The Cattle Thief," Jeannette Armstrong's "Indian Woman," and Beth Cuthand's "Post-Oka Kinda Woman"
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First Impressions: Reconstructing Language and Identity in Pauline Johnson's "The Cattle Thief," Jeannette Armstrong's "Indian Woman," and Beth Cuthand's "Post-Oka Kinda Woman" A Thesis submitted to the Department of English Lakehead University Thunder Bay, Ontario in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English by John Power August 2004 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliothèque et 1^1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 0-612-96986-X Our file Notre référence ISBN: 0-612-96986-X The author has granted a non L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive license allowing the exclusive permettant à la Library and Archives Canada to Bibliothèque et Archives Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of theL'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither thedroit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from Niit la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou aturement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Margaret Power, and Ihe memory of my &ther, Dr. Donald Power. Thank you for your love and support and for teaching me that there is no greater dedication than that of the pursuit of learning. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 Chuter One: Cowboys and Indians: The Foundations of a Negative Identity and the Tools for Resistance..................................................... 18 Chapter Two: Would the Real Pauline Johnson Please Stand Up? Pauline Johnson’s ‘Borderline Condition’................................................... 51 Chapter Three: Recovery and Reconstruction in Jeannette Armstrong’s "Indian Woman"...................................................................................... 84 Chapter Four: ‘Isn’t That Special’: Rethinking Identity in Beth Cuthand’s "Post-Oka Kinda Woman"...........................................................................107 Conclusion ........................................................ ...128 Notes .................. 134 Works Cited ............. 139 Works Consulted.................................................................................... 148 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Œllian Siddall and Dr. Judith Leggatt for their enthusiasm and support throughout the entire course of this project. Over the last two years. Dr. Siddall has offered her knowledge, skill, and, most of all, time. In every instance, she has willfully and optimistically siqiported this project and has always been ready to provide me with direction. Dr. Leggatt has endured countless rambling emails and unannounced meetings in her office and her promptness to reply to any question along with her sincere interest and helpful suggestions are greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding this project and my friends and family for being so understanding over the past year. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife Laura for helping me realize that being passionate about what you are doing is the most important research practice of all. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract: In this thesis, utilizing the works of contemporary post-colonial critics and authors, I argue that poetry is a medium through which Aboriginal women can reclaim control over the construction of Aboriginal female identities. I also argue that language has played an important role in the history of colonization. Firstly as a venue in which the colonizers could construct a perception of the world in which an ideological subjugation of Indigenous peoples is not only appropriate, but necessary. Second, as a venue in which Indigenous writers can address the disconnectedness of the colonially constructed reality, and, lastly, as a space in which Native writers can reconstruct history, the world, and Aboriginal identity according to their own multi-cultural and individual perspectives. Through close readings of poetry by three Aboriginal women in Canada, I argue that each poet’s active engagement with the socially constructed relationship between signifiers and signifieds allows them to re-codify the English language in ways that accommodate their own multi-cultural and individual perspectives. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction "As an Indigenous writer, I find writing in the colonizer's language simultaneously painful and liberating" ~ Janice Acoose For many Aboriginal authors, writing in English is not so much a choice as it is a consequence of colonization. Kathleen Donovan explores the paradox this situation constructs for Indigenous authors by asking, "When the essence of language is creativity, how does a writer give life to ideas in a medium of death, duplicity and destruction, which the English language has been for Native people?” (146). In addition to the negative associations that English can have for Aboriginal writers are the many negative images and stereotypes of Aboriginal identity. Both the negative associations of English and the production of negative images contribute to the construction of a marginalized position for Aboriginals living in Canada. According to M. Nourbese Philip, for instance, “Scourges of racism and sexism ... create a profound sense of alienation, resulting in what can be best described as a psychic exile, even among those artists who are not in physical exile” (2). Although Philip is discussing racism in Canada in a generalized sense, she includes Aboriginals among those potentially affected by "a profound sense of alienation” (2). As Aboriginal authors in Canada, Pauline Johnson, Jeannette Armstrong, and Beth Cuthand represent a minority that has been dislocated hom their language and culture through colonialism and isolated through racism and sexism. As a result, each author represents what Philip has called an "artist in exile" (2). Furthermore, as an "artist in exile," the desire to express oneself and one’s identity is often difBcult as the artist searches for à way to transcend the barriers put in place through colonialism. Often closely coimected to the desire to express oneself is the search for a medium in which to put forth that expression. In this sense, another uniting factor among Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Johnson, Armstrong and Cuthand is that each has chosen to express herself through a poetic medium. For many Aboriginal authors, writing represents a powerful assertion of voice as they take control over the discourse used to oppress them. For Johnson, Armstrong, and Cuthand, this assertion of voice transforms their poetry &om an exploration of language into a manipulation of language as each addresses her audience in a way that farces readers/listeners into a dialogue with the author/speaker that reverses colonial as well as patriarchal power structures'. In "The Cattle Thief" by Pauline Johnson, "Indian Woman" by Jeannette Armstrong, and "Post-Oka Kinda Woman" by Beth Cuthand, each author/speaker takes an active role in re-de6ning her individual as well as cultural identity. At the same time, each poem is, in some sense, "polemical" as the author “chronicles the imposition of non-Native expectations and insistences (political, social, scientific) on Native communities and the methods of resistance employed by Native people in order to maintain both their communities and cultures” (King "Godzilla vs. The Post-Colonial" 244). Thus, through poetry, each author manipulates language and external/internal images of identity as she confronts the realities of racism, patriarchy and oppression as a means of putting forth a reconstructed self-image with regard to her identity as an individual and as a member of a broader Indigenous community. While Pauline Johnson has been studied extensively in recent years, her historical and literary