稱「逃離」家鄉的，因為當時在千里達她身為一個女孩很受限制 ( 所以她也是逃離 femininity Silvera 361-63﹔ ) 。但對她而言，她既不住在「那裡」 ( 千里達 ) ，也不住在這裡 ( 加拿大 ) ，而是在兩者之中 (Birbalsingh 1996: 122) 。

Dionne BrandDionne Brand

Biographical Sketch --fyiBiographical Sketch --fyi

1953 Born in Trinidad1953 Born in Trinidad

1970 immigrated to Canada 1970 immigrated to Canada at the age of 17at the age of 17

1970s-80s 1970s-80s community workercommunity worker in Toronto in Toronto

1983 Information Officer for the 1983 Information Officer for the Caribbean Caribbean People’s Development Agencies People’s Development Agencies and the and the Agency Agency for Rural Transformation in Grenadafor Rural Transformation in Grenada

1997 won the Governor General’s Award for 1997 won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Land to Light OnLand to Light On

A communistA communist who believes in equal distribution of who believes in equal distribution of wealth and ending exploitationwealth and ending exploitation

Founded and edited Founded and edited Our LivesOur Lives, Canada’s first , Canada’s first black women’s newspaperblack women’s newspaper

Brand—a thinker, writer and filmmaker Brand—a thinker, writer and filmmaker

BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in the BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in the Philosophy of Education –in University of Philosophy of Education –in University of Toronto. Toronto.

Writer and Filmmaker -- Writer and Filmmaker -- A few examples: A few examples: “Blossom” Sans Souci and other Stories (1988) 9 collections of poems, including

No Language is Neutral (1990), thirsty 4 documentary films, including

Sisters in Struggle (1991), Long Time Comin' (1993), Listening for Something (1996)—(Adrienne Rich)

Novels Novels In Another Place, Not Here In Another Place, Not Here (1997)--novel(1997)--novel Land To Light On Land To Light On (1997)(1997) At the Full and Change of the MoonAt the Full and Change of the Moon—novel—novel What We All Long For (2006) Toronto Book Award

Toronto's new Poet Laureate

: Dionne Brand, 2009

photo by: jasonchowphotography.com

Her Reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LVxo31hI8

Winter Epigrams (1984)

I give you these epigrams, Toronto,

these winter fragments

these stark white papers

because you mothered me

because you held me with a distance that I expected,

here, my mittens,

here, my frozen body,

because you gave me nothing more

and i took nothing less,

i give you winter epigrams

because you are a liar,

there is no other season here

What We All Long For: Characters

Vietnamese Italian-Black Caribbean from Nova Scotia

artist courier poet fashion store owner

heterosexual

homosexual

What We All Long For: Discussion Questions

1. Description of the city: how it is similar to or different from Taipei?

2. Omniscient narrator and Quy: how are they related to the reader “you”?

3. 2nd-Generation characters & their parents: how do they each relate to their parents?

4. 2nd-Generation characters & their desires: what do they long for?

5. Quy: will he belong? (Guess!)

What We All Long For: Plot Chapter ONE The city in a transition from winter to spring.

on subway train: 3 characters Tuyen, Oku and Carla 2-3

on subway train: Quy, heard Tuyen’s laughter, can’t understand English; 1st week in this city

anonymity is the big lie of a city (3); The people, aware of their ground shifting;

permutations of existence at any crossroad; their lives doubled, tripled, conjugated; people in sensational lies

They think they’re safe, but they know they’re not.

What We All Long For: Plot Quy about their leaving Vietnam; One parent let go of his hand. “I won’t say

who.” (7) on the boat (7): mistreated and at the camp: a mixture of goodness and

brutality Re. journalist; metal toy and a boy “the last

sign of [his] innocence” (10)

What We All Long For: Plot Chapter TWO Tuyen back home (Carla to her own room, Oku

left them three stops before theirs) Binh coming over.

Tuyen –re. Binh [going to Bangkok 12], her parents and their past (13-14)

lubaio (14-17) about Carla 17-18 –inhabited in a world of

fantasy, of distance, of dreams. about the four in high school, and their parents

19-20 about Tuyen’s parents, their restaurant 21 The mother’s letters 24 Tuyen—about Jamal – “because he’s mine”

What We All Long For: Plot Chapter THREE Carla: riding from the prison (Mimico

Correctional Institute) to Etobicoke – High Park – the “muscle of highway and streets” (31) – flies when she rides the bike, embraced by the prison when she stops. (32)

Her sense of the city vs. Jamal’s Jamal – his phone calls & his stories (33-34) (past: tried to get Derek to help without

success) gazes at the street; Monday- -walks against the current.

What We All Long For: Plot Chapter FOUR Tuyen , Oku and Jackie

being black

Oku their parents’ expectation of their living

“regular Canadian life” (47) debating about Jamal again (48) Tuyen -- Carla – Tuyen (their sexual

intimacy and a space of leave-taking) 50-51 –their talk about C’s having no desire (a week before the lawyer called) 52

What We All Long For: Plot Chapter FIVE City overview— Tuyen’s family in Richmond Hill – antiseptic

and rootless and desolate (55) – exchanges between father and daughter (“my shit hole”)

Tuyen goes home her father, older sister and mother

Binh and Tuyen –serve as translators for their parents (67), surrogate city.

Tuyen – has wanted to “not be them”

What We All Long For: Plot 25 Chapters + 7 Quy Chapters

After chapter 5: Jackie’s parents (dance hall) poverty

and crimes goes for a white man Carla’s going to Nadine and Derrick for

help her life with Angie (who left little Italian)

Oku dropping out of school – rejecting “guys in the jungle”

Quy finding his way to Toronto

Major events and places: 2001 demonstration against globalization

in Quebec City; World Cup Kensington market

Descriptions of the city: Can you relate to it?

Toronto: the weather changes Torontonians: pp. 3-5 (next)

Carla’s experience: pp. 28-30 bike riding (the city has muscles and selves); watching 39 (the streets)

City (commercial center) on Mondays pp. 41, 53-55

A shalwa kamese and a Muslim cap

Salwar Kameez

City – Can you relate to it?

Anonymity is the big lie of a city. You aren’t anonymous at all. You’re common, really, common like so many pebbles, so many specks of dirt, so many atoms of materiality.

What floats in the air on a subway train like this is chance. People stand or sit with the thin magnetic film of their life wrapped around them. They think they’re safe, but they know they’re not. Any minute you can crash into someone else’s life, and if you’re lucky, it’s good, it’s like walking on light.”

2nd Generation Characters

Their high school life pp. 18-19 shared everything except family

details; Felt as if they inhabited two

countries 20 think their own families boring 19

What do they long for? Tuyen: Carla; Oku: Jackie Carla: “home”; Jackie: away from

poverty down “the paths of flowers and trees”

All: connectedness and acceptance

Tuyen and her Parents

Hates her Vietnamese background: About the Viet. Restaurant p. 21

Parents (65) father: From civil engineer to

restaurant owner Mother: manicurist

Her family in Richmond Hill 55; 62 Against Quy 60 Cam – laminates proofs

Tuyen’s Love & Art works

Loves Carla -- 17 reminds her of a painting by Remedios Varo. 50 – 52 waiting for her to come around

She wanted sensuality, not duty. (61)

Her Art Expresses her love for Carla Expresses her sense of identity

Traveller 64

Her lubaio (14-17) “Messages to the city” (17)

PERSONAJE ASTRAL

By REMEDIOS VARO

http://davidjure.wordpress.com/category/figuration-feminine-women-painting-women/

Carla

Her action in and observation of the city

Her relations with Jamal, and with Nadine and Derrick.

Quy

What do you think about him? talk to you 8-9 --One rule—eat; you “Don’t be

sentimental. Don’t ascribe good intentions.” (9)

-- ran up to be photographed each time (9)

-- metal toy and a boy “the last sign of [his] innocence” (10)

Conclusion Multiple longings, some silenced Multiple lives, mutually enriching

or endangering

Tuyen’s Work// the Novel

The last cylinder would be empty, the room silent. What for? She still wasn’t quite certain what she was making; she knew she would find out only once the installation was done. Then, some grain, some element she had been circling, but had been unable to pin down, would emerge. (What We All Long For 308)

canadian multiculturalism: past & present dionne brand

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