2018/01/16. Jordana Mendicino

Transcription

1 Jordana Mendicino Introducing the Land We Are On/ How I read Indigenous Literature Quick Facts on Basil Johnston Looking at the Territories (Maps) Residential School Context Article from The Globe and Mail The Preface & Thematic Framework Close Reading Example Part 1: The Resourcefulness of the Moose Meat Point Ojibway Close Reading In A Pig s Eye Close Reading Your Choice of Story July 13, 1929 September 8, 2015 Influential writer and supporter of Ojibwa Language Worked at Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) for 25 years in the Ethnology (Anthropology) department Earned his B.A. and Teaching Certificate (taught high school in North York) His second novel Moose Meat and Wild Rice was nominated for The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humor 1

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3 Residential schools were government sponsored religious schools built for the purpose of forcibly assimilating Indigenous youth into settler society. The last school closed its doors in It is estimated, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, that 150,000 Indigenous youth were put through the Residential school system. Key Outcome: Intergenerational Violence His other notable works include the highly entertaining, lightly fictionalized story collection Moose Meat and Wild Rice (1978) in which he skillfully conveyed the wit and humor and character of Anishinaabe, or Ojibwa, people. Amazingly, his was the first attempt to record the distinctive Indian sense of comedy. Basil Johnston liked to sign his letters Aboriginally yours. Torn from his impoverished family at age 10, he survived the cruelties of residential school in Northern Ontario to live successfully in two cultures as a brilliant educator, linguist, foremost scholar of Anishinaabe life and a writer or co-author of 22 books that broke ground for the current flowering of First Nations literature. "He worked independently, writing about Ojibway history, language, folk tales, which he collected. He went out with a tape recorder, paper, pen to talk to the elders and record and translate their stories." The museum published his collections of legends including The Bear Walker and Other Stories, The Star Man and Other Tales and Mermaids and Medicine Women. Passionate about language as the only true pathway into the culture, he developed tapes, CDs and other aids to teach Anishinaabe, the secondlargest Indian language group in North America. In 1978, his Ojibway Language Lexicon for Beginners was published. It is still in use. 3

4 How do the comedic aspects of the text inform our reading of it, especially as settlers? Subtle satire, embedding the truth and the problematic into lighter tones Incarceration Vanishing language Isolation Reading as history vs. reading as comedic fictional relations between settler and Moose Meaters Tone and Affect Thematic preoccupation of first section is focused on showing the way Moose Meaters have been altered through their interactions with Western society. While being seemingly benign stories, this series of anecdotes focuses on knowledge and language on the reserve and the miscommunications and comedy that flows from it as signals of colonialism and loss. Settlers haunt the periphery of this section, despite often not playing a direct role in the stories themselves. This section focuses on the outcome of colonialism on Moose Meat Point and the limitations and effects it has on daily life. This section is, in many ways, about the way knowledges are transferred in a community that has endured forced assimilation and lost access to some of their language and tradition. It also highlights the economic systems of the reserve and links back to much of what was discussed in the preface. Your Choice! Looking at In a Pig s Eye Thinking about form and content how does the way these stories are told influence the way the content is received, particularly within a non-indigenous readership? What are the recurring themes seen throughout the short stories? How does what we have learned from the Preface figure into our reading of each story? Why is each story included in this section? What is the point of it and what is it trying to accomplish in terms of knowledge? How does this story fit in, add to, or differ from other stories in this section? What are the thematic preoccupations of this story? How do these stories start to build a cohesive narrative about the resourcefulness of Ojibway of Moose Meat Point? Thinking of the so what of literary analysis. Everything is written for a reason, nothing is accidental, so why are these the stories that get told? Reflecting on the two different readings posited; how do our readings change (or do they) if we think of these as historical rather than comedic/ satirical fiction? Why start the short story collection with these stories? The rest of the collection is much more explicit in its critique of colonialism and interactions between settlers and Moose Meaters, so how does this section set up the trajectory of the text? Thinking of Leacock; what does it mean that we are constantly meeting new characters, especially in such a small community? 4

5 Jordana Mendicino Review of main themes (set in Preface) The shape/ trajectory of the text as a reflection of Indigenous Literature more broadly thinking about the text as composite parts that make a whole. Important themes/ tropes specific to Part 3 Close Reading of How Would You Like Your Eggs? Close Reading Activity Think, Pair, Share Thinking of themes Thesis crafting Crafting the text thinking about the sequence. How are content and form working together and what is this doing to our reading of the text? Language Culture Progress Narratives Colonialism Trauma Intergenerational violence Economic/ resource disparities Land Community Satire Comedy/ Sardonic Readings Irony Colonialism Knowledge Storytelling/ Orality Text moves from the inside layer out, but is mindful of showing how colonialism and settler narratives influence the innermost part of Moose Meaters lives, culture and choices Text moves from stories of Moose Meaters engaging with each other, their land, and traditions, embodying a comedic narrative style that gestures towards the various manifestations of colonial violence. Text moves from the inner-workings of life at Moose Meat Point, outwards. Settlers, while being suspended over the text have minimal physical presence in Part 1. Language, specifically, the inability to access fluently either English or Ojibway leading to loss of culture and self-identification. Within the second section of the text, we see Moose Meat Point be infiltrated by settler Christian society, who asserts control and is the physical embodiment of colonialism on the reserve. This section shows ideological and cultural chaffing against the restrictions placed upon them by settler epistimologies. 5

6 Part 3 of the text brings together elements of the first two parts. It combines the resourcefulness and cultural specificity of Moose Meaters from Part 1 with the explicit colonial presence of Part 2. Thinking about the true agency of Moose Meaters Part 3 of the text moves beyond Moose Meat Point and Blunder Bay to think about how Indigenous people interact with broader settler society in Canada, thinking about their shared and differing histories and epistimologies. Moose Meaters become representative of the homogenous group settler society sees Indigenous peoples as being. Part 3, then, becomes about intersectionality and interactions between colonizers and colonized. Johnson interacts meaningfully with stereotypes that lead to racism, misconceptions, and stereotypes. He does not shy away from allowing these stereotypes to have some grounding in reality, but ultimately undermines these stereotypes (often through comedy) to reveal the arbitrariness of these binaries, conceptions, and categories. Importantly, Johnson reveals the process of forced assimilation as a result of colonial violence. He refuses to make these portrayals of assimilation singular or one dimensional, but shows how colonial violence works within the colonized to force assimilation even amongst themselves. Johnson also does not just shine a light on racism against Indigenous peoples, but shows how racism affected many groups (especially Asians), particularly after World War II. Key Idea(for the whole text): Ecocriticism Raconteur : a person who expertly tells anecdotes skillfully or in an amusing way Appears in In A Pig s Eye from Part 1. It is one of the few terms that Johnson italicizes the draw our attention to, meaning that he believes it is important to the reading of this text. Keep key ideas such as this in mind as you close read! Epistemologies : The theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion. Essentially, it is the study or interrogation of how one knows what they know and how they come to know it. It is a popular branch of study within philosophy! Crucial to think about within texts that provide two different knowledge systems. 6

7 Ecocriticism : From Pippa Marland: Ecocriticism is an umbrella term for a range of critical approaches that explore the representation in literature (and other cultural forms) of the relationship between the human and non-human, largely from the perspective of anxieties around humanity s destructive impact on the biosphere It has been argued that you can read all of Canadian Literature from an ecocritical perspective; this is a new and upcoming field of study. Within the larger preoccupation of this text, we can see a thread of anxiety around the importance of the land and how this is being forgotten within settler culture. This story is chiefly concerned with the way language, specifically the acquirement of English, represents a colonial violence that leads to loss of traditional Indigenous (in this case Ojibway) knowledges and languages. The blasé tone of the story is at odds with Ben s clear anxiety which runs throughout the entirety of the narrative. Placing these two pitches next to each other illuminates the universality and commonness of Ben s experience while portraying the actual process of being supplanted and having your language colonized. Johnston s deliberate ambiguity at the end of the story, coupled with the end s lightheartedness, shows that there really is no way to make the true ending of this story a happy one. It must be cut off in medias res in order for the story to maintain its lightheartedness. There are two main options for how the story truly ends: 1. Ben believes that his anxieties around learning English may have been exaggerated and goes on to promote learning English to other Moose Meaters, resulting in the loss of Ojibway 2. He realizes his anxieties have been justified and this entire experience is revealed as coercive and violent against his own beliefs, wishes, and cultural identification. Close Reading Practice! Think of this activity as preparation for an essay! This activity will focus on collaboration and communication. Imagine the essay question being either: How is humor or comedy working in this story to reveal truths about colonialism What are the story s thematic preoccupations, and to what end are these themes working towards? What conversation are they opening? What do they reveal about Indigenous perspectives on colonialism? This will be done in partners! Turn to the person next to you to discuss how you see the details of this story working towards answering one of these larger questions or thematic preoccupations. We will be sharing and making thought maps! We will attempt to get through at least 2 more stories! 7