Title: (Re)inscribing blackness onto the Canadian Soil: memory and resistance in contemporary African-Canadian drama
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2015, vol. 41, iss. 1, pp. [131]-143
Extent
[131]-143
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2015-1-8
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/134768
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Since black Canadians constitute only approximately two percent of Canada's population, blackness is not considered natural to Canada. As a result of this, and due to the racism of the dominant white society, black belonging is always under threat of erasure. This paper focuses on two contemporary African-Canadian plays, Djanet Sears's The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God (2001) and Lorena Gale's Je me souviens: Memories of an Expatriate Anglophone Montréalaise Québecoise Exiled in Canada (2001), and attempts to demonstrate how the themes of remembering and resistance to forgetfulness make them political plays. It argues that by reclaiming forgotten segments of Canadian history and remembering moments of racism, they not only go against the grain of Canada's dominant history and cast a shadow of doubt over the seemingly untarnished image of Canada in the world but also recreate a space for blackness in the Canadian national narrative.
References
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[2] Beckford, Sharon Morgan (Jan., 2008) "'A Geography of the Mind': Black Canadian Women Writers as Cartographers of the Canadian Geographic Imagination". Journal of Black Studies 38 (3): Blacks in Canada: Retrospects, Introspects,Prospects, 461–483. | DOI 10.1177/0021934707309133
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[10] Gale, Lorena (2011) "Je me souviens: Memories of an expatriate Anglophone, Montréalaise, Québécoise, exiled in Canada". In: Knowles, Ric (ed.) Africa, Solo. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 89–126. First published in 2001.
[11] Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (1989) Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self. New York: Oxford University Press.
[12] Foster, Cecil (2008) Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of Humanity and the Quest for Freedom. Montreal: Mcgill Queens UP.
[13] Hill, Lawrence (2002) Black Berry, Sweet Juice. Harper Perennial Canada.
[14] Hill, Lawrence (2008) "Why I'm not allowed my book title". The Guardian, May 20, 2008. Accessed on September 5, 2010. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/may/20/whyimnotallowedmybooktit
[15] Holoch, Adele (2011) "Memory and Resistance". Review of Je me souviens: Memories of an expatriate Anglophone Montréalaise Québécoise exiled in Canada, by Lorena Gale. canlit.ca. Canadian Literature, December 8, 2011. Accessed on March 14, 2014. http://canlit.ca/reviews/memory_and_resistance
[16] Javorčíková, Jana (2005) "'Smiling Discrimination' in Canadian Society". The Central European Journal of Canadian Studies 5, 123–131.
[17] Kilbourn, William (1989) "The Peaceable Kingdom Still". In: Graubard, Stephen F. (ed.) In Search of Canada. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1–29.
[18] Lacko, Ivan (2011) "Prečo ľudia potrebujú rozprávať svoje príbehy. Divadelná hra The Guys od Anne Nelsonovej". OS 4 (November 30, 2011), 193–196.
[19] Lacko, Ivan (2013) "Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer and the Myth of Post-racial America". American & British Studies Annual 6, 37–46.
[20] McLaughlin, Cahal (2010) Recording Memories from Political Violence: A Film-Maker's Journey. Bristol: Intellect Ltd.
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[22] Morrow, Martin (1999) "Actress-Playwright Explores Pain of Minorities in Quebec". Calgary Herald, January 7, 1999. Accessed on September 15, 2014. ProQuest.
[23] Mukherjee, Arun Prabha (1999) "Canadian Nationalism, Canadian Literature and Racial Minority Women". In: Aziz, Nurjehan (ed.) Floating the Borders: New Contexts in Canadian Criticism. Toronto: TSAR, 151–172.
[24] Petropolous, Jacqueline (2008) "'The Ground on Which I Stand': Rewriting History, African Canadian Style". In: Maufort, Marc and Caroline De Wagter (eds.) Signatures of the Past: Cultural Memory in Contemporary Anglophone North American Drama. Peter Lang, 73–81.
[25] Roof, Judith and Robyn Wiegman, eds. (1995) Who Can Speak? Authority and Critical Identity. University of Illinois Press.
[26] Ruti, Mari (2014) "Is Autonomy Unethical? Trauma and the Politics of Responsibility". In: O'Loughlin, Michael (ed.) The Ethics of Remembering and the Consequences of Forgetting: Essays on Trauma, History, and Memory. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 37–54.
[27] Sanders, Leslie (2003) "History at Negro Creek; Djanet Sears's The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God". In: Sears, Djanet (2003) The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 119–122.
[28] Sears, Djanet (2003) The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press.
[29] Shaw, George Bernard (2007) The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God. Hesperus Press. First published in 1932.
[2] Beckford, Sharon Morgan (Jan., 2008) "'A Geography of the Mind': Black Canadian Women Writers as Cartographers of the Canadian Geographic Imagination". Journal of Black Studies 38 (3): Blacks in Canada: Retrospects, Introspects,Prospects, 461–483. | DOI 10.1177/0021934707309133
[3] Biggs, Julian, producer and director (1954) Dresden Story [documentary]. Canada: National Film Board.
[4] Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth (2006) "Place and Displacement in Djanet Sears's Harlem Duet and The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God". In: Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth (ed.) Middle Passages and the Healing Place of History: Migration and Identity in Black Women's Literature. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 155–170.
[5] Bunton, Mat (2004) An Interview with Djanet Sears. Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project. Accessed on August 20, 2014. http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/i_dsears.cfm
[6] Clarke, George Elliott (2009) "Strategies for Legitimizing Difference. Mixed-Race Resistance in the Works of Andrea Thompson and Lorena Gale, Two African-Canadian Writers". In: Florby, Gunilla, Mark Shackleton and Katri Suhonen (eds.) Canada: Images of a Post/National Society. Brussels: P.I.E. Peter Lang S.A., 259–276.
[7] Cuder-Domínguez, Pilar (2009) "Sharing Quebec. Lorena Gale's Je me souviens and George Elliott Clarke's Québécité". In : Barthet, Stella Borg (ed.) Shared Waters: Soundings in Postcolonial Literatures. Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V., 346–375.
[8] Décoste, Rachel (2013) "Canada's First Racial Discrimination Trial". The Huffington Post, February 20, 2013. Accessed on September 15, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/rachel-decoste/canadas-first-racial-disc_1_b_2721434.html
[9] Freiwald, Bina Toledo (2002) "Identity, Community, and Nation in Black Canadian Women's Autobiography". In: Schaub, Danielle and Christl Verduyn (eds.) Identity, Community, Nation: Essays on Canadian Writing. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 34–54.
[10] Gale, Lorena (2011) "Je me souviens: Memories of an expatriate Anglophone, Montréalaise, Québécoise, exiled in Canada". In: Knowles, Ric (ed.) Africa, Solo. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 89–126. First published in 2001.
[11] Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. (1989) Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the "Racial" Self. New York: Oxford University Press.
[12] Foster, Cecil (2008) Blackness and Modernity: The Colour of Humanity and the Quest for Freedom. Montreal: Mcgill Queens UP.
[13] Hill, Lawrence (2002) Black Berry, Sweet Juice. Harper Perennial Canada.
[14] Hill, Lawrence (2008) "Why I'm not allowed my book title". The Guardian, May 20, 2008. Accessed on September 5, 2010. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/may/20/whyimnotallowedmybooktit
[15] Holoch, Adele (2011) "Memory and Resistance". Review of Je me souviens: Memories of an expatriate Anglophone Montréalaise Québécoise exiled in Canada, by Lorena Gale. canlit.ca. Canadian Literature, December 8, 2011. Accessed on March 14, 2014. http://canlit.ca/reviews/memory_and_resistance
[16] Javorčíková, Jana (2005) "'Smiling Discrimination' in Canadian Society". The Central European Journal of Canadian Studies 5, 123–131.
[17] Kilbourn, William (1989) "The Peaceable Kingdom Still". In: Graubard, Stephen F. (ed.) In Search of Canada. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1–29.
[18] Lacko, Ivan (2011) "Prečo ľudia potrebujú rozprávať svoje príbehy. Divadelná hra The Guys od Anne Nelsonovej". OS 4 (November 30, 2011), 193–196.
[19] Lacko, Ivan (2013) "Tracey Scott Wilson's Buzzer and the Myth of Post-racial America". American & British Studies Annual 6, 37–46.
[20] McLaughlin, Cahal (2010) Recording Memories from Political Violence: A Film-Maker's Journey. Bristol: Intellect Ltd.
[21] "Money and the ethnic votes". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Accessed on March 10, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_and_ethnic_votes
[22] Morrow, Martin (1999) "Actress-Playwright Explores Pain of Minorities in Quebec". Calgary Herald, January 7, 1999. Accessed on September 15, 2014. ProQuest.
[23] Mukherjee, Arun Prabha (1999) "Canadian Nationalism, Canadian Literature and Racial Minority Women". In: Aziz, Nurjehan (ed.) Floating the Borders: New Contexts in Canadian Criticism. Toronto: TSAR, 151–172.
[24] Petropolous, Jacqueline (2008) "'The Ground on Which I Stand': Rewriting History, African Canadian Style". In: Maufort, Marc and Caroline De Wagter (eds.) Signatures of the Past: Cultural Memory in Contemporary Anglophone North American Drama. Peter Lang, 73–81.
[25] Roof, Judith and Robyn Wiegman, eds. (1995) Who Can Speak? Authority and Critical Identity. University of Illinois Press.
[26] Ruti, Mari (2014) "Is Autonomy Unethical? Trauma and the Politics of Responsibility". In: O'Loughlin, Michael (ed.) The Ethics of Remembering and the Consequences of Forgetting: Essays on Trauma, History, and Memory. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 37–54.
[27] Sanders, Leslie (2003) "History at Negro Creek; Djanet Sears's The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God". In: Sears, Djanet (2003) The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 119–122.
[28] Sears, Djanet (2003) The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press.
[29] Shaw, George Bernard (2007) The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God. Hesperus Press. First published in 1932.