View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by OTHES DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit „Humour in Native Canadian Literature“ Verfasser David Vitan angestrebter akademischer Grad Magister der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2010 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 343 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: Anglistik und Amerikanistik Betreuerin: Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle 1 Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................5 2. On Humour..............................................................................................................................6 2.1 Terminology.....................................................................................................................6 2.2 In Search of a Theory of Humour ......................................................................................7 2.3 Forms of Literary Humour ..............................................................................................11 3. The Stoic Indian: White North American Perception of North American Indian Humour ..........14 3.1 The Days of Colonization: The ‘Bloodthirsty Savage’ versus the ‘Noble Savage’..............15 3.2 The 19th Century: The ‘Vanishing Indian’.......................................................................20 3.3 Stereotypes Continued: The 20th Century and Beyond .....................................................23 4. Teasing, Irony, Education, the Trickster and More: Exploring Native Humour..........................27 4.1 Maintaining Communal Harmony....................................................................................28 4.2 The Trickster ..................................................................................................................31 4.3 Self-Deprecation.............................................................................................................36 4.4 Survival Humour ............................................................................................................37 4.5 Humour as a Weapon......................................................................................................39 5. The History of Humour in North American Literature..............................................................41 5.1 (Colonial) American Humour in Literature ......................................................................41 5.2 Native American Humorist Authors.................................................................................47 6. The Humour of Drew Hayden Taylor......................................................................................51 6.1 The Bootlegger Blues (1991)...........................................................................................52 6.2 The Baby Blues (1999) ...................................................................................................56 6.3 Buz’Gem Blues (2002)....................................................................................................62 6.4 The Berlin Blues (2007)..................................................................................................68 7. The Humour of Tomson Highway...........................................................................................75 7.1 The Rez Sisters (1988) ....................................................................................................76 7.2 Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989) ................................................................81 7.3 Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998)...........................................................................................86 8. The Humour of Thomas King .................................................................................................95 8.1 Medicine River (1990) ....................................................................................................96 8.2 Green Grass, Running Water (1993) ..............................................................................103 8.3 Truth and Bright Water (1999) ......................................................................................113 2 9. Conclusion...........................................................................................................................118 10. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................124 10.1 Primary Literature.........................................................................................................124 10.2 Secondary Literature.....................................................................................................125 10.3 Unavailable Books and Articles.....................................................................................130 10.4 Internet Sources ............................................................................................................131 11. Index................................................................................................................................132 12. Appendix .........................................................................................................................136 12.1 Zusammenfassung / Summary.......................................................................................136 12.2 Lebenslauf....................................................................................................................140 3 Plagiatserklärung / Statement on Plagiarism Hiermit versichere ich, dass diese Diplomarbeit von mir persönlich verfasst ist und dass ich keinerlei fremde Hilfe in Anspruch genommen habe. Ebenso versichere ich, dass diese Arbeit oder Teile daraus weder von mir selbst noch von anderen als Leistungsnachweis andernorts eingereicht wurden. Wörtliche oder sinngemäße Übernahmen aus anderen Schriften und Veröffentlichungen in gedruckter oder elektronischer Form sind gekennzeichnet. Sämtliche Sekundärliteratur und sonstige Quellen sind nachgewiesen und in der Bibliographie aufgeführt. Das Gleiche gilt für alle Internet-Quellen. I hereby declare that this diploma paper was written by me alone and that I did not draw on help from second parties. I ensure that neither this paper nor parts of it were handed in elsewhere by me or other persons. Literal and secondary quotations of other texts and publications in written or electronic form are properly labeled as such. All secondary literature and other sources are proven and stated in the bibliography. The same holds true for internet-sources. Reichenau i.M., im März/March 2010 _________________________________ 4 1. Introduction In the winter term 2007, I attended a literature course with renowned Canadian writer Ted Blodgett called ‘The Canadian Prairie Novel’, the reading list of which also contained a work by a Native writer, Thomas King. The book was called Green Grass, Running Water, and I found it so funny and intelligent, so full of witty criticism of colonial structures that I still regard it one of the best books in my collection. The thing that struck me most was his use of a character I didn’t know before: The Trickster, a figure from Native North American mythology that was totally different from any other clowns I had ever encountered in literature before. Roughly one year later, when I had to decide on a topic for my final paper, I remembered King’s novel and developed the idea of investigating the humour of North American Indian authors. Together with my tutor, Prof. Carmen Birkle, I narrowed my approach down to three authors: Thomas King, Drew Hayden Taylor and Tomson Highway. In this paper, I will take a close look at several novels and plays written by these authors, focussing on what methods they use to make us laugh and what topics they are addressing with their humour. My initial thought was that they most likely use problems in modern-day Native communities, such as alcoholism and the atrocities of the past as a basis for their jokes. But is this all or is there more to it? The second part of this paper is be devoted to answering this question. At first, however, I will give a short overview of the different approaches of explaining humour, a task that sounds much easier than it actually is, and the most important stages in (white) American literary humour as well as works by Native authors. A thorough report on the traditional forms of Native North American humour, especially the character of the Trickster will provide a sufficient theoretical background for understanding the humour of the authors in question. My thanks for helping me write this paper go to Prof. Carmen Birkle for her learned tips and eagle-eyed correction skills, to the employees of Vancouver Public Library for providing me with plenty of material which sometimes wasn’t easy to find, to Ted Blodgett for introducing me to Thomas King and thus, to Native North American humorists as such and 5 last, but not least, to Mr. Christopher ‘Boss’ Woolgar of London, GB, for proof-reading the early chapters of this paper. 2. On Humour 2.1 Terminology Whenever a writer deals with the indigenous peoples of the North American continent, one problem must be addressed before starting the actual inquiry and that is the question of how to refer to those peoples. Mary Ahenakew in the Smithsonian Institution publication Do all Indians Live in Tipis from 2007 claims that the terms ‘American Indian’, ‘Indian’, ‘Native American’ and ‘Native’