canadian multiculturalism: past & present dionne brand
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What We All Long For. Canadian Multiculturalism: Past & Present Dionne Brand. Postmodern City Texts 2010 Fall. Outline. Introduction Canadian Multiculturalism in Brief Dionne Brand What We All Long For. Evolution of Multiculturalism in Canada. Source : - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Canadian Multiculturalism: Past & Present
Dionne Brand
Postmodern City Texts 2010 Fall
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Outline
Introduction Canadian Multiculturalism in
Brief Dionne Brand What We All Long For
Evolution of Multiculturalism in Canada
Ethnicity Multiculturalism (1970s)*
Equity Multiculturalism (1980s)*
Civic Multiculturalism (1990s)*
Integrative Multiculturalism (2000s)
Focus Celebrating differences
Managing diversity
Constructive engagement
Inclusive citizenship
Reference Point
Culture Structure Society building
Rights and responsibilities
Mandate Ethnicity Race relations Citizenship Identity
Problem Source
Prejudice Systemic discrimination
Exclusion Globalization, security
Solution Cultural sensitivity
Employment equity
Inclusiveness ???
Key Metaphor
‘Mosaic' ‘Level playing field'
‘Belonging' ‘Two-way street'
Page 3•Source: •Fleras, Augie and Jean L. Kunz. 2001. Media and Minorities: Representing Diversity in a Multicultural Canada. Thompson Education Publishing.
Multiculturalism: Questions
Cultural Distinctness, Assimilation or Social Integration
Immigration Policy: How many is too many?
Identity: Babel or Pluralism (Unity in Disunity)
Two Examples Meeting Place (1990) Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)
(41:00; 52:00; 57:00) Page 4
Dionne Brand
A novelist, poet and essayist. A Marxist, Lesbian and Non-Elite
• Not here, nor there:
布蘭德自稱「逃離」家鄉的,因為當時在千里達她身為一個女孩很受限制 ( 所以她也是逃離 femininity Silvera 361-63﹔ ) 。但對她而言,她既不住在「那裡」 ( 千里達 ) ,也不住在這裡 ( 加拿大 ) ,而是在兩者之中 (Birbalsingh 1996: 122) 。
Dionne BrandDionne Brand
Biographical Sketch --fyiBiographical Sketch --fyi
1953 Born in Trinidad1953 Born in Trinidad
1970 immigrated to Canada 1970 immigrated to Canada at the age of 17at the age of 17
1970s-80s 1970s-80s community workercommunity worker in Toronto in Toronto
1983 Information Officer for the 1983 Information Officer for the Caribbean Caribbean People’s Development Agencies People’s Development Agencies and the and the Agency Agency for Rural Transformation in Grenadafor Rural Transformation in Grenada
1997 won the Governor General’s Award for 1997 won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Land to Light OnLand to Light On
A communistA communist who believes in equal distribution of who believes in equal distribution of wealth and ending exploitationwealth and ending exploitation
Founded and edited Founded and edited Our LivesOur Lives, Canada’s first , Canada’s first black women’s newspaperblack women’s newspaper
Brand—a thinker, writer and filmmaker Brand—a thinker, writer and filmmaker
BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in the BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in the Philosophy of Education –in University of Philosophy of Education –in University of Toronto. Toronto.
Writer and Filmmaker -- Writer and Filmmaker -- A few examples: A few examples: “Blossom” Sans Souci and other Stories (1988) 9 collections of poems, including
No Language is Neutral (1990), thirsty 4 documentary films, including
Sisters in Struggle (1991), Long Time Comin' (1993), Listening for Something (1996)—(Adrienne Rich)
Novels Novels In Another Place, Not Here In Another Place, Not Here (1997)--novel(1997)--novel Land To Light On Land To Light On (1997)(1997) At the Full and Change of the MoonAt the Full and Change of the Moon—novel—novel What We All Long For (2006) Toronto Book Award
Toronto's new Poet Laureate
: Dionne Brand, 2009
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photo by: jasonchowphotography.com
Her Reading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LVxo31hI8
Winter Epigrams (1984)
I give you these epigrams, Toronto,
these winter fragments
these stark white papers
because you mothered me
because you held me with a distance that I expected,
here, my mittens,
here, my frozen body,
because you gave me nothing more
and i took nothing less,
i give you winter epigrams
because you are a liar,
there is no other season here
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What We All Long For: Characters
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Vietnamese Italian-Black Caribbean from Nova Scotia
artist courier poet fashion store owner
heterosexual
homosexual
What We All Long For: Discussion Questions
1. Description of the city: how it is similar to or different from Taipei?
2. Omniscient narrator and Quy: how are they related to the reader “you”?
3. 2nd-Generation characters & their parents: how do they each relate to their parents?
4. 2nd-Generation characters & their desires: what do they long for?
5. Quy: will he belong? (Guess!) Page 12
What We All Long For: Plot Chapter ONE The city in a transition from winter to spring.
on subway train: 3 characters Tuyen, Oku and Carla 2-3
on subway train: Quy, heard Tuyen’s laughter, can’t understand English; 1st week in this city
anonymity is the big lie of a city (3); The people, aware of their ground shifting;
permutations of existence at any crossroad; their lives doubled, tripled, conjugated; people in sensational lies
They think they’re safe, but they know they’re not.
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What We All Long For: Plot Quy about their leaving Vietnam; One parent let go of his hand. “I won’t say
who.” (7) on the boat (7): mistreated and at the camp: a mixture of goodness and
brutality Re. journalist; metal toy and a boy “the last
sign of [his] innocence” (10)
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What We All Long For: Plot Chapter TWO Tuyen back home (Carla to her own room, Oku
left them three stops before theirs) Binh coming over.
Tuyen –re. Binh [going to Bangkok 12], her parents and their past (13-14)
lubaio (14-17) about Carla 17-18 –inhabited in a world of
fantasy, of distance, of dreams. about the four in high school, and their parents
19-20 about Tuyen’s parents, their restaurant 21 The mother’s letters 24 Tuyen—about Jamal – “because he’s mine”
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What We All Long For: Plot Chapter THREE Carla: riding from the prison (Mimico
Correctional Institute) to Etobicoke – High Park – the “muscle of highway and streets” (31) – flies when she rides the bike, embraced by the prison when she stops. (32)
Her sense of the city vs. Jamal’s Jamal – his phone calls & his stories (33-34) (past: tried to get Derek to help without
success) gazes at the street; Monday- -walks against the current. Page 16
What We All Long For: Plot Chapter FOUR Tuyen , Oku and Jackie
being black
Oku their parents’ expectation of their living
“regular Canadian life” (47) debating about Jamal again (48) Tuyen -- Carla – Tuyen (their sexual
intimacy and a space of leave-taking) 50-51 –their talk about C’s having no desire (a week before the lawyer called) 52
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What We All Long For: Plot Chapter FIVE City overview— Tuyen’s family in Richmond Hill – antiseptic
and rootless and desolate (55) – exchanges between father and daughter (“my shit hole”)
Tuyen goes home her father, older sister and mother
Binh and Tuyen –serve as translators for their parents (67), surrogate city.
Tuyen – has wanted to “not be them”
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What We All Long For: Plot 25 Chapters + 7 Quy Chapters
After chapter 5: Jackie’s parents (dance hall) poverty
and crimes goes for a white man Carla’s going to Nadine and Derrick for
help her life with Angie (who left little Italian)
Oku dropping out of school – rejecting “guys in the jungle”
Quy finding his way to Toronto
Major events and places: 2001 demonstration against globalization
in Quebec City; World Cup Kensington market Page 19
Descriptions of the city: Can you relate to it?
Toronto: the weather changes Torontonians: pp. 3-5 (next)
Carla’s experience: pp. 28-30 bike riding (the city has muscles and selves); watching 39 (the streets)
City (commercial center) on Mondays pp. 41, 53-55
A shalwa kamese and a Muslim cap
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Salwar Kameez
City – Can you relate to it?
Anonymity is the big lie of a city. You aren’t anonymous at all. You’re common, really, common like so many pebbles, so many specks of dirt, so many atoms of materiality.
What floats in the air on a subway train like this is chance. People stand or sit with the thin magnetic film of their life wrapped around them. They think they’re safe, but they know they’re not. Any minute you can crash into someone else’s life, and if you’re lucky, it’s good, it’s like walking on light.”
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2nd Generation Characters
Their high school life pp. 18-19 shared everything except family
details; Felt as if they inhabited two
countries 20 think their own families boring 19
What do they long for? Tuyen: Carla; Oku: Jackie Carla: “home”; Jackie: away from
poverty down “the paths of flowers and trees”
All: connectedness and acceptancePage 22
Tuyen and her Parents
Hates her Vietnamese background: About the Viet. Restaurant p. 21
Parents (65) father: From civil engineer to
restaurant owner Mother: manicurist
Her family in Richmond Hill 55; 62 Against Quy 60 Cam – laminates proofs
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Tuyen’s Love & Art works
Loves Carla -- 17 reminds her of a painting by Remedios Varo. 50 – 52 waiting for her to come around
She wanted sensuality, not duty. (61)
Her Art Expresses her love for Carla Expresses her sense of identity
Traveller 64
Her lubaio (14-17) “Messages to the city” (17)
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PERSONAJE ASTRAL
By REMEDIOS VARO
http://davidjure.wordpress.com/category/figuration-feminine-women-painting-women/
Carla
Her action in and observation of the city
Her relations with Jamal, and with Nadine and Derrick.
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Quy
What do you think about him? talk to you 8-9 --One rule—eat; you “Don’t be
sentimental. Don’t ascribe good intentions.” (9)
-- ran up to be photographed each time (9)
-- metal toy and a boy “the last sign of [his] innocence” (10)
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Conclusion Multiple longings, some silenced Multiple lives, mutually enriching
or endangering
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Tuyen’s Work// the Novel
The last cylinder would be empty, the room silent. What for? She still wasn’t quite certain what she was making; she knew she would find out only once the installation was done. Then, some grain, some element she had been circling, but had been unable to pin down, would emerge. (What We All Long For 308)
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