Buchi Emecheta and Ruby Slippejack: Writing in the Margins to Create Home by Grace Bavington A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial Mfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Ans Department of English Mernorial University of Newfoundland January 1998 St. John's Newfoundland Nationai Library Bibliothèque nationale du Camda Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services seMces bibliographiques 395 Weüington Street 395. nie Wellington OttewaON K1AM OtiawaON K1A ON4 Canada canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une Licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Lïbrary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distri-bute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Canada Abstract Ojibway writer Ruby Slipperjack and Ibo writer Buchi Emecheta are both marginalized writers crafting autobiographical fiction while living in exile nom their homes of origin. This thesis discusses their individual works as well as some of the new insights and alternative critical approaches such works open up for readers and critics. One chapter is devoted to the issues of language and the ways in which Slipperjack and Emecheta represent their linguistic/culhiral backgrounds in their stories written in English. This is a comparative study in the sense of reading disparate traditions in juxtaposition while avoiding a synthesis of them or the reduction of the two traditions into mainstream literature. The literature of Slippejack and Emecheta is appreciated within the cultural and historical context in which each is written recognizing the iimitations of reading and theorizing from outside of the cultural matrix of the authors. Whenever 1 faltered in this project the many hands held out to me in fkiendship, support and guidance prevented me from giving up. Though it may be UIlfashionable 1 would like to acknowledge the people who greatly enhanced the writing of this thesis for me. KI inadvertently miss naming anyone it reflects my neglectfid mernory. not any omission on their part. First my family: Bill Bavington, my spouse, has been most supportive through the long haul. While 1 beavered away at this thesis my son seemingly flew through his Honours and Masters theses. 1 benefitted fiom both the mode1 of the energetic scholar and fiom sharing ideas over phone iines, email and in person with him. My daughter, the reader of the farnily, compieted the works of Slipperjack and Emecheta ahead of me and offered brief but insightful critiques which 1 later discovered to be accurate to an uncanny degree for such a young person. Thanks to dlthree of you for enduring inconvenience without cornplaint and most of dl for your sustenance. Roberta Buchanan has been my advisor fiom the start. A hue teacher, she allowed me the frightening and rare experience of fieedom and space to think, offering judicious guidance at just the perfect moments and demanding rigour at al1 tirnes. It was quiet direction from Dr. Buchanan that resulted in my bief but exceptionally important meeting with Robin McGrath. Dr. McGrath, with no obligation to do so, shared some of her expertise in Native writing and introduced me to the writing of Ruby Slippejack. 1 have been privileged to cross paths with other literary academics: Dr. Kanchana Ugbabe, a writer and litaary scholar at the University of Jos, Nigeria, tirelessly promotes Nkican womm writers and it was hmher 1fïrst heard the name of Buchi Emecheta Similady Zainab Hanina working in Foikiore at Mernorial Universisr of Newfoundland responded to my many questions about women's writing in Afkica fiom her strong scholarly base in this area. At UniJos Professor Ngwaba welcomed me as an audit student to his classes on the Anican novel. Buchi Njere, himselfa writer and student of EngIish at Udoq inspired me by his love of the subject and Iively discussions to resume my literary studies when I retunied to Canada. Ruby Slippejack kindy responded to my letter. She also referred me to Dan Rice, a graduate student at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, who shed information with me fiom his thesis in progress on Slippjack's work. My research into Native literature was also assisted by Gloria Reinbergs, a end and librarian for Native colIections at Spadina Road Public Library; Valerie Legge, Memonal University of Newfodand; Shirley Williams, Trent University; writer, fnend and inspiration, Camille Fouillard. Fellow students and scholars at Memonal University of Newfoundland who have offered feedback and advice include: Eugenia Sojka, Jacqueline Howse, Carol Hobbes, Tara Harris, Lisa Stowe, and Demck Stone. Two colleagues, Dr. Maureen Laryea and Ka- Hustins, in the School of Nursing, Mernorial University of Newfoundand, particularly encouraged my research in literature, wisely seeing that the gap between my professional concems in nursing and the literary narratives that tell so much about life is not so large derdl. The overall khdness and encouragement of fnends must not be omitted: Marcel Cote, the Barnable family, Maryam Murat-Khan, Achilla Isaah, Kenna Owoh, Sharon Buehler, and Donna Bowles corne readily to heart and mind. The uitimate compliment and token of Wendship was extended by Iona Bulgin who cover to cover read my thesis, offering her impeccable counsel and valuable encouragement to finish. TabIe of Contents 1. Issues in Approaching Margioalized Literanires in Juxtaposition .............. II. Tninslating Life into Literature Buchi Ernecheta: A Writer Because of, Not in Spite of, Life Experiences .... m.The Associational Literature of Ruby Slipperjack: Retention, Reclamation and Repossession .. .. ............. .. ......... .-.......- .. ...... .-... N.Wnting in the Language of the Enemy: Strategies of Resistance; Listening to the Silence ............................ .. ........ V. Conclusion: The Margins are the Frame ........ .... .. ... ........ .... .... ..... .. .. ..... Notes .......................................................................................................... 159 Bibliography .............................................. .............. ......... 165 Women have a history of reading and wrïting in the interstices of the masculine culhue, rnoving between use of the domhant language or fom of expression and specific versions of experience based on their marginaiity.... This location has the potential to Iock the subject away in isolation and despair as weli as the potential for criticd innovation and particular strengths. Caren Kaplan, "Detemtorialization" 357 FZJy hope for us aii-that not only will the nuclear war be a non-starter, but that the white European woman fiom the North will regard the black woman fiom the South as her sister and that both of us together will hold han& and try to salvage what is left of ou.world fkom the mess the sons we have brought into it have made. Buchi Emecheta, Head Above Water 1 We have always walked on the edge of your dreams, staked you as you made wild your way through this land, generation &er generation And, O Canada, you have always been Mkidof us, scared, because you know you can never live without us Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, "Oh Canada (Bear v)" 69-70 Chapter One Issues in Approaching Marginaiized Litemtures in Juxtaposition The literatures created by marginalized' writers in al1 of their divenity are dynarnically spiralling around the western canon, contacting it at certain points, and careening far from it joyfully or painstakingly at others. Extending fiom the 1960s to the present, a growing body of finely crafled and varied writing presents itself to the student of the new literatures in English. These texts have opened up new environments, discourses, narrative strategies and world views to readers, and have promoted the developrnent of new cntical approaches. Ruby Slippejack and Buchi Emecheta are playing a part in the creation of this body of literature and are the subjects of this study. Buchi Emecheta. an Igbo' woman frorn Nigeria, began writing in the early 1970s; her autobiographical novel, Second-Clms Citizen, published in 1975, bears many similarities to her most recent novel, ~ehinde,~published in 1994. In fact, intertextual references4 are woven throughout her entire body of work. Helen Chukuma's description in 1987 of Emecheta's writing as feminist in vision and "positivistic" in stance applies well to the entire range of her work (3). Emecheta's writing lends itself to ferninist and postcolonial critical frameworks but laises interesting questions about fictional autobiography, the new internationalism, and about the writer's role in critiquing her society in neo-colonial times. Ruby Slippejack, an Ojibwaf woman fkom Northem Ontario, published the first of her two novels in 1987. This work, Honow the Sun, is autobiographical and focuses on her childhood with her farnily in rurai Ontario before she goes away to school. Native Canadian 2 writer Thomas King descxibes SlipperjackYswding