Canadian Postcolonial Literature

Question 1

French and English culture

Answer 1

• split into two regions
• throughout history influenced by french/english and indigenous culture
• cultural mosaic
• seen as progressive, diverse, multicultural

Question 2

History of Canada

Answer 2

when Europeans arrived all regions already occupied
large numbers died due to diseases

colonialists formed strong economic bonds with the Indigenous

were confronted with harsh climate

Question 3

First Nations

Answer 3

• term to describe Indigenous who were not Inuit or Metis
• first to encounter sustained European contact
• their interactions were less combatitive than the american counterparts

Question 4

closeness and difference to the US

Answer 4

cultural, economical and historical ties

C. disagrees on foreign policies

they are less materialistic

Question 5

Geography

Answer 5

despite its size, sparsely populated

huge wealth of natural ressources

very regional/divided provinces

Question 6

Colonial Literature

Answer 6

• explorers reported experiences in charts, journals, and diaries
• basis of a documentary tradition
• geography, history, and exploration represent the quest for national identity

Question 7

Decolonising Literature

Answer 7

famous for a group called the 'Confederation Poets' 
-romantic praise of Canadian landscape
-reconstruction of Canadian history
-popular poetry based on mohawk culture
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Question 8

Influence on multiculturalism

Answer 8

• influenced by Massey Commision
• warning against Americanization
• cultural expansion

Question 9

Diversification of Literature

Answer 9

1. regions (unity in diversity)
2. gender (womens writing)
3. indigenity (First Nations/ Inuit)
4. ethnicity (transcultural perspectives)

Question 10

Margaret Atwood (themes)

Answer 10

• conventions that try to enforce order (gender codes)
• nature/culture
• enviromentalism

Question 11

Alice Munroe

Answer 11

short stories:

• explore the complexities of human relationships
• extraordinary behind the ordinary

Question 12

Indigenous Culture and Literature

-themes-

Answer 12

• used to be spread orally
• now: restauration of Indig. Culture and history
• damage of colonization
• resistance to Eurocentrism

Question 13

Jenette Armstrong

Answer 13

• Indig. writer
• writes about Indig. rights
• preservation of history through people who experienced it

Question 14

Alice Munroe

-The Photographer-

Answer 14

story of teenager reaching adulthood, hating small town life

learns to find extraordinary things in the ordinary

Question 15

features of Alice Munroe writing

Answer 15

tendency to move forward and backward in time
explores human complexities
strong regional focus with omnipresent narrator to make sense of world
deep rooted traditions and customs

Question 16

Jenette Armstrong

biased historical lenses

Answer 16

talks about artifacts and historians:

• they do not consider whole story look at it through biased historical lenses
• tell a story that is not completely truthful or accurate

elders have to preserve history

Question 17

Survival: Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature

Answer 17

Margaret Atwood
argues that C. have always been alienated from their surroundings
-continuuing sense of exile
-dominance of nature
CENTRAL THESIS: C. L. is about survival (hanging on, staying alive)
-C. L. demonstrates collective victim mentality

Question 18

The Age of Lead

Answer 18

historical event recorded on TV

an image of modern Canadian consumer desiring freedom from social obligations while threatened by toxic dumps and radioactive waste

Question 19

The Handmaids Tale

Answer 19

dystopian Novel

• situation of an individual caught in a world of collective force
• hostile nature (no babies, pollution)
• strict conventions and meaninglessness of life
• potrait of future american society under rule of dictator

Question 20

Surfacing (1972)

Answer 20

unnamed narrator reaches wilderness to search for father

• retreat into the wilderness= retreat into a geographical and psychological place
• narrators feeling powerless is coupled with inability to speak language
• feels alienated from search party and runs away
• falsely thinks she can reject the whole of human society

Question 21

Surfacing

Alienation of women

Answer 21

narrators near constanted alienation comments on alienation of all women

• finds men especially alienatiing because of their control over women
• narrator says alienation is structured– gender roles taught to kids

narrator is unnamed— stands for all universal women

Question 22

Progressive Insanities of a pioneer

Answer 22

chronicles failure of a pioneer to impose order on wilderness

Question 23

Oryx and Crake

Answer 23

post apocalpytic world destroyed by ambition of scientists

genetic splycing