'I AM A SETTLER/I AM UNEASY': RETHINKING CITIZENSHIP, THE NATION, AND THE 'GOOD' OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN POETRY by Janet McGill Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2009 © Copyright by Janet McGill, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-56338-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-56338-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1*1 Canada DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY To comply with the Canadian Privacy Act the National Library of Canada has requested that the following pages be removed from this copy of the thesis: Preliminary Pages Examiners Signature Page (pii) Dalhousie Library Copyright Agreement (phi) Appendices Copyright Releases (if applicable) To my loving family and dear friends — for so many years of guidance and encouragement, and for the wonderful way you remind me of where I'm going and where I've been. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: "THAT RAVAGED WORLD IS HERE:" RESITUATING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP IN DIONNE BRAND'S INVENTORY. 14 CHAPTER 3: "SUCH TINY ELEGANT SPEECHES:" SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA'S SMALL ARGUMENTS AND FOUND 59 CHAPTER 4: "IN THE BELLY OF A RUSTING IMAGINATION:" A NATION UNSETTLED IN WAYDE COMPTON'S PERFORMANCE BOND 102 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 146 REFERENCES 151 v ABSTRACT The growing interdisciplinary field of citizenship studies seeks to dismember the coherence of the imagined nation and its naturalized citizens, to undo the act of erasure that characterizes official narratives, and to map the "contours and substance of new forms of citizenship, such as post-national, global, cosmopolitan or urban that might replace the old" (Stasiulis 365). The following thesis explores this evolving field as it relates to Canadian literary criticism and sketches some of the as yet undefined "contours" of new kinds of citizenship in the works of three contemporary Canadian poets -- Dionne Brand, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Wayde Compton. Through my readings of these works, I argue that poetry has a unique capacity to affect and provoke the reader, fostering a sense of "literary citizenship," and building the "critical citizenry" necessary to counter increasingly ambiguous and even vexed conceptualizations of the responsibilities and limitations attendant on national citizenship. VI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Carrie Dawson, my thesis supervisor, whose guidance kept me inspired and on track throughout this challenging process. I am so grateful for your insightful criticisms and helpful suggestions for further reading, for your enthusiasm and your patience, which always put me at ease. My sincere thanks also to Marjorie Stone and Teresa Heffernan, the hardworking members of my examining committee, who both made valuable contributions to this project, offering not only their time and careful readings of my work, but also much encouragement for the future. And to Mary Beth Maclsaac, for the warm welcome you gave me and for all your excellent advice — thank you. Congratulations and gratitude go to Alex — for her own impressive research and for managing to keep her cool, her wit, and her sense of style (and of outrage!) throughout the year. Thanks to those residents of 1406 Edward Street whose company and care played no small part in seeing this project through to its completion. To Cesar, thank you for showing up — not a moment too soon -- and for bringing all your excitement and kindness into the mix, while making sure that I remembered to sleep, that I lived on more than coffee and crepes, and that I found time for fun, at least now and then. To those at home, thank you for your interest and your understanding, for keeping in touch (often against all odds!), and for leaving messages about the world outside the library; those reminders made all the difference. Finally, to my trusty little computer, my sunny attic room and that shape-shifting pile of books by the bed — I suspect I'll look back on you fondly, now that all is said and done. vn 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Sketching the Contours and Substance of Canadian Citizenship and Literature On April 17, 2009 the government of Canada passed a new law that dramatically redefines citizenship in the interest of "protecting the value of Canadian citizenship for the future" (CIC "Minister Kenney Announces"). In essence, the new law severely reduces the extension of citizenship and appears to have the most profound effect on individuals and families with strong ties elsewhere or who are engaged in transnational activity. Some have raised concerns that the law will increase the likelihood of children being born without citizenship and therefore being "stateless." Thus far, the federal government's response has been to invoke "this era of heightened security" as a primary justification for the new legislation (CIC "True or False?"). Given the growing tendency to see immigration as a security threat, and because the value of Canadian citizenship is under official review, the meaning and limits of citizenship merit close examination. In a 2007 "Fact Sheet," Citizenship and Immigration Canada reports "Canadians are proud to hold one of the most prized citizenships in the world." The "Fact Sheet" also responds to the question, "What does it mean to be a Canadian citizen?" by defining Canada as: "free and democratic;" "multicultural;" "having two official languages;" and granting "equal treatment to all its citizens" (qtd. Stasiulis 365). The difficulty with the official doctrine of equality for all Canadians is that it does not account for those trapped in legal limbo, awaiting the right to claim full citizenship, and also does not speak to those who hold that official citizenship but still do not enjoy the benefits of full equality, those who reside within the physical, but not the imaginary, boundaries of the nation. Furthermore, the density of traffic across state borders challenges traditional notions of 2 citizenship grounded in one geo-political territory. There is an undeniable "multiplicity of citizenships that currently exist in the geo-political territory of Canada" (Stasiulis 367), a multiplicity that the state has arranged hierarchically into degrees of belonging. Official categories of illegal migrants, refugee claimants, refugees, migrant workers, permanent residents and so forth build towards a problematically 'valued' and increasingly guarded definition of 'full' citizenship. A 2007 report by the Metropolitan Immigrant Settlement Association (MIS A) found that "different tiers of citizenship are being created for various ethno-cultural and ethno-religious groups as they are assessed in terms of their potential as security risks. 'National security' is being socially constructed as a legitimization of various kinds of exclusions, ranging from persecution to more subtle forms of discrimination" (Crocker et al.5). These findings confirm there is a pressing need to extend our conceptualization of national citizenship in the context of a globalizing world. In January 2006, Essays on Canadian Writing sent out a call for papers encouraging contributors to respond to the fact that "the term 'citizenship' has migrated from its traditional home in political and legal discourses, and emerged as a highly conspicuous and powerful concept-metaphor in global debates on cultural belonging." The editors ask: "What is at stake in this turn to citizenship, particularly in light of shifting political and institutional structures informing the study of Canadian literature?" (Chariandry and McCall n.p.). This is one of the questions at the heart of my project. When the Government of Canada passed rights legislation in the 1980s with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) and the Multiculturalism Act (1988), the turn towards state multiculturalism came to dominate popular and scholarly discussions of Canadian identity politics. These developments were problematically rooted in the Royal .3 Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, however, whose 1963 mandate was to "make recommendations designed to ensure the bilingual and basically bicultural character of the federal administration," and to establish means of "promoting bilingualism, better cultural relations and a more wide-spread appreciation of the basically bicultural character of our country and of the subsequent contribution made by the other cultures" (qtd.