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Mme Duech – UE6 Literature
Brief Introduction to Canadian literature
The next and last group of writers in the booklet: Margaret Laurence, Hugh Garner, Margaret Atwood, and Thomas King, 4 contemporary Canadian writers. (Of the 4, only Margaret Atwood and Thomas King are still alive and writing.) A common theme: First Nations The first 3 stories have been chosen because they all share and illustrate the same recurrent theme, a main theme in Canadian literature, that of the Natives, or the First Nations, as we would we say in Canada (the term “Native” is especially used in the States, that of “First Nations” in Canada). We will study the last author (Thomas King) separately, because he is a First Nations writer writing about First Nations / or a Native writer writing about Natives while the first three are white writers representing the Indian in their fiction: the approach is not the same. Other recurrent themes: Before we examine this theme more closely, let me explain to you the other recurrent themes which characterize Canadian writing. 1. First of all, the theme of NATURE or the CANADIAN WILDERNESS. Canada, as you know, is an immense country with lots of lakes and forests. Nature is often perceived as being malevolent (= malveillante), especially in the North where nature is even more unwelcoming. The Canadian wilderness has been, from the very beginning, associated with TERROR on account of the wild animals, the rough climate (esp in the winter) and the “hostile” Indians of the 18th and 19th centuries. Nature really is the main theme in Canadian writing and it is perceptible in all short stories, esp in “Death by Landscape” by M Atwood. 2. A 2nd main theme is that of IDENTITY, esp the search for an identity. How does one define a Canadian, for ex? Contemporary Canada is a multicultural country based on racial diversity (the image to describe the reality of Candian society is that of the “mosaic” -distinct and diverse parts making up a whole- which is contrary to the American image of the “melting pot”.) There is a constant need to escape from English and French colonialism and from American cultural and economic supremacy. 3. Thirdly, there is the importance of RACE (which is linked to the previous theme). There are the two founding French and English communities which are separated
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by their culture and language as well as the indigenous people: the Inuit and the Natives. On the one hand, the Inuit (the plural can be with or without an “s”) are not often represented in fiction for obvious geographical reasons (they don’t live in an area that is sought after). On the other hand, the Natives often appear in Canadian fiction ( as in American fiction). The representation of “the Indian”: Traditionally, there are 2 ways of approaching the Indian in fiction writing. 1. One way is when the writer idealizes the Indian, when the Indian embodies the “Noble Savage” à la Rousseau. The most obvious example of this can be found in the classic American novel by Fenimore Cooper, the novel about The Last of the Mohicans. This is ironical because these Indians can be idealized because they are about to vanish: they are “the last” of the Mohicans, so they are no longer a threat to white man as they have disappeared! Margaret Atwood’s story contains passages where the Indian is idealized, and here again, the Indians are not a threat because they are relegated to the past: there are no “real Indians” in the story, they are only talked about in the past. The young white girl in M Laurence’s story also has an idealized vision of what an Indian is supposed to be like. 2. Contrary to this, the other way to portray the Indian in fiction is to portray him as being INFERIOR. Here the Indian is represented as being ugly, dirty, drunk or violent (this was the case, for ex, in Hemingway’s story). The Indian is seen as inferior, but also as a victim. This is an important motif in Canadian writing: the Indian as a victim. This is the case in Margaret Laurence’s story as well as in Hugh Garner’s. There are, however, false conceptions of the Indian, false conceptions based on myth, false conceptions of white men think an Indian is like. In the three Canadian stories (as in Hemingway’s) we are given the white man’s vision of what an Indian is supposed to be like.
Next time, we will study “The Loons”.