Narrating North American Borderlands: Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and Jim Lynch
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik Band 64 Narrating North American Borderlands Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and Jim Lynch Evelyn P. Mayer Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access 64 Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik The study centers on the presentation of the North American borderlands in the works of Canadian Native writer Thomas King’s Truth & Bright Water (1999), Band 64 American writer Howard Frank Mosher’s On Kingdom Mountain (2007), and American writer Jim Lynch’s Border Songs (2009). The three authors describe the peoples and places in the northeastern, middle and northwestern border regions of the USA and Canada. The novels address important border-ori- ented aspects such as indigeneity, the borderlands as historic territory and as utopian space, border crossing and transcendence, post-9/11 security issues, social interaction along the border, and gender specifics. The interpretation also examines the meaning of border imaginaries, border conceptualizations, and the theme of resistance and subversion. Narrating North NarratingAmerican North Borderlands American Borderlands Evelyn P. Mayer holds a M.A. in Conference Interpreting for English and French Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Mainz. She was a visit- ing scholar and researcher at Carleton University (Canada) and at the Border and Jim Lynch Policy Research Institute, Western Washington University (USA). She worked as a lecturer at the Universities of Mainz and Saarbrücken and currently teaches at Landshut. Evelyn P. Mayer Evelyn P. Mayer · Mayer P. Evelyn Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 www.peterlang.com Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access MSA 64_265322_Mayer_AM_A5HC PLE.indd 1 20.11.14 KW 47 16:16 Narrating North American Borderlands Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and Jim Lynch Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik Begründet von Prof. Dr. Hans Galinsky (Mainz) Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Renate von Bardeleben und Prof. Dr. Winfried Herget Band 64 Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Evelyn P. Mayer Narrating North American Borderlands Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and Jim Lynch Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. Zugl.: Mainz, Univ., Diss., 2014 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mayer, Evelyn P., 1980- Narrating North American Borderlands : Thomas King, Howard F. Mosher, and Jim Lynch / Evelyn P. Mayer. pages cm. – (Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik ; Band 64) ISBN 978-3-631-65322-7 1. American fiction–History and criticism. 2. Canadian fiction–History and criticism. 3. Borderlands in literature. 4. Border crossing in literature. 5. Narration (Rhetoric) 6. Borderlands–United States. 7. Borderlands–Canada. I. Title. PS371.M36 2014 813.009–dc23 2014015388 This book is an open access book and available on www.oapen.org and www.peterlang.com. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Sponsored by Freundeskreis Fachbereich Translations-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft Germersheim e.V.; Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries / Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien e.V. (GKS) Cover illustration: Quilt A Metolius Meander, photo printed with kind permission of Tonye Belinda Phillips D 77 ISSN 1437-5281 ISBN 978-3-631-65322-7 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-04497-3 (E-PDF) E-ISBN 978-3-653-98354-8 (EPUB) E-ISBN 978-3-653-98353-1 (MOBI) DOI 10.3726/ 978-3-653-04497-3 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2014 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access “[…] looking beyond the nation’s borders, and understanding how the nation is seen from vantage points beyond its borders” Shelley Fisher Fishkin (“Crossroads” 20) “Drawing/Erasing the Border” (2006), by Lorraine Trecroce. Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Acknowledgments This work would not have been possible without the invaluable support of many people and thus it is my privilege to thank colleagues, friends, and family who have been part of this journey in one way or another over the years. I am particularly indebted to my dissertation supervisor at the University of Mainz / FTSK Germersheim, Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Renate von Bardeleben, whose expertise and advice, unwavering support and longstanding commitment were instrumental for the dissertation process and completion. Furthermore, I would also like to warmly thank my second reviewer Apl. Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Sabina Matter-Seibel as well as the other committee members Prof. Dr. Dörte Andres, Prof. Dr. Ludwig Deringer, and Prof. Dr. Jutta Ernst for their strong support. My profound gratitude extends to Prof. Victor Konrad, Ph.D. of Carleton University for having introduced me more deeply to the world of border stud- ies and welcoming me both to Ottawa, ON and Bellingham, WA. The institu- tional support by Carleton University and Western Washington University was paramount in this context. I am grateful for having had the opportunity to be a visiting scholar at the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies in Canada and at the Border Policy Research Institute in the United States – my sincere thanks to the host institutions for allowing me to conduct cross-border research right there in the Canada-U.S. borderlands. I would also like to express my gratitude for the financial support regard- ing printing costs for the publication of my dissertation provided by the Freun- deskreis FTSK Germersheim e.V. and the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking countries / Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien e.V. (GKS). Finally, I am most deeply grateful to my parents, Ursula and Helmut Mayer, and my brother Tobias Emanuel Mayer. They have encouraged me in numerous ways throughout the entire process of researching, writing, and publishing my dissertation. Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 7 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Evelyn P. Mayer - 978-3-653-98354-8 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 10:51:52AM via free access Contents Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................7 1 Introduction: Border Contexts and the Notion of the Beyond.......................13 1.1 Poetic Border Approaches........................................................................... 14 1.1.1 “At the Un-National Monument along the Canadian Border”........15 1.1.2 “Mending Wall”...................................................................................16 1.1.3 Echoing the Poetic in Border Fiction: The “Un-National” and Walls............................................................17 1.2 Beyond, “Betwixt, and Between”................................................................ 19 1.2.1 Literary Analysis: The Confluence of Border and North American Studies....................................................................21 1.2.2 Interdisciplinary Significance: Borders, Borderlands, and De/Bordering...............................................................................23 1.2.3 Procedure: Situating Canada-U.S. Border Fiction.........................24 2 Theoretical Frame: At the Interface of Literatures, Cultures, and Borders...........................................................................................27 2.1 Poetic Prisms: The Cultural and Literary Turns in Border Studies........ 29 2.1.1 Border(ing) Studies, Border Theory, and Border Poetics..............30 2.1.2 The Canada-U.S. Border/lands.........................................................34 2.1.3 Border Conceptualizations: Parallax and Paradox.........................38 2.2 Border Prisms: The Spatial Turn in North American Literatures and Cultures.............................................................................. 43 2.2.1 Transnational American Studies.......................................................44 2.2.2 Transnational Canadian Studies.......................................................46 2.2.3 Native/Indigenous Studies.................................................................48 2.3 Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries................................................................ 51 2.3.1 North