Letteratura Canadese

INTRO

commonwealth (political pos) / federal state with parliamentary monarchy (independent for uk,

• only a formal relation

→

gov general person who represents the queen/uk

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between british and american culture difficult to give birth to a national identity

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bilingual french + english + native languages

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1867 confederation 1st unitary act

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1867-1930 time to build a nation / no cultural identity

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• 1930 the group of 7 1st national pictorial movement / involves east coast (atlantic ocean)

and area around toronto and montreal

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wide state very little inhabitants relationship between inhabitants + landscape/wilderness

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Susanna Moodie british / middle age / moved with family to Canada because of crisis of uk

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1960/1970 Canadian Renaissance everyone will go back to Moodie to find identity

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national film board of Canada film board to help nation create an identity production of

• documentaries (Grierson) + cartoons (MacLaren) to educate people

American Renaissance Canadian Renaissance Eu Post-Modernism

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30s of 19th century 1960-80s 1960s-80s literature with

transcendentalism: Melville, transcendentalism + eu post different narrative voices /

Hawthorne modernism + new literary open ending novels / inter-

→ textuality / irony (double

production reached an attitude: say 1 thing, mean

identity: Margaret Atwood the other)

uses Moodie’s books to give

the idea of the search of the

new identity

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2013 Alice Munro won Nobel Prize

• challenge of diversity:

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1. Am melting pot: put together =/= ethnicities to create a unitarian/equal culture

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2. Canada political pov: 1970s multiculturalism act all ethnicities could continue to

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cultivate original language and culture sponsored minorities to publish canadian

mosaic (criticized: ghettoization of diversity)

MacEwan distinguished between

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1. Canada of pioneers

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2. Kanada of native people

figure of no-man that comes from no-where

NATIONAL SYMBOLS + STEREOTYPES

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maple leaf on flag / natives started producing maple syrup

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animals moose / beaver / seal / beluga / caribou

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sports lacrosse (played by Natives) / hockey

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royal canadian mountain police “giubbe rosse” / created in 1982 by uk to control western

• prairies / now a part of the police body

wilderness

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a. survival canadian mentality against the hostility of nature and the rigidity of climate / to get a

specific national identity, not influenced by uk/us

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b. “garrison mentality” defend yourselves from the other world that can’t help

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peacekeeping canadian word

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a. in the 1st half of the 20th century C was asked to defend peace and justice in conflicts around

the world

b. during the Suez Crisis (1956) Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs (future prime

minister) Lester B. Pearson (Nobel Prize winner) suggested that the UN stationed a

multinational peacekeeping force

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c. 2 elements placate peace forces between 2 opposing ones / if opponents decided to

withdrawn peace control they do + delivery of humanitarian help / repatriation of refugees /

clearing mines / supporting who is in favor of stable politicians

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d. 1990s crisis in Ruanda 2 ethnicities fought / terrible situation / UN couldn’t move / general

Dallaire helped bring the peace (later wrote a book about it)

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multiculturalism land of immigration (from eu/asia) / multiethnic society / 3rd/4th generation

• live there and have now reached integration / problems of integration involves now only visible

minorities (those who are visibly different: black people) / hyphenated identity (immigrated people

had stratifies culture + canadian culture) created issues at 1st

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mosaic help preserve original culture + sponsor literature

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multiculturalism department early 70s gov decided to invest on multiculturalism to take care of

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problems connected with immigration the wanted people to preserve original cultures and

languages →

salad bowl metaphor: keep their differences without melting

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GEOGRAPHY

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huge nation 4th in the world / 1st considering land + sea

• from Atlantic to Pacific ocean + north

• less 40 mil inhabitants / no average density

• contains 10 provinces + 3 northern territories

• political pov: queen elizabeth head of the state (just formally)

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HISTORY →

before conquest: inhabited by natives / inuits (north) + different roots in the south Kanada

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1000 documents attest that Norse (scandinavi) got to Newfoundland

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• 1500 fishing expedition by Spain + France / start of EU colonization

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1534 official colonization date Jacque Cartier enters gulf of St.Lawrence

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1605 fr establish themselves in Nova Scotia / real colonization of Fr, attracted due to

• possibility created by fur business

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1670 en create Hudson’s Bay Company (about fur) vs fr / 100 years of friction

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1713 fr start to lose power against en

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1763 fr expelled from Canada (fr still there, but were part of en colony)

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1791 division in Upper (English) and Lower (French) Canada

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1837 fr rebellion for economic reasons

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1841 provinces reunited

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1867 dominion of Canada through British North American Confederation Act

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1982 Canada Act: uk gives C control on its constitution, 1st ratified on April, 25th 1982

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SUSANNA MOODIE 1803 Eng — 1885 Canada

original surname: / bro+sis both writers / started writing at 19 / 1831 married to John Moodie,

retired officer who served in Napoleonic wars / crisis in UK, middle class couldn’t keep up to their

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standard most people chose to emigrate / 1832 emigrates to Canada with husband and

daughter / they settle in a farm near Petersburg, her bro was already there / 1st years were hard

because they weren’t accustomed to working with their hands, not used to do practical jobs /

pioneer life lasted 8 years (1840), during which she continued her writings (letters + diaries) which

contained valuable info about life in colonies, wildlife of Ontario, community / economic depression

→ rebellion led by William Lion Mackenzie in upper Canada, her husband served in the army

against him with the loyalists / when war ended (1840) the government won, John was given a

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prize: he became sheriff of Belleville (small town) reason why her pioneer life ended: they

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resumed some sort of middle-class life more time to write / she stays here after John dies + is

buried there →

1. Roughing it in the Bush wrote in Belleville / collected all materials from pioneer years and

composed it / prose work with few poems / 1852

genre: emigrants guide / emphasizes her difficulties during 1st 8 years in Canada

• (she lost a kid,

when M. Atwood reinterpreted the novel, she wrote a poem about it)

aim: keep eng from coming to Canada / advise and warn them / wants potential newcomers to

• be aware of the difficulties

composition:

• (i) intro

(ii) why emigrate

wealthy people don’t leave their mother country unless they “have to”, urgent cause

• sometimes you’re obliged to emigrate because it’s a shame for your family/you to stay if

• you can’t keep living in your social status

middle-class educated to tell people what to do, didn’t know how to do it

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(iii) choice of country →