Monkey Beach English 1106 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Monkey Beach

English

1106

Slide2

Monkey Beach

Setting:

Haisla

territory; various scenes in and around

Kitimaat

(Lisa’s house; Ma-ma-

oo’s

house; Mick’s apartment; school; rec

centre

; pool, etc.); Monkey Beach and the coast; Vancouver’s DTES, spirit world

Mid to late 1980s

Vivid sense of place,

Haisla

territory, scenes cultivating food w Ma-ma-

oo

150

Slide3

Monkey Beach

Character:

Haisla

teen girl

N

aïf (a literary device in which the main character does not fully understand the larger world of the novel; allows readers to learn as she learns, or be unaware as well)

Narrator: 1

st

person Limited Omniscient

Narrative voice and tone: what is the tone of the narrator towards her subject?

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Monkey Beach

Naïf (a literary device in which the main character does not fully understand the larger world of the novel; allows readers to learn as she learns, or be unaware as well)

Naif

:

288 – Josh, pooch, karaoke, 59 “god you can be so dense”

207-209 Tab doesn’t like Josh, 363 Karaoke and Josh;

369 spirits show her what happened to Jimmy; we learn w her

Narrator: 1

st

person Limited Omniscient

Limited

: Lisa’s first person perspective

Omniscient

: 131 ‘drifting hair of a corpse’

Allows protecting of ceremony: feast 55

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Monkey Beach

Plot and structure: Novel form (establishing of setting and character, inciting incident, rising action, climax, denouement)

Hybrid: many more significant central characters in webs of relationships than in traditional western novels

‘Northern Gothic’; ghost story; horror with a twist

Fragmentation in narration, as in experience of trauma

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Monkey Beach

Bildungsroman (coming of age novel

)

Unlike in classic bildungsroman, Lisa does

not overcome her struggles and

‘accept’ her social position at the end; she continues

to struggle to find her place; ending is highly ambiguous

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Monkey Beach

Slide8

Without Treaty, Without Conquest

In the

Delgamuukw

court case (1997),

the

S

upreme Court of Canada

r

ecognized

t

hat

Indigenous title to the lands in most of BC

w

as

never extinguished

Significantly, the ruling agreed that

intimate knowledge of the land

transmitted in story, fami

ly crests,

hereditary names, totem poles, etc.

constitutes

title to the land

.

This ruling employed and recognized Indigenous

law at the highest level of Canadian law

Slide9

Story as title to land

William Gordon Robinson locates the

origins of

Haisla

culture

in his version of the popular myth of the “monster” of

Kitimaat

Arm, “The Story of

Hunclee-Qualas

or the Founding of

Kitamaat

”.

He tells of Waa-

mis

, who “accidentally” killed his wife one night as both of them were sitting by the fire. Fleeing the wrath of his in-laws, Waa-

mis

encounters the “monster”: the river opened a huge, gaping, white mouth then slowly closed it again. Terror came to his men’s hearts but he, being the leader, was determined to see just what the thing was and in spite of their fear they kept paddling on until the thing opened its mouth again. It was then that they saw that what had been believed to be a mouth was, in reality, a flock of countless millions of seagulls feeding on small fish in the river. The gulls, at times, would all sit on sand bars and then all of a sudden the whole flock would fly up. This was when the mouth was believed to open. When the party had taken enough of the small fish, now called

eulachan

, or

oolachan

, they returned to their camp at

Kildala

where the oldest woman cooked and ate the fish to see if it was good. Shortly afterwards she fell into a deep sleep for the fish were so fat that they had made her very drowsy. When she awoke she pronounced the fish very good and Waa-

mis

then moved his camp to the

Kitamaat

River Valley and pitched his new camp at the mouth of what is now called Anderson Creek for that was then the mouth of the

Kitamaat

River.

Waa-

mis

hosted a feast and changed his name to

Hunclee-qualas

; according to W. Robinson, he is honoured as

Kitimaat’s

fi

rst

settler.“That’s our story,” he concludes, “[

i

]t explains our origins and

why our land is ours.

That’s how we

Haisla

came to be here ... and we’re still here. We’ll always be here.”

Slide10

Story as title to land

Compare the version of the oral story Lisa inherits from her mother in

Monkey Beach

to William Robinson’s version from

Tales of

Kitimaat

: “That’s our story,” he concludes, “[

i

]t explains our origins and

why our land is ours.

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Monkey Beach

stories of place

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Monkey Beach

stories of place

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Monkey Beach

stories of place

S

tone

man

113-114

Gee

Quans

276

M

eaning

of the

sun’s position

relative to

mountains 88

Namu

means whirlwind

161

Winter

loved

Kitimat

89

Kitlope

and the buried village

112

R

uns

used to be so

thick 39

;

92

Why

clams have black tongues

317

Gulls

and

oolichan

114

Slide14

Monkey Beach

There are good ways to tell the stories that convey their significance and meaning – also see

pg

54

Slide15

Monkey Beach

Both responds to and also subverts a Canadian readership’s hunger for an ‘authentic’

Haisla

narrative;

Returning the gaze 218

White settlers are dangerous 251

Ceremony can’t be represented (feast 55)

Slide16

Slide17

There are at least three visions of ‘nation’

in Monkey Beach

1. Ma-ma-

oo

:

Haisla

(means both land and people)

2. Mick:

Pan-Indian

reclaiming of settler concept; seeks to unify hundreds of nations

to be able to resist colonization together despite significant cultural and political differences

Mick never overtly calls himself

Haisla

; 1970s influence

3. Lisa’s parents, and Jimmy (Olympics): identify as

Canadian

?

Lisa:

renewal

of

Haisla

identity, seeks Ma-ma-

oo’s

teachings

Younger generations: resurgence, rebuilding – and

hybridity

Slide18

Nation concepts

Sovereignty: highest authority over land; legitimate right to rule (land or people)

Nation, state, nation-state

Types of nationalism: civic, ethnic, irredentist, jingoistic, Indigenous nations

Naturalization: making something appear natural, inevitable or unremarkable

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Monkey Beach

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Monkey Beach

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Hybridity

in Monkey Beach

Monkey Beach is

hybrid

in

several ways:

-

Oral narrative

into

written novel

form

with inclusion of many stories

-

Bildungsroman

,

with

:

- more characters, social networks more important

-transformation theme of

Bildungsroman

takes on Indigenous resonance i.e. via Raven (374), trickster figure whose role is to create transformation

-Lisa does not come to accept dominant cultures’ social role as expected of protagonist in traditional

Bildungsroman

-

Form

: patchwork mixing: recipes, history, scientific text, story, etc.

-

language

is hybrid: traditional/natural and technological

-

visions of land (and those who inhabit it)

are hybrid

:

Haisla

and Western conceptions of ghosts and spirits exist in tension in the novel

Slide22

Hybrid language in Monkey Beach

natural/technological

Similes: blend natural and technological

Slide23

Spirits and visions

222 – vision of dead crow with missing wing –

‘teenaged’ – ‘transformed’

324 – Jimmy’s disappearance begins with injuring his arm

Slide24

Visions of land

and spirit beings

Slide25

Visions of land

and

spirits who share the

land

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Monkey Beach

glossing

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Monkey Beach

glossing

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Monkey Beach

glossing

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Monkey Beach

glossing

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Monkey Beach

glossing

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Monkey Beach

discussion

Author’s perspective: is it better to gloss concepts, words, and experiences for outsider audiences, at the risk of homogenization, simplification, misrepresentation? Or is it better to just write as an ‘insider’ would speak, at the risk of a broader audience not understanding, or not being interested because they can’t follow?

Reader’s perspective: do writers coming from ‘peripheral’ or ‘minority’ social positions have an obligation to explain and make things transparent, make them intelligible (make them ‘make sense’ on my terms)? What are the benefits and risks of doing so? Or do I as a reader have an obligation to stretch myself outside my comfort zone, into a world view that might be unfamiliar?

Slide32

Key ‘Turns’ in Canadian Literature

Early period:

Who are we?

pre-1860s - early 1900s: ‘writing back’ to Britain

1920s/30s: Canadian Literary Modernism

Early

CanLit

often seen as ‘in tension’ with American influences and British traditions.

Cultural Nationalist Turn:

‘Where is Here?’

(Northrop Frye)

1960s/1970s: building of Canadian Canon

Multicultural Turn:

‘Why Are All These Voices Left Out?’

Late

1980s/1990’s: Expansion and Revision of early Canon

1980s/1990s: Free Trade Agreements (FTA 1988, NAFTA 1995);

globalization

Today:

Why/what is the Nation?

Reconciliation, multiplicity, challenge, and dialogue

Slide33

Timeline: Key Moments in Canadian Literature

Early years:

authors publishing largely in Britain, for British audiences

First novel written in Canada: Francis Brooke’s

The History of Emily Montague (

1769 )

Catherine Parr

Traill’s

The Backwoods of Canada (

1832 ); Susannah

Moodie

Roughing It In the Bush (

1852 ); Confederation Poets (Archibald

Lampman

, Duncan Campbell

Scott); Lucy Maude

Montgomery’s

Anne

of Green Gables (

1908). Victorian aesthetic.

1920s/30s

wave of Canadian modernists

. Dorothy

Livesay

, PK Page, A.J.M. Smith, F.R. Scott.

Publishing in British and American venues, then little local magazines,

based out of Montreal (

McGill Fortnightly Review, Canadian Mercury),

Vancouver

(Dorothy

Livesay

),

Toronto. 1930s also saw worker’s theatre movement in Toronto.

CanLit

in this time often seen as ‘in tension’ with American influences and British traditions.

1949 Massey

Commision

:

evaluates state of Canadian arts, creates Arts Councils

Creates context and support for cultural nationalism

1960’s

Coffeeshop

and beat culture: Atwood, Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton

1960s/1970s: Cultural Nationalist period,

building of Canadian Canon

1965:

Northrop Frye’s “Conclusion to a Literary History of Canada”

1972: Margaret Atwood,

Survival : A Thematic Guide to

CanLit

); ‘

garrison mentality’

Search for the ‘Great Canadian Novel’ (Margaret Laurence,

The Diviners, etc.

)

(Trudeau Prime Minister: 1968-1979, 1980-1984: Civic Nationalism & Official Multiculturalism)

Late

1980s/1990’s: Multicultural Turn

,

publication of many ‘ethnic’ anthologies

1990: Linda

Hutcheon

and Marion Richmond

Other Solitudes

1994 Writing Thru Race conference in Vancouver made national headlines (Roy Miki)

1996

Smaro

Kamboureli:

Making a Difference

1980s/1990s: Free Trade Agreements (FTA 1988, NAFTA 1995); small

publishers and booksellers absorbed by large conglomerates; globalization refigures role

of literatures and national cultures as exportable commodity in global marketplace

Contemporary:

reconciliation; building dialogue between Indigenous oral traditions and settler

textual ones; accounting for colonization; redefining meaning of multiculturalism in Canada,

questioning role of changing nation-state and multiple ‘nations’ within the nation.

Slide34

Key Moments in Canadian Multiculturalism

~1860s: free entry policy; government gives land to European settlers

1858~: Chinese immigration during Gold Rush

1867: Constitution Act assigned Parliament legislative jurisdiction over "Indians and Lands reserved for the Indians.“ Policy of full assimilation.

1876: Indian Act passed. Enfranchisement in exchange for assimilation/loss of Status.

1881-1885 : Immigration from China sought by Canada, to build CPR

1903 South Asian immigration picks up, disenfranchised between 1907-1947

1910 - 1960s: ‘White Canada’ laws and policies:

The ‘Border’ first appears in The Immigration Act of 1910.

Chinese Head Tax ($50 in 1885, $100 in 1900, $500 in 1903)

and Exclusion Act (1923)

1910 ‘Continuous Journey’ regulation excludes British Subjects from India

1910 Exclusion in Immigration Act: ‘unsuited to the climate of Canada’ (mainly targeting British Subjects from India and the

Carribean

)

1914:

Komagata

Maru

WWII ‘None is too many’ policy

WWII: expulsion of BC’s coastal Japanese Canadian community

Denial of citizenship even to those born in Canada

1963 Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, response to Quebecois, Indigenous, and racialized minority demands for equality

Official Languages Act of 1969 made English and French the official languages of Canada; two ‘founding’ or ‘charter’ nations.

1971 Multiculturalism adopted as federal policy, ‘within Bilingual framework’

1973 Non-immigrant Employment Authorization Program created the category of the

worker who does not gain citizenship

1988 Official Multiculturalism becomes law:

The Multiculturalism Act

1988 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) passed between Canada and US same year

Slide35

from

The Innocent

Traveller

Slide36

from

The Innocent

Traveller

Slide37

from

The Innocent

Traveller