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Transnational Space and the Discourse of Multiculturalism : Contemporary Canadian Fiction

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Transnational Space and the Discourse of Multiculturalism : Contemporary Canadian Fiction Transnational space and the discourse of multiculturalism : contemporary Canadian fiction Victoria Cook A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire 2008 Full metadata for this item is available in the University of Central Lancashire Research Repository http://CLoK/uclan.ac.uk Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/2962 Full copyright subsists in this work. It is released under licence Creative Commons Attribution Non‐commercial Share Alike Transnational Space and the Discourse of Multiculturalism: Contemporary Canadian Fiction by Victoria Cook A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire September 2006 ucl~ Student Declaration Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled stUdent for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution Material submitted for another award I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work. .(n~~ Signature of Candidate -----llf-----"-LL-----------------\1 Type of Award Department "In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself." Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks London: Pluto Press, 1986 p.299 ABSTRACT This dissertation engages in a study of the construction of identity as "process" in four contemporary English-Canadian novels. The novels under discussion are: Cereus Blooms at Night, by Shani Mootoo; Life of Pi, by Yann Martell; Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels; and Childhood, by Andre Alexis. These texts offer representations of characters whose lives are lived within and between multiple nationalities, whilst at the same time, each novel is contextualised through its relationship to Canada. The thesis engages with the debate surrounding national identification and literature by examining the way in which individual authors represent a variety of cultures and ethnicities within an apparently "Canadian" text. Questions are raised as to whether a postcolonial conceptual framework is appropriate with regard to the texts under consideration, which are seen to reflect changing perceptions of individual and collective national identities. As a consequence, what follows is an exploration of new, transnational models of analysis in relation to each of the novels. This transnational approach enables the investigation of the "multiple" and ''fluid'' cultural identities that are made manifest in these novels. As a result, the thesis shows that the four examples of contemporary Canadian fiction under scrutiny offer a "transnational space", where individual and collective identities may exist in a continual state of process. The transnational perspective taken for this thesis reveals that the discourse of identity is one of fluidity and process. At the same time, one of the overriding motifs regarding the characters in these novels is their overwhelming desire to belong. Each of the four novels displays a concern with crossing and transcending traditionally "fixed" cultural divisions, be they of genre, race, religion, gender or sexuality; what is more, they frequently exceed accepted temporal and spatial boundaries. Finally, this thesis confirms that national identity, in these four novels at least, is being refashioned to reflect a pluralist Canada, in which cultural differences co-exist. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract. ....................................................i Table of Contents ...................................... iii Acknowledgements ..................................... iv Introduction ................................................ 1 Chapter One - Theory ................................ 28 Chapter Two - Cereus Blooms at Night.. ........ 72 Chapter Three - Life of Pi .......................... 111 Chapter Four - Fugitive Pieces ................... 149 Chapter Five - Childhood .......................... 193 Conclusion .............................................240 Bibliography ............................................248 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people, whose influence has had a profound effect on the production of this piece of work, but whose names will not appear for reasons of brevity, or indeed, having been lost to the vagaries of poor memory - to them I apologise, for theirs is possibly the most important contribution of all. Thanks must go to my Director of Studies, Heidi Macpherson, who has cajoled, encouraged and nurtured me into the realisation of this project, and to my supervisors, Will Kaufman and Kay Boardman. They have all provided me with the best role-models any student could ever have. I am also indebted to Daniel Lamont; his love of Canada and Canadian fiction inspired me to begin and his belief in me gave me the courage to continue. Anne Wichmann and Dave Russell, my Research Degree tutors, have been a great source of support, information and encouragement, as have all at UCLan's Research Support Office. I am similarly appreciative for the help and advice I received from my colleagues and fellow members, during my time as student representative on the council of the British Association for Canadian Studies. Thanks to the financial support of BACS, along with that of the International Council for Canadian Studies, I was able to go to Canada to further my research. It was a great pleasure to work with Canadian Studies students from all over the world at the University of Calgary. Their insight and knowledge will be of lasting benefit. Friends, colleagues and peers have also played a big part in sharing ideas and providing support - be it physical, emotional or intellectual - in particular I would like to thank Jane Brunning for being my constant climbing companion on this rocky and most difficult of journeys. Finally, I am most grateful for the support and encouragement of my family, especially my partner, John, my children, Robert, Emily and Hannah, and my mum, Mary - thank you - for leaving me in peace and for pestering me, for sustaining me with food, drink, laughter and love, but most of all for putting up with me. iv INTRODUCTION This dissertation engages in a study of the construction of identity as "process" in four contemporary English-Canadian; novels, all published since the mid-1990's. The novels under discussion are: Cereus Blooms at Night, by Shani Mootoo (1996); Life of Pi, by Yann Martell (2001); Fugitive Pieces, by Anne Michaels (1996); and Childhood, by Andre Alexis (1998). Each of these texts offers representations of characters whose lives are lived within and between multiple nationalities, whilst at the same time, each novel is contextualised through its relationship to Canada. The central argument of this thesis considers these novels to be "emblematic of the multivoiced narrative of Canadianness at the present time" (Howells, Contemporary 9). The dissertation is written from the perspective of one who is working outside of Canada: a matter of self-location that recognises the "inescapable double bind" of complicity for the white critic of multicultural discourse (Kamboureli, "Signifiying" 212). It is from this somewhat ambivalent viewpoint that the Canadian literature examined here is put forward as occupying a transnational theoretical space. Eva Mackey has described Canada as The House of Difference, ii because of the way in which cultural pluralism has become institutionalised as a key feature of its national identity. Difference, in the form of cultural diversity and ideological pluralism, is not inherently destructive: on the contrary, the heterogeneity of much Canadian narrative discourse is a result of a creativity that is concomitant with nonuniformity. The merging of differences, the syncretism and hybridity that occurs as a result of cultural clashes and convergences, is becoming increasingly apparent in today's diasporic world. 1 clashes and convergences, is becoming increasingly apparent in today's diasporic world. Homi Bhabha points out that "the very concept of homogenous national cultures, the consensual or contiguous transmission of historical traditions ... are in a profound process of redefinition" ("Location" 5). It is this notion of "process" that is central to this study, particularly with regard to its effect on the representation of individual and collective identity in the Canadian novels that are under scrutiny. Furthermore, as chapter one makes clear, this "redefinition" of the concepts of nationhood is creating the demand for new, and what are determined here as "transnational", theoretical approaches to Canadian literature. The four novels that provide the focus for this thesis have already been described as "Canadian"; in other words, they are regarded here as being part of a canon of "Canadian literature". This is a description that immediately categorises them by means of a national referent, where to do so is to identify them as "belonging" to a specific country, as being in some way intrinsically "Canadian". Yet each of the narratives involves countries and cultures other than that of Canada alone, with some barely mentioning Canada at all. It is also worthy of note that in terms of nationality of authorship, only one of the novelists, Anne Michaels, was actually born in Canada, and she is frequently categorised as a "Jewish-Canadian writer".iii
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