"xn0TTImG 1 TOGBTEER": CULTURAL PRODUCTIOLO ACROSS DIFPBREISCE Janice Eladki A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studier in Bducation of the University of Toronto @ Copyright by Janice Hladki 2000 National Library Bibliothéque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogfaphic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wdlii Ottawa ON K 1A ON4 OlÉewaON KIAW Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive Licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in rnicrofonn, 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 the L'auteur consewe la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. knotting it together, as something different (to collaborate) in a body (of work), seductive, and resistant. currents at play. combatting old habits, shifting ground where we meet. -Daphne Marlatt & Betsy Warland "Knotting it Together": Cultural Production Across Difference Janice Hladki Doctor of Philosophy, 2000 Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto Abstract This thesis draws its inspiration from my history as a feminist cultural worker who has been engaged in collaborative ventures in the arts. In that work and in this thesis, 1 raise questions about collaboration and difference as spheres of struggle. 1 want to trouble notions of, and desires for, harmony as the goal and outcome of collaboration across difference. 1 argue for a consideration of how cultural production acxoss difference is negotiated through contradictory, uncertain, and disputatious social relations. Difference is investigated as a matter of gendered and racialized discursive practices which shape how relations are sustained and constrained and which organize advantages and disadvantages for differently positioned subjects. 1 foreground the salience of race for understanding how difference shapes the possibilities, contestations, and unassimilabilities of collaborative cultural production. 1 also propose that collaboration across difference may be understood through practices of friendship which may make the risks and tensions of negotiating difference possible and worthwhile while simultaneously underlining fragile and fractious boundaries and the potentiality for ~pturedrelations. This investigation is explored through a feminist poststructuralist analysis of in-depth individual and group interviews with three women of one collaboration focussing on film production and with two women of another collaboration focussing on theatre production. The participants in this study produce critical, publicly recognized cultural work concerned with issues of representation. In their interview narratives, the women examine the possibilities, pleasures, boundaries, and limits of their collaborative relations, With the recognition that my research becomes an instance of collaboration across difference, 1 work with the complications of the practice of doing research. 1 surface the entanglements of the social relations of the research process, including rny relational investments in the research participants. I àraw from feminist and educational methodological theorizations to examine and embed ethical issues of responsibility in qualitative research and to problematize the social and power relations which accompany the knowledge-making practices of the research. The writing is produced as an engagement with the ethical and political dilemmas of representational and analytical practices and with the implications of developing narrative strategies for composing a research text, Kari Dehli, my supervisor, encouraged me to write in the ambivalences, the pleasures, the slippages, and the tensions. 1 will always be grateful for the ways in which she helped me to examine practices and the materialization of difference, to pay attention to surprises, to celebrate complexity, and to investigate boundaries . 1 thank her for making the smooth difficult and the difficult smooth and for helping me to laugh at and take seriously the "titanicw moments. Her work is an inspiration. 1 thank Kathleen Rockhill for offering the tough questions/reflections that moved my thinking and spirit into delight and dare, for her generosity of detailed engagement, for helping me to uncover assumptions, and for always bringing in the body/ies. 1 also want to thank her for encouraging me to keep the heart in the work and for reminding me how to be playful/theoretical when 1 forgot. Roger Simon, the third rnember of my thesis committee, helped me to work through the dead ends and the blocks, and 1 am particularly appreciative of the wonderful ways he combined critical and practical readings and challenged and enriched my intellectual, political, and cultural perspectives. A number of readers of excerpts of this thesis helped me to layer my thinking and dig into the complexities of writing research: thanks to Linda Cullum, Marnina Gonick, Tanya Lewis, Victoria Littman, Sandra Moffatt, Sharon Rosenberg, and Ruth Winestock. In addition, there were many colleagues who were part of this process in different ways and at different stages and who helped to make it al1 thinkable: Nuzhat Amin, Doug Black, Rhiannon Bu-, Maureen Connelly, Tom Craig, Margot Francis, Barb Heron, Donna Jeffery, Kerrie Kennedy, Victoria Littman, Sandra Moffatt, Robert Morgan, Sheryl Nestel, Sherene Razack, and Yvonne Bobb Smith. To my "coaching team" during the final stages, Marnina Gonick, Tanya Lewis, and Sharon Rosenberg, deepest thanks for the wardrobe, health, and no-fear advice: You made it possible, and you made it fun. 1 appreciate the work of the many women who smoothed away administrative and institutional constraints and complications at OISE/UT along the way, including Margaret Brennan, Susan Hall, Harriet Hori, JO Paul, and Lily Stone. Linda Cullum and Marnina Gonick worked alongside me in this process at every step. We shared our pleasures and hesitancies about many aspects of Our thesis productions. 1 am grateful for the example of their splendid perseverance and al1 they have done for my work. Linda nudged me in both gentle and vigorous ways and helped me to keep finding "another way in." Marnina taught me how to keep at it: to value the small steps, to continue laughing, and to go on the marches. Her unflagging support meant 1 just had to do it. Friends and colleagues in the Womenfs Studies Programme at McMaster University have sustained me with their good will: Pat Young, Patricia Daenzer, Elisabeth Boetzkes, Nairn Galvin, Priti Kohli, Michelle Weddell, Cathy Ferreira, Maroussia Ahmed, and Nis ha Karumanchery-Luik. Many friends cared and loved and always askeci me how "it" was going - even when they were unsure about what 1 was doing. To them 1 am very indebted. Thanks to Meredith Ware for providing the joys of a lifelong friendship of winks, visions, surprises; to Mary Bower for walking the Bay with me and for never letting me forget that the horizon was within reach; to David Tamblyn for showing me that connection would be waiting after a long, hard journey; to Janet Cornfield for her sensitivity to the stnsggles and for getting together whenever; to Martino Lea for helping me to remember the irreverent and the whimsical; to Mimi Mekler for knowing when to corne running and when to give me space; to the Cass family, Moe, George, Robin, Paul, Sue, and Phil, for their enthusiasm about my succ cesse^^^ ; to Andre Rosenbaum and Kelly St . John for the gifts of picnics and friendship rituals. To Nom Feltes: 1 wish you were still here so I could tell you that 1 finished and remind you that it was al1 your fault that I got into academic work in the first place and that 1 deeply admire the ways you modelled the links of theories and activisms. 1 am grateful to a number of artists who talked to me in the very early stages of this project about their collaborative work: Millie Chen, Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan, Lisa Steele, and Kim Tomczak. 1 particularly appreciate the generous contributions of Carole Condé and Kas1 Beveridge. Even tbough their collaboration did not become a part of this thesis, their input was extremely important to its development. Thanks to Louise Garfield and Johanna Householder, my fellow Clichettes, who enticed me into collaborative cultural production and who encouraged me to tread new paths. JO and Neil Watson, my parents, gave me patience galore and material and emotional support. They listened to my rants, brought me food, and taught me determination. They often wondered "why," and I thank th-, wholeheartedly, for saying "why not ." For demonstrating the meaning of support and respect, my love goes to Wayne Cass. And: for the inspiration of his music, for reducing the pressure, and for his calm belief in my capabilities . Finally, to the artists/activists who shared so very much as the Participants of