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Survival and Postcolonialism in Timothy Findley's Not Wanted On

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Survival and Postcolonialism in Timothy Findley's Not Wanted On Survival and Postcolonialism in Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage Riikka Antikainen University of Tampere School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies English Philology Pro Gradu Thesis May 2013 Tampereen yliopisto Englantilainen filologia Kieli-, käännös- ja kirjallisuustieteiden yksikkö ANTIKAINEN, RIIKKA: Survival and Postcolonialism in Timothy Findley’s Not Wanted on the Voyage Pro Gradu -tutkielma, 68 sivua Toukokuu 2013 Tarkastelen tutkimuksessani postkolonialismia ja selviytymistä Timothy Findleyn romaanissa Not Wanted on the Voyage (1984). Kyseistä romaania on tutkittu verraten vähän, vaikka eri tutkijat ovat päätyneet mitä erilaisimpiin tulkintoihin sen merkityksistä. Itse käsittelen sitä kanadalaisena, postkolonialistisena romaanina, jonka tärkeimmäksi teemaksi nousee selviytyminen. Lähtökohta tälle tulkinnalle on Margaret Atwoodin kirja Survival , josta on mahdollista löytää paljon yhtymiskohtia Findleyn romaaniin ja jonka sidon postkolonialistiseen käsitykseen itsestä ja toisesta. Keskeisimmät tutkimuskysymykseni ovat miksi selviytyä, miten selviytyä ja mitä tapahtuu selviytymisen jälkeen. Näiden kysymysten pohjalta pohdin tarinaa myös kolonialistisen ja postkolonialistisen ajan allegoriana. Keskityn tutkimuksessani ensin henkilöihin ja olosuhteisiin, jotka luovat uhreja ja pakottavat selviytymään, minkä jälkeen käsittelen yksittäisiä hahmoja erilaisina uhreina. Lopuksi pohdin selviytymistä ajan ja maailman, tai yhteiskunnan, kannalta pyrkien sitomaan Findleyn romaanin laajempaan, postkolonialistiseen viitekehykseen. Margaret Atwoodin mukaan kanadalaisen kirjallisuuden keskeisin teema on selviytyminen, joka on ollut välttämätöntä maan luonnon haastavissa olosuhteissa. Tämän seurauksena kanadalainen kirjallisuus on täynnä uhreja ja pyrinkin pohtimaan erilaisia uhripositioita Findleyn tekstissä. Sidon nämä positiot postkoloniaalisiin käsitteisiin itse ja toinen, sillä jonkun näkeminen toisena, erilaisena omasta itsestä, mahdollistaa alistamisen ja sitä kautta uhri-aseman syntymisen. Tämä jako aiheuttaa myös binäärioppositioiden ( binary opposition ), kuten mies-nainen, elossa-kuollut, rakenteen, johon patriarkaalinen yhteiskunta perustuu. Not Wanted on the Voyage korostaa solidaarisuuden ja monimuotoisuuden merkitystä selviytymisessä ja kritisoi sortoa, väkivaltaa ja toiseuden ylläpitämistä. Tärkein syy selvitä löytyy juuri yhteisöllisyydestä ja läheisistä huolehtimisesta. Muutoksen puolesta tulee taistella alistumisen sijaan, mutta on myös tärkeää muistaa ja oppia menneisyydestä. Tässä näemme yhteyden postkolonialistiseen maailmaan, jolle olisi tärkeää pyrkiä yhdistämään erilaisia ihmisiä ja ryhmiä saman tavoitteen alle. Tämä tavoite voisi olla se maailma, josta Findleyn romaanissa huhutaan: maailma, jossa kaikki saavat päättää omasta identiteetistään ja joka sallii ja iloitsee monimuotoisuudesta. Avainsanat: postkolonialismi, kanadalainen kirjallisuus, Findley, selviytyminen, uhrit Table of contents 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................... 1 2. Defining postcolonialism and victimhood............................................................................... 7 2.1 Canadian literature and postcolonialism ............................................................................... 7 2.2 Colonial Victimhood........................................................................................................... 14 3. Yaweh and Noah – colonial victimisers ................................................................................ 22 3.1 A world of binary oppositions............................................................................................. 22 3.2 Justifying the end of the world............................................................................................ 29 4. Victims and survivors............................................................................................................. 34 4.1 Japeth – A victim in denial.................................................................................................. 34 4.2 Mottyl – Bare survival......................................................................................................... 37 4.3 Mrs Noyes – Transforming victimhood.............................................................................. 41 4.4 Lucy – Refusing victimhood............................................................................................... 45 5. Beyond survival....................................................................................................................... 50 5.1 Solidarity and diversity ....................................................................................................... 50 5.2 The past, the present and the future..................................................................................... 54 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 62 Bibliography:............................................................................................................................... 66 1. Introduction Timothy Findley is a Canadian author who has written several novels, plays, memoirs and short story collections. He has also received several awards for his work, the most notable of these being the General Governor's Award for The Wars (1977) and again for his play Elizabeth Rex (2002) (Duffy&Johnson 2012). He was born in 1930 in Toronto, and first studied to become an actor (Brydon 1998, xiii). In fact, his writing career did not start but in the 1960's, after years of working as an actor (ibid.). Findley declared his homosexuality as a teenager, and though he married Janet Reich in 1958, the marriage was annulled on the same year (ibid.). In 1964, he moved in with writer William Whitehead who remained his partner until his death in 2002 (Brydon 1998, xiii). For years, they lived in Stone Orchard, a farm with trees and many animals like cats and horses (O’Malley&Potash). Findley's first novel, The Last of the Crazy People , was published in 1967, but his writing career really kicked off in 1977 with the publishing of his third novel, the award-winning The Wars, establishing him also as an international writer (Duffy&Johnson 2012). It seems to be Findley's most researched novel and it tells us the story of Robert Ross, a young Canadian soldier in World War I through descriptions of images and moments. His next novel, Famous Last Words, consolidated his status as an important Canadian author (Brydon 1998, 53). Famous Last Words depicts the experiences of a fascist sympathiser during World War II (ibid.). In 1984, Findley published Not Wanted on the Voyage , a retelling of the story of Noah's ark, which is also the primary source of this thesis. Findley's work has been interpreted as discussing themes like fascism, imperialism and the holocaust and their effect on sexuality, gender, mental health, environment and nature (Brydon 1998, vii-ix). Many of the latter themes are typical of the Southern Ontario Gothic genre, a sub- 2 genre of the Gothic novel that also includes writers like Margaret Atwood or Alice Munro (Hepburn&Hurley 1997). In Findley's novels, there are often animals and other "marginalized figures" like women and children as protagonists and the threat of the end of the world "shapes everything that Timothy Findley has written" (Brydon 1998, 9). This is also the case in Not Wanted on the Voyage . In Not Wanted on the Voyage , Findley retells the story of Noah's ark by highlighting everything that is lost because of the flood. In this tale, Noah is not the hero, but the tyrant who decides who is wanted on the voyage and who is not. Focus is to great extent on the animals and characters who do not step into the ark, as well as the ones who have to live inside its monstrous, dark pit. The novel raises questions about power and the value of life and it centres on the survival of both different characters and the world itself: Who and what survives and who is not wanted on the voyage? The novel is split into a prologue and four books. The prologue begins with “Everyone knows it wasn’t like that” and contrasts the excursion “they make it sound [like]” and “the end of the world” it actually was (3). In the first book, Yaweh, outraged by mankind, visits the Noyes family and is struck by the idea of the flood. In Book Two, we follow the loading of the ark and the struggle of different characters when the rains begin. The book ends with the ark's door being closed from the Faeries and the rest of the world, leaving them all for dead. In the third book, we witness Noah's despotic rule on the ark and in the final book, there is first an attempt and then a successful revolution against Noah that changes power relations on the ark. However, we do not receive a decisive conclusion to the story: the ark is left drifting on the sea, with Noah's wife, Mrs Noyes, praying for more rain. 3 The cast of characters in Not Wanted on the Voyage is broad and diverse and it divides itself more or less to humans and animals. Yaweh, the creator of the world, turns out to be a frail, tired and irritable old man, who is fed up with the world he has created and especially the malcontent humans living in it. His friend, Doctor Noah Noyes, is the patriarchal, conservative head of the family, who becomes more and more violent towards other characters during the novel. His wife, the
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