As the Pendulum Swings
Pre-Colonial to Post-Pubescent Identity
Identity is the state or fact of remaining the same one or ones, as under varying aspects or conditions. At least this is how a dictionary would define it. It leaves the question of identity change open to debate and that’s precisely where conflict arises when said change does occur. For instance, Thomas King was born in Roseville, California in 1943. He later worked in Australia as a photojournalist until 1980 when he settled in Canada. So as a man, his identity is three fold. At birth, he was an American citizen of German, Cherokee and Greek descent living in a Mexican neighbourhood. The preceding was his formative stage. As a photojournalist, he was an American photographing and studying Australia and for the sake of argument we will call this his mimetic stage. Finally and most important to the scope of this paper, he was and remains a Canadian author teaching at a Canadian University, winning Canadian recognition for his work, completing his final stage, neoCanadian ‘Canadianess.’
In a radio interview with Don Swaim, where Thomas King was being asked questions about his identity, King said this:
Yeah, I mean it wasn’t of any importance when we were kids because the neighbourhood I grew up in was a lot of Mexicans in the neighbourhood[…]it didn’t make any difference in any great way until we became teenagers and then we would get out of that neighbourhood where we were known and people would say well, ‘who are you?’ And they’d look at my brother and me and they’d say, “Well, you know, w-where do you come from?” and at that point we’d say, “Well you know…we’re Greek on my mother’s side and my father’s Cherokee.”[..] I think what happens with people who wind up in those situations at some point everyone takes on an identity. (Swaim)
His identity is something that came from within himself and is affected by his ancestry, more so on his father’s side, and geographical location or rather geographical situation. Even though he stated that he came to terms with his identity as a teenager, it is a derivative of his situation rather than the choices he made. As King said, it wasn’t until he physically left his formative geographical area that he came to terms with this identity. It can even be said that his identity was prescribed to him, by the people he was in contact with as a teenager, vis-à-vis racial stereotypes and labeling.
Additionally in this interview with Don Swain, Thomas King applied the label of Canadian author to Brian Moore for his Novel Black Robe, Swaim corrected him and said: “Actually, uh, he is Irish. Lives in California.” (Swaim) King was of course justified, Moore was in fact a Canadian citizen and had been since 1948, when he moved to Montreal from Ireland and despite living in California, retained his Canadian citizenship until his death in 1999. This idea of abducting authors who have spent time in Canada is not something unique to the country, but certainly is distinct. Especially from the USA, whose body of writers is so vast that they need not be bothered with the finer points of requirement.
As a travel writer, which is far too broad a term, King found himself in Australia. During this time he lived something of a hyphenated existence. He was neither fully Australian, nor fully American. In fact, he was on his way out of the United States. His writing at this time is not important, nor is where he lived. When the novels he wrote are read, there is no consideration given to Australia and the time he spent there because it is irrelevant. King, in his essay Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial made an observation about pre- and post-pubescence being both part of a whole, but pivoting around puberty. (King 11) Therefore, King’s time in Australia was pivotal but unimportant when compared to the whole.
Finally in Swaim’s interview we learn that Thomas King became a Canadian citizen and that it was after this he became a recognized writer. ‘Recognized’ because puberty is irrelevant, nothing but a mechanism by which we attain adulthood. The problem of hyphenated existence arises when we have uninformed people making assumptions about the origins and therefore the cultural framework of a writer. An assumption might look something like this:
Thomas King = Native-Canadian = Canadian Author
The question of Thomas King’s identity progresses into something more complex now. Not only is it laced with assumption and good intentions, but it’s being mottled by nationalism and Canadian pride. Furthermore, King didn’t grow up in native culture or Canadian culture. So his identity as a native is taken from adult experience. King also writes about Ojibwa mythologies despite being Cherokee. From this it is ascertained that King’s cultural heritage has nothing to do with his writing. His identity as a Canadian author is imposed upon him by his audience.
Individuals can attend a sporting event and see the team they were cheering for win and shout something like, “we won!” This idea that they belong to something and have a feeling that they, through their preferred sporting team, accomplished something other than sitting on their buts or possibly jumping up and down, when the facts remain more simple. They accomplished nothing and it was the hard work of the athletes that lead to victory. The same can be held true when associating authors with national pride. We as readers have accomplished nothing and by no association can we make that claim except on the international scene, our literary sporting venue. There Canadians can compare themselves to others by associating with something they feel was produced by their country and therefore by them. Assumptions are a dangerous thing.
The first assumption we make is that we are rewarding authors for writing about Canada, writing in Canada or simply being from Canada. The second assumption we make is that we are somehow benefactors of that reward simply by nature of originating from or dwelling within the same geographical region. In his interview Swaim said: “There’s some strong nationalism in Canada.” (Swaim) and he’s absolutely correct.
Canadians can be proud of who they are and have a sense of identity the same way that students from particular high schools can share a rivalry with one another, all the while knowing they are from the same city. The problem of “nationalizing literature” doesn’t arise from recognizing authors in Canada; it arises from calling our authors to be Canadian. This effectively alienates them from their own cultures.
Having Canadian literature is still important in terms of content. The director of the Children’s Book Centre in Toronto made an observation in 1978:
Why should a child in Saskatchewan find a story in her reader about our national holiday on July 4th? Why should Lexington, Kentucky be a familiar sounding place to children in Ontario when Moose Jaw is not? Why should Anne of Green Gables and Alligator Pie be the only Canadian children’s books you find in your bookstore? (Yaffe 41)
Canadian literature may not seem so different from the United States. Some words are spelled differently, some towns are far away and yet it can be a profound thing to read a novel whose plot developed in your town and where “you” can be found in honour.
The 1960s and 1970s in Canada were times of Nation building. As a nation, Canada was emerging from the sensation that it was a cultural extension of the Britain and to a certain extent the United States of America. Before that time, Canadians were content to have a derived identity or as W. John Harker said in his essay Canadian Literature in Canadian Schools:
Following the end of the Second World War and into the early 1960s, Canadians enjoyed what most believed to be the best of many worlds. Foremost was the heritage of a long cultural and political association with Britain, reinforced by the recent Canadian war effort and sustained by Canada’s membership and post-war prominence in the Commonwealth.
For these reasons Canadians remained largely unconscious of changes taking place within their own society. Believing that they enjoyed an enviable combination of transplanted British culture and American economic and military security, Canadians existed in what they generally thought to be a happy state, free from the worrying concerns of other nations. (Harker 419)
Northrop Frye characterized this as “a feeling that the head office is somewhere else, in London, Paris, Rome or Washington.” (Greenfield 109) This was true until events began to separate Canadians from their allies. Events like the Vietnam War drove the Canadian conscience inward, seeking an international identity for themselves apart from Britain and the US. The quiet revolution in Quebec during the 1960s had a lasting impression on the Anglo-Canadian conscience, which may not have been compatible with nationalism but certainly created a paradigmatic shift toward a unified Canadian conscience originating from within rather than being derivative of some higher power.
Much of Canada’s national identity can be viewed as inspired by Canada’s liberal francophone population. Certainly not directly, but Anglophone epiphanies often closely follow French-Canadian nationalist movements. Ultramontanism in Quebec was followed in short stride by confederacy where an active rejection of British rule by the Francophones was followed by a passive distancing from said rule by the Anglophones. Another more recent example is the military distancing of Canada from the United States following Jean Chretien’s decision to publicly reject helping the Americans invade Iraq, a sentiment appreciated by the Francophones who continue to vote Liberal and initially rejected by Anglophones then later, in a less aggressive form, adapted to a more conservative palette.
These changes in national identity can be seen as the onset of puberty for a young Canadian nation via French Canadian nationalism. The product is a distancing from our “parent” countries, first from Britain, Canada’s fatherland and its regulations and second from mother America, who gave Canada military and economic protection. This pubescent alienation from Canada’s ‘parents’ is what incited strong nationalism following the 1960s. This accounts for a cultural shift from feeling a sense of belonging to the United States to self proclaimed othering. This sentiment is present in many Canadian mediums turning Canada into the North American minority rather than being fully independent. Maurice Yacwar said this:
To function as an ethnic minority in North American cinema, you don’t have to be Jewish-or black, grey, or a vampire. It’s enough to be Canadian-but only in Canada. The Canadian film experience proves that a whole nation can feel itself silenced, even invisible, Outsider in its own home. Canadian film shows all the characteristics of the American ethnic minority film. The central characters are identifiably outside the cultural mainstream. They look, sound and act different from the traditional norms. Furthermore the audience is expected to relish these differences. (Yacowar 13)
As a rule the pendulum swings in both and it is the medium Canadians should strive for. In effect Canada needs to move away from pubescent rebelion and towards a matured adult state, backing away from appropriating authors and towards identifying literature that is inherently Canadian.
The word identity in and of itself is not entirely accurate. It assumes something that doesn’t change. Perhaps it can be said that Canadian identity will always be Canadian identity. It will however manifest itself in different forms and metamorphose, at times, into new ones. From pre-colonial to post-colonial, pre-pubescent to post-pubescent and child to adult, identity will grow as the country does when we reach pivotal moments in history. The challenge is to maintain a sense of Canadian identity and literature without losing oneself in it. Canada must preserve its sense of literary pride without alienating its authors from theirs, and learn to maintain its sense of literature without overwhelming its capacity to appreciate.
Works Cited
Greenfield, T.B. Bilingualism, Multiculturalism and the Crisis of Purpose in Canadian Culture. Edmonton: CSSE, 1976.
Harker, W. John. Canadian Literature in Canadian Schools: From the Old to the New Internationalism. Canadian Journal of Education: Vol. 12, No. 3, 1987.
Swaim, Don. CBS Radio Interview with Thomas King. New York, USA: WCBS AM Radio, 1993.
Yacowar, Maurice. The Canadian as Ethnic Minority. Film Quarterly: Vol. 40, No. 2. University of California Press, 1986.
Yaffe, P. The Children’s Book Centre. Highway One, 1978.