Discourses of diaspora and transnationalism have begun to question previous traditional assumptions about the inevitability of ethnic assimilation by drawing attention to various kinds of hybrid identities, but I contend that, in contemporary Canadian literature, we cannot replace an outmoded model of eventual integration with an uncritical vision of ethnic persistence and hybridity. Much thinking about diasporic and ethnic identities suggests that, on the one hand, there are genuine marginalized identities worthy of inquiry and, on the other, there are symbolic ones undeserving of serious study. This dissertation focuses on the supposedly disingenuous or symbolic kinds of ethnic and diasporic identities, providing an analysis of Ukrainian-Canadian ethnic identity retention in a case study of second-, third-, and fourth-generation Canadians of Ukrainian descent who both read and write in English (not Ukrainian). Looking at Ukrainian-Canadian literature from 1954 to 2003, this dissertation argues: (1) ethnic identity affiliation does not necessarily dissipate with time; (2) ethnic identity in a hostland manifests itself as imagined ties to a homeland; and (3) lacking meaningful public and private recognition of ethnic group membership yields anxiety about subjectivity. I first argue that as multicultural policies drew attention to racial marginalization, Ukrainian-Canadian ethnic identity shifted from being an aspect of socio-economic disenfranchisement to becoming a hyphenated identity with links to Ukraine. I then suggest that in order to make that connection to Ukraine viable, writers attempt to locate Ukraine on the Canadian prairie as a substitute home-country. Such attempts give rise to various images Ukrainian-Canadian uneasiness and discomfort, primarily as authors struggle to account for First Nations’ prior presences on the landscape that they want to write as their own. Further, I analyze attempts to locate ethnic authenticity in post-independence Ukraine that also prove unsatisfactory for Ukrainian-Canadian subject formation. The many failed attempts to affix Ukrainian-Canadianness as a meaningful public and private identity give rise to unsettled and ghostly images that signal significant ethnic unease not to be overlooked in analyses of ethnic and diasporic identities. In these ways, this dissertation contributes to ongoing debates and discussions about the place of contemporary literary ethnicity in Canada.

Discourses of diaspora and transnationalism have begun to question previous traditional assumptions about the inevitability of ethnic assimilation by drawing attention to various kinds of hybrid identities, but I contend that, in contemporary Canadian literature, we cannot replace an outmoded model of eventual integration with an uncritical vision of ethnic persistence and hybridity. Much thinking about diasporic and ethnic identities suggests that, on the one hand, there are genuine marginalized identities worthy of inquiry and, on the other, there are symbolic ones undeserving of serious study. This dissertation focuses on the supposedly disingenuous or symbolic kinds of ethnic and diasporic identities, providing an analysis of Ukrainian-Canadian ethnic identity retention in a case study of second-, third-, and fourth-generation Canadians of Ukrainian descent who both read and write in English (not Ukrainian). Looking at Ukrainian-Canadian literature from 1954 to 2003, this dissertation argues: (1) ethnic identity affiliation does not necessarily dissipate with time; (2) ethnic identity in a hostland manifests itself as imagined ties to a homeland; and (3) lacking meaningful public and private recognition of ethnic group membership yields anxiety about subjectivity. I first argue that as multicultural policies drew attention to racial marginalization, Ukrainian-Canadian ethnic identity shifted from being an aspect of socio-economic disenfranchisement to becoming a hyphenated identity with links to Ukraine. I then suggest that in order to make that connection to Ukraine viable, writers attempt to locate Ukraine on the Canadian prairie as a substitute home-country. Such attempts give rise to various images Ukrainian-Canadian uneasiness and discomfort, primarily as authors struggle to account for First Nations’ prior presences on the landscape that they want to write as their own. Further, I analyze attempts to locate ethnic authenticity in post-independence Ukraine that also prove unsatisfactory for Ukrainian-Canadian subject formation. The many failed attempts to affix Ukrainian-Canadianness as a meaningful public and private identity give rise to unsettled and ghostly images that signal significant ethnic unease not to be overlooked in analyses of ethnic and diasporic identities. In these ways, this dissertation contributes to ongoing debates and discussions about the place of contemporary literary ethnicity in Canada.

Performances of poetry constitute significant cultural and literary events that challenge the representational limits and possibilities of transposing written words into live and recorded media. However, there has not been a comprehensive study of Canadian poetry that focuses specifically on performance. This dissertation undertakes a theorizing of performance that foregrounds mediation, audience, and presence (both readerly and writerly). The complex methodology combines theoretical approaches to reading (Linda Hutcheon on adaptation, Wolfgang Iser on the reader, and Roland Barthes on the materiality of writing) with poetics as theorized by Canadian poets (namely bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst) in order to argue that performances of poetry are responsive exchanges between performers and audiences. Importantly, the dissertation argues that performances of poetry call for a re-evaluation of reading as listening, thereby altering the interaction between audience and performance from passive to participatory. Arranged in four chapters, the dissertation examines a range of Canadian poets and performances: The Four Horsemen (Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, and bpNichol), dance adaptations of Michael Ondaatje’s poems, George Elliott Clarke’s poetic libretti, and Robert Bringhurst’s polyphonic poetry. Following the Introduction’s outlining of the term performance, Chapter One examines processes of recording and adapting avant-garde sound poetry, specifically in the sound and written poetry of Nichol and McCaffery. Chapter Two theorizes adaptation as a responsive reading practice in the context of dance adaptations of Ondaatje’s writing (Bruce McDonald’s Elimination Dance and Veronica Tennant’s Shadow Pleasures). In Chapter Three, Clarke’s jazz opera Québécité, with libretto by Clarke and music composed by D.D. Jackson, foregrounds a central argument of this dissertation: that multi-vocal poetics can, in fact, reconfigure multicultural politics. Chapter Four turns to polyphony as a textual representation of multi-vocality in the poetry of Robert Bringhurst. Through a close-listening to a musical poem by Jan Zwicky, the Conclusion points towards new critical directions in listening to Canadian poetry. Only in understanding how cultural and political performances are recorded, enacted and received both on and off the page can we listen, critically and actively, to our multi-voiced Canadian soundscapes.

Performances of poetry constitute significant cultural and literary events that challenge the representational limits and possibilities of transposing written words into live and recorded media. However, there has not been a comprehensive study of Canadian poetry that focuses specifically on performance. This dissertation undertakes a theorizing of performance that foregrounds mediation, audience, and presence (both readerly and writerly). The complex methodology combines theoretical approaches to reading (Linda Hutcheon on adaptation, Wolfgang Iser on the reader, and Roland Barthes on the materiality of writing) with poetics as theorized by Canadian poets (namely bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, Jan Zwicky, Robert Bringhurst) in order to argue that performances of poetry are responsive exchanges between performers and audiences. Importantly, the dissertation argues that performances of poetry call for a re-evaluation of reading as listening, thereby altering the interaction between audience and performance from passive to participatory. Arranged in four chapters, the dissertation examines a range of Canadian poets and performances: The Four Horsemen (Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, and bpNichol), dance adaptations of Michael Ondaatje’s poems, George Elliott Clarke’s poetic libretti, and Robert Bringhurst’s polyphonic poetry. Following the Introduction’s outlining of the term performance, Chapter One examines processes of recording and adapting avant-garde sound poetry, specifically in the sound and written poetry of Nichol and McCaffery. Chapter Two theorizes adaptation as a responsive reading practice in the context of dance adaptations of Ondaatje’s writing (Bruce McDonald’s Elimination Dance and Veronica Tennant’s Shadow Pleasures). In Chapter Three, Clarke’s jazz opera Québécité, with libretto by Clarke and music composed by D.D. Jackson, foregrounds a central argument of this dissertation: that multi-vocal poetics can, in fact, reconfigure multicultural politics. Chapter Four turns to polyphony as a textual representation of multi-vocality in the poetry of Robert Bringhurst. Through a close-listening to a musical poem by Jan Zwicky, the Conclusion points towards new critical directions in listening to Canadian poetry. Only in understanding how cultural and political performances are recorded, enacted and received both on and off the page can we listen, critically and actively, to our multi-voiced Canadian soundscapes.

Cette thèse analyse le corps dystopique dans La Servante Ecarlate. Elle vise à examiner les façons dont le pouvoir masculiniste subjugue les servantes à travers l'objectivation et l'effacement de leur corps, puis à analyser le corps féminin comme un élément perturbateur, un site où se produit une constante subversion du pouvoir tout au long du roman. L'introduction offre une brève discussion sur la raison derrière le choix de La Servante Ecarlate comme une étude de cas, qui est dans le but de développer le concept du corps dystopique à partir d'un point de vue féministe. Elle délimite aussi mon argument sur le corps dystopique et le pouvoir. Le premier chapitre intitulé ‟Perspectives Critiques” présente une revue critique de la littérature, introduit ma contribution à l'étude du roman, et expose mes arguments sur l'utopie féministe, la dystopie, le corps dystopique et la circulation du pouvoir. Dans le deuxième chapitre intitulé ‟Le Corps Dystopique” je démontre que la dystopie dans une certaine mesure est déjà profondément enracinée dans le présent. Cette section se concentre sur les différents aspects de la dystopie principalement la reproduction, la sexualité, la surveillance et le code vestimentaire tout en étudiant leur impact sur le corps de la servante. Ces aspects sont abordés en détail dans des sous-chapitres séparés. Le dernier chapitre intitulé ‟La Subversion du Pouvoir” examine dans un premier lieu le mode d'échange de pouvoir entre le commandant et son épouse Serena Joy. Il étudie les façons dont chacun des personnages se positionne par rapport au pouvoir afin d’exploiter le corps d’Offred. Puis, il examine l'ironie qui se cache derrière le jeu de pouvoir constant dans le roman, dévoilant ainsi la perpétuation de la dystopie corporelle étant donné que le corps de la femme ne cesse d'être l'objet de la lutte. Ce travail étudie l'expérience corporelle de la femme dans un régime totalitaire et les façons dont le corps féminin devient dystopique. Il présente le corps féminin comme la proie des hommes et des femmes, et la dystopie comme étroitement dépendante et générée par la conception de ce corps dans la société de Gilead. Mots clés: Dystopie, Corps, Pouvoir, Féminisme, Ironie, Margaret Atwood / The present thesis analyzes the dystopic body in The Handmaid’s Tale. It aims at examining the ways with which the masculinist power subjugates Handmaids through the objectification and erasure of their bodies, then analyzing the female body as a disruptive force, a site where constant powerplay occurs throughout the novel. The introduction provides a brief discussion of my reasons for choosing The Handmaid’s Tale as a case study, which includes a desire to develop the concept of the dystopic body from a feminist standpoint. It also delineates my argument on the dystopic body and power. In the first chapter entitled “Critical Perspectives”, I present a critical review of literature, introduce my contribution to the study of the novel, and expose my arguments on feminist utopia, dystopia, the dystopic body and power play. The second chapter entitled “The Dystopic Body” demonstrates that dystopia is already deep-rooted in the present. It focuses on the different aspects of dystopia mainly reproduction, sexuality, surveillance and the dress code, and studies their impact on the Handmaid’s body. These aspects are discussed in detail in separate subchapters. The final chapter entitled “Power Subversion” examines at one level the mode of power exchange between the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. It investigates the ways with which each of the characters positions themselves to power in order to take ownership of Offred’s body. At another level, it studies the irony that lies behind the constant power play in the novel, uncovering the perpetuation of bodily dystopia since the female body never ceases to be the object of struggle. This thesis examines the bodily experience of women under such totalitarian regimes and the ways in which the female body becomes dystopic. It presents the female body as the prey of both men and women, and dystopia as closely dependent on and generated by the conception of that body in the society of Gilead. Keywords: Dystopia, Body, Power, Feminism, Irony, Margaret Atwood

Cette thèse analyse le corps dystopique dans La Servante Ecarlate. Elle vise à examiner les façons dont le pouvoir masculiniste subjugue les servantes à travers l'objectivation et l'effacement de leur corps, puis à analyser le corps féminin comme un élément perturbateur, un site où se produit une constante subversion du pouvoir tout au long du roman. L'introduction offre une brève discussion sur la raison derrière le choix de La Servante Ecarlate comme une étude de cas, qui est dans le but de développer le concept du corps dystopique à partir d'un point de vue féministe. Elle délimite aussi mon argument sur le corps dystopique et le pouvoir. Le premier chapitre intitulé ‟Perspectives Critiques” présente une revue critique de la littérature, introduit ma contribution à l'étude du roman, et expose mes arguments sur l'utopie féministe, la dystopie, le corps dystopique et la circulation du pouvoir. Dans le deuxième chapitre intitulé ‟Le Corps Dystopique” je démontre que la dystopie dans une certaine mesure est déjà profondément enracinée dans le présent. Cette section se concentre sur les différents aspects de la dystopie principalement la reproduction, la sexualité, la surveillance et le code vestimentaire tout en étudiant leur impact sur le corps de la servante. Ces aspects sont abordés en détail dans des sous-chapitres séparés. Le dernier chapitre intitulé ‟La Subversion du Pouvoir” examine dans un premier lieu le mode d'échange de pouvoir entre le commandant et son épouse Serena Joy. Il étudie les façons dont chacun des personnages se positionne par rapport au pouvoir afin d’exploiter le corps d’Offred. Puis, il examine l'ironie qui se cache derrière le jeu de pouvoir constant dans le roman, dévoilant ainsi la perpétuation de la dystopie corporelle étant donné que le corps de la femme ne cesse d'être l'objet de la lutte. Ce travail étudie l'expérience corporelle de la femme dans un régime totalitaire et les façons dont le corps féminin devient dystopique. Il présente le corps féminin comme la proie des hommes et des femmes, et la dystopie comme étroitement dépendante et générée par la conception de ce corps dans la société de Gilead. Mots clés: Dystopie, Corps, Pouvoir, Féminisme, Ironie, Margaret Atwood / The present thesis analyzes the dystopic body in The Handmaid’s Tale. It aims at examining the ways with which the masculinist power subjugates Handmaids through the objectification and erasure of their bodies, then analyzing the female body as a disruptive force, a site where constant powerplay occurs throughout the novel. The introduction provides a brief discussion of my reasons for choosing The Handmaid’s Tale as a case study, which includes a desire to develop the concept of the dystopic body from a feminist standpoint. It also delineates my argument on the dystopic body and power. In the first chapter entitled “Critical Perspectives”, I present a critical review of literature, introduce my contribution to the study of the novel, and expose my arguments on feminist utopia, dystopia, the dystopic body and power play. The second chapter entitled “The Dystopic Body” demonstrates that dystopia is already deep-rooted in the present. It focuses on the different aspects of dystopia mainly reproduction, sexuality, surveillance and the dress code, and studies their impact on the Handmaid’s body. These aspects are discussed in detail in separate subchapters. The final chapter entitled “Power Subversion” examines at one level the mode of power exchange between the Commander and his wife Serena Joy. It investigates the ways with which each of the characters positions themselves to power in order to take ownership of Offred’s body. At another level, it studies the irony that lies behind the constant power play in the novel, uncovering the perpetuation of bodily dystopia since the female body never ceases to be the object of struggle. This thesis examines the bodily experience of women under such totalitarian regimes and the ways in which the female body becomes dystopic. It presents the female body as the prey of both men and women, and dystopia as closely dependent on and generated by the conception of that body in the society of Gilead. Keywords: Dystopia, Body, Power, Feminism, Irony, Margaret Atwood

Ce mémoire explore le concept de la sagefemme-sorcière dans le contexte de la masculinisation et la médicalisation du processus de l'accouchement. En m'appuyant sur le roman The Birth House, par Ami McKay, je développerai trois chapitres qui traitent de l'histoire du domaine obstétrique, la chasse aux sorcières, ainsi que l'historique de l'archétype de la sorcière dans un contexte féministe afin d'illuminer la caractérisation de Dora et Miss Babineau en tant que des véritables sorcières, malgré qu'elle ne pratiquent pas de magie dans l'histoire. De plus, ce mémoire examinera les implications féministes de l'adoption littéraire de l'archétype de la sorcière en ce qui concerne la culture populaire et le climat politique actuel en Amérique du Nord grâce à l'adoption d'une perspective historique afin d'illustrer l'importance culturelle non seulement du roman, mais des personnages qui y habitent. / In this paper, I explore the notion of the midwife-witch and how it relates to the medicalization and masculinization of birth as portrayed in The Birth House by Ami McKay. This subject is divided in three chapters that give historical context to the emergence of obstetrics and the prosecution of midwives, the history of the archetype of the witch and how it is explored in the characterization of Dora and Miss Babineau, as well as the feminist implications of the figure of the midwife-witch and how it is relevant to the current political and cultural climate. I argue that McKay's novel fictionalizes the question of how witchcraft influenced the process of excluding women from medicine as well as reinforces the overall patriarchal subjugation of women. In turn, the text suggests that the key to transcending gender-based oppression lies in embracing the magick of womanhood: the power to create life. This thesis draws a timeline in the history of women's medicine, witch hunts, and feminism to show how these three elements interact in McKay's novel, which serves as a feminist retelling of the real-world implications and power of negotiating and claiming identity.

La langue n’est pas qu’un outil de communication, mais aussi un moyen pour explorer, un raccourci efficace dans l’expansion des connaissances humaines et l'exploration de la société humaine. En analysant la poétique métaphorique des deux poètes déconstructionnistes canadiens, Robert Kroetsch et Erin Moure, cette thèse vise à examiner comment la métaphore, la métonymie et la catachrèse travaillent ensemble pour engendrer des constructions métaphoriques, qui peuvent produire de nouvelles connaissances et une éthique féministe. La métaphore, la métonymie et la catachrèse sont généralement étudiées comme des dispositifs littéraires qui augmentent l'attrait artistique des œuvres littéraires. Cependant, dans la poésie métaphorique, ils sont considérés comme des outils cognitifs pour déconstruire une compréhension rigide de l'histoire humaine et de la société. Dans The Stone Hammer Poems, la métaphore et la métonymie servent à dévoiler l'existence du savoir perdu, délimitant un espace imaginaire, composé de créatures et de civilisations anéanties. De même, dans O Cidadán, les deux dispositifs constituent une structure métaphorique qui accentue le respect du statut naturel des êtres humains. Pendant ce temps, au lieu de former une rhétorique satirique, la catachrèse dans les deux œuvres devient de véritables connaissances du temps et des personnes perdus. Par conséquent, en utilisant une approche cognitive pour effectuer une étude littéraire sur The Stone Hammer Poems et O Cidadán, cette thèse vise à étudier comment la métaphoricité fonctionne comme une ressource de compréhensions post-structuralistes de l'historicité et comme porteuse de l'éthique féministe. / Language is more than a communicative tool. It is a practical means of inquiry, a functional device to expand human knowledge and to explore human society. By analyzing the metaphorical poetics of two Canadian deconstructionist poets Robert Kroetsch and Erin Moure, this thesis aims to examine how metaphor, metonymy, and catachresis work together to engender metaphorical constructions that can produce new knowledge and feminist ethics. Metaphor, metonymy, and catachresis are usually studied as literary devices that increase the artistic appeal of literary works. However, in metaphorical poetry, they function as cognitive tools to deconstruct rigid understanding regarding human history and society. In The Stone Hammer Poems, metaphor and metonymy serve to unveil the existence of the lost knowledge, delineating an imaginative space consisting of annihilated creatures and civilizations. Similarly, in O Cidadán, the two devices construct metaphorical constructions that accentuate the respect of the natural status of human-beings. Meanwhile, instead of forming satirical rhetoric, catachresis in both works become the real knowledge regarding the lost time and people. Therefore, employing a cognitive approach to perform a literary study on The Stone Hammer Poems and O Cidadán, this thesis studies how metaphoricity operates as the resource of post-structuralist understandings on historicity and as the carrier of feminist ethics.

Cette thèse explore les connections entre la littérature canadienne contemporaine féminine et le féminisme transnational. Le « transnational » est une catégorie qui est de plus en plus importante dans la critique littéraire canadienne, mais elle n’est pas souvent evoquée en lien avec le féminisme. À travers cette thèse, je développe une méthodologie de lecture féministe basée sur le féminisme transnational. Cette méthodologie est appliquée à la littérature canadienne féminine; parallèlement, cette littérature participe à la définition et à l’élaboration des concepts féministes transnationaux tels que la complicité, la collaboration, le silence, et la différence. De plus, ma méthodologie participe à la recontextualisation de certains textes et moments dans l’histoire de la littérature canadienne, ce qui permet la conceptualisation d’une généalogie de l’expression féministe anti-essentialiste dans la littérature canadienne. J’étudie donc des textes de Daphne Marlatt, Dionne Brand, et Suzette Mayr, ainsi que le périodique Tessera et les actes du colloque intitulé Telling It, une conférence qui a eu lieu en 1988. Ces textes parlent de la critique du colonialisme et du nationalisme, des identités post-coloniales et diasporiques, et des possibilités de la collaboration féministe de traverser des frontières de toutes sortes. Dans le premier chapitre, j’explique ma méthodologie en démontrant que le périodique féministe bilingue Tessera peut être lu en lien avec le féminisme transnational. Le deuxième chapitre s’attarde à la publication editée par le collectif qui a été formé à la suite de la conférence Telling It. Je situe Telling It dans le contexte des discussions sur les différences qui ont eu lieu dans le féminisme nord-américan des dernières décennies. Notamment, mes recherches sur Telling It sont fondées sur des documents d’archives peu consultés qui permettent une réflexion sur les silences qui peuvent se cacher au centre du travail collaboratif. Le trosième chapitre est constitué d’une lecture proche du texte multi-genre « In the Month of Hungry Ghosts, » écrit par Daphne Marlatt en 1979. Ce texte explore les connexions complexes entre le colonialisme, le postcolonialisme, la complicité et la mondialisation. Le suject du quatrième chapitre est le film Listening for Something… (1994) qui découle d’une collaboration féministe transnationale entre Dionne Brand et Adrienne Rich. Pour terminer, le cinquième chapitre explore les liens entre le transnational et le national, la région – et le monstrueux, dans le contexte du roman Venous Hum (2004) de Suzette Mayr. Ces lectures textuelles critiques se penchent toutes sur la question de la représentation de la collaboration féministe à travers les différences – question essentielle à l’action féministe transnationale. Mes recherche se trouvent donc aux intersections de la littérature canadienne, la théorie féministe contemporaine, les études postcoloniales et la mondialisation. Les discussions fascinantes qui se passent au sein de la théorie transnationale féministe sont pertinentes à ces intersections et de plus, la littérature contemporaine féminine au Canada offre des interventions importantes permettant d’imaginer la collaboration féministe transnationale. / This dissertation explores connections between contemporary Canadian women’s writing and transnational feminism. The category of the transnational is increasingly important within Canadian literary criticism, but it is infrequently evoked in relation to feminism. Throughout this thesis, I develop a transnational feminist reading methodology that can be brought to bear on Canadian women’s writing, even as the literature itself participates in and nuances transnational feminist mobilizations of concepts such as complicity, collaboration, silence, and difference. Furthermore, my transnational feminist reading strategy provides a method for the rehistoricization of certain texts and moments in Canadian women’s writing that further allows scholars to trace a genealogy of anti-essentialist feminist expression in Canadian literature. To this end, I read texts by Daphne Marlatt, Dionne Brand, and Suzette Mayr, alongside Tessera, a collectively-edited journal, and conference proceedings from the 1988 Telling It conference; these texts speak to national and colonial critique, post-colonial and diasporic identities, and the potentials of feminist collaboration across various borders. In the first chapter, I situate my reading methodology by arguing for a transnational feminist understanding of Tessera, a bilingual feminist journal that began publishing in 1984. My second chapter examines the collectively-edited publication that emerged from Telling It in the context of North American feminist evocations of difference in recent decades. Notably, my research on Telling It benefits from rarely-accessed archival material that grounds my discussion of the gaps and silences of collective work. In my third chapter, I perform a close reading of Daphne Marlatt’s 1979 multi-genre text “In the Month of Hungry Ghosts” as it explores the complex connections between colonialism, post-colonialism, complicity and globalization. The subject of my fourth chapter is the 1994 film Listening for Something…, a transnational feminist collaboration between Dionne Brand and Adrienne Rich. Finally, my fifth chapter discusses the place of the transnational in relation to the regional, the national – and the monstrous in the context of Suzette Mayr’s Venous Hum. In all of these close textual readings, my dissertation asks how Canadian women writers represent, theorize, and critique the kinds of collaboration across differences that lie at the heart of transnational feminist action. My research is therefore located at the crossroads of Canadian literature, contemporary feminist theory, and postcolonial and globalization studies. The vibrant field of transnational feminist theory is relevant to this disciplinary intersection and, furthermore, contemporary Canadian women’s writing provides important interventions from which to imagine transnational feminist collaboration.

Cette thèse explore la relation entre les littératures autochtones et multiculturelles du Canada. Même si les critiques littéraires examinent les littératures dites mineures de plus en plus, ces dernières sont rarement étudiées sans la présence médiatrice de la littérature canadienne considérée comme étant dominante. Afin de produire une telle analyse, cette thèse mobilise le concept d’hybridité en tant que catégorie d’analyse de texte qui, en plus de son histoire raciale et coloniale, décrit convenablement les formes d’expérimentations stylistiques que les écrivains autochtones et multiculturels emploient afin de représenter et questionner leur marginalisation. Ne voulant pas reproduire les interprétations fétichistes qui réduisent les littératures autochtones et multiculturelles à leurs représentations de concepts d’altérité, j’examine ces textes dans leurs relations avec différents discours et débats ayant marqué les études littéraires canadiennes, notamment, le long poème canadien, l’écriture des prairies canadiennes, la littérature urbaine, le multiculturalisme, et les premières nations. Ma méthode d’analyse repose sur la façon dont chaque texte étudié alimente ces catégories d’analyse littéraire tout en les modifiant radicalement. De plus, je développe un cadre conceptuel et théorique permettant l’étude de la relation entre les textes autochtones et multiculturels sans toutefois confondre ou réduire les contextes d’où proviennent ces littératures. Ma thèse et ma méthode d’analyse se concrétise par l’interprétation des textes écrits par Armand Garnet Ruffo, Suzette Mayr, Rawi Hage, et Jeannette Armstrong. Le chapitre d’introduction détaille la façon dont la relation entre les textes autochtones et multiculturels a été appréhendée jusqu’à présent. J’y élabore mon cadre théorique qui joint et réinterprète de manière critique diverses théories, dont celle du postcolonialisme, de l’hybridité, et de la mondialisation, et la façon dont ces théories se rapportent aux études littéraires canadiennes. Dans mon deuxième chapitre, j’analyse le long poème d’Armand Garnet Ruffo, Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney, en m’attardant particulièrement aux stratégies d’expérimentations stylistiques et génériques que Ruffo développe afin de rendre le genre du long poème canadien autochtone et de questionner l’identité de Grey Owl. Mon troisième chapitre examine Venous Hum, un roman de Suzette Mayr. Ce texte remet en question la tradition de « prairie writing », le multiculturalisme canadien, et le conservatisme albertain à travers son style expérimental, son usage des métaphores et du réalisme magique. Mon quatrième chapitre interprète le roman montréalais Cockroach, de Rawi Hage, en examinant la façon dont ses unités locales, nationales, et globales rencontrent le colonialisme et contestent les discours nationaux une fois que sa critique de la mondialisation se trouve réarticulée dans une approbation des discours d’interventions humanitaires de l’occident. Mon dernier chapitre explore le roman de Jeannette Armstrong, Whispering in Shadows, afin de démontrer les limites de ma méthode d’analyse. Puisque l’hybridité sous-entend inévitablement la notion d’assimilation, son application dans le contexte de l’œuvre d’Armstrong s’avèrerait réductrice. Pour cette raison, ce chapitre utilise des concepts autochtones définis par Armstrong afin de développer une méthode de lecture non-hégémonique. Ma thèse examine donc la façon dont chaque texte déploie le concept d’hybridité pour à la fois contester et enrichir les discours critiques qui tentent de contenir ces textes. Elle contribue aux études postcoloniales de la littérature canadienne en élargissant leur champ habituel pour inclure les complexités des théories de la mondialisation, et en examinant quelles stratégies littéraires les textes autochtones et multiculturels partagent, mais mobilisent à des fins différentes. / This dissertation explores the relationship between indigenous and multicultural writing in Canada. While critics have paid increasing attention to minoritized literatures, indigenous and multicultural literary strategies are seldom examined together without the mediating presence of settler or dominant Canadian literatures. In order to perform such an analysis, this dissertation deploys the concept of hybridity as a category of literary analysis that comes from a history of colonial violence, but which adequately describes the forms of stylistic experimentation which indigenous and multicultural writers use to dramatize and subvert their marginalization. In order to avoid fetishizing indigenous and multicultural texts as markers of reified “otherness,” I examine them in relation to specific discourses and debates in Canadian literary studies, such as the Canadian long poem, prairie writing, city writing, multiculturalism, and indigeneity. Methodologically, my dissertation examines how each text under discussion contributes, yet radically reconfigures and particularizes, each of these literary categories. In addition, I develop a conceptual framework through which the relationship between multicultural and indigenous texts can be approached without rehearsing the conflations that have marked Canadian literary criticism. To this end, I provide close-readings of texts by Armand Garnet Ruffo, Suzette Mayr, Rawi Hage, and Jeannette Armstrong. My introductory chapter details the manner in which the relationship between indigenous and multicultural writing has been approached in Canadian literary studies so far, and elaborates my conceptual framework through critical re-interpretations of postcolonial, globalization, and hybridity theory as they relate to the field of Canadian literary studies. In my second chapter, I analyze Armand Garnet Ruffo’s long poem Grey Owl: The Mystery of Archie Belaney. I focus on the generic and stylistic strategies Ruffo develops in order to indigenize the genre of the Canadian long poem and question Grey Owl’s identity. My third chapter examines Suzette Mayr’s Venous Hum as a text which challenges prairie writing, Canadian multiculturalism, and Albertan conservatism through stylistic experimentation, metaphor usage, and use of magic realism. In my fourth chapter, I interpret Hage’s Montreal novel Cockroach as a text whose local, national, and global scales intersect with colonialism and contest national narratives as the novel ultimately replicates Western humanitarian intervention. My final chapter explores Jeannette Armstrong’s Whispering in Shadows in order to illustrate the conceptual limits of this dissertation. Since hybridity always assumes (partial) assimilation, its application in the context of Armstrong’s work would bear coercive results. For that reason, this chapter draws on Armstrong’s definition of indigenous concepts in order to develop a non-hegemonic method of analysis. My dissertation then examines the manner in which each text mobilizes hybridity in order to challenge and supplement the critical discourses that seek to contain them. It contributes to postcolonial Canadian literary studies by opening up the field to the complexities which competing definitions of the global generate, and by examining what literary strategies indigenous and multicultural texts share, yet deploy to different ends.