Thesis (M.A.)--Concordia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Texts like the World examines Nicole Brossards Picture Theory and Mauve Desert and Dionne Brands No Language is Neutral and A Map to the Door of No Return in order to demonstrate how these authors figure place in ways that are representative of utopian discourse. To do so, I draw primarily on two disciplinary perspectives: cultural geography and utopian studies. I turn to postmodern cultural geography, in particular to the work of Doreen Massey but also to works by Canadian cultural geographers Derek Gregory and Jane Jacobs, in order to examine Brossards and Brands understanding of space, time, and place. In general, postmodern cultural geographers argue that such conceptions of a socially-constructed, multiple, non-totalizable, dynamic space-time cannot be represented, or they call for some as-yet-unknown way to represent it. I turn to utopian studies to demonstrate how these authors deploy utopian discourse in order to figure such a geographical imagination. Rather than to studies of utopia as a literary genre, I draw on theories that posit utopia as a discourse in various dialectical relationships with ideology. In particular, I draw on the work of Fredric Jameson who argues that utopian discourse arises in the transitional moments between two modes of production. Through its unintentional narrative discontinuities and continual play and production, utopia figures the experience of existing within the moments inevitable contradictions, including contradictory constructions of place. Expanding on Jameson, I modify his theory of utopian discourse so that it figures the contradictions arising spatially as well as temporally. In other words, the contradictions of utopian discourse can be intentionally employed to figure the experience of existing among and within multiple co-exiting constructions of space, time, and place. Jameson argues that utopian discourse figures a world that cannot be known abstractly, and in Brands and Brossards texts, such a world is postmodern cultural geographys space-time dynamic that counters hegemonic constructions of space, time, and place. / English

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Submitted by Pedro Barros (pedro.silvabarros@ufpe.br) on 2018-07-04T21:04:05Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Márcia Maria Oliveira Silva.pdf: 1928321 bytes, checksum: 1d7715a416451082c3692eecd8a60357 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-04T21:04:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) TESE Márcia Maria Oliveira Silva.pdf: 1928321 bytes, checksum: 1d7715a416451082c3692eecd8a60357 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-21 / CAPES / A literatura é capaz de contribuir significativamente para a compreensão da existência humana através da construção de mundos ficcionais. A literatura pós-colonial ganhou espaço e notoriedade porque revela a experiência de povos que viveram sob a marca da colonização e que continuam experienciando as consequências do passado colonizador. Esta literatura quebra o silêncio promovido pelo discurso do colonizador e busca o direito à fala e à recuperação do passado; percebe-se que na literatura produzida nas Américas a herança colonial ainda é muito marcante, as escritoras Jamaica Kincaid (Antígua-Estados Unidos), Dionne Brand (Trinitad e Tobago-Canadá) e Conceição Evaristo (Brasil) apresentam em seus textos uma conexão com o contexto pós-colonial e focam em questões socioculturais significativas para a reflexão e o entendimento de temáticas como etnicidade, raça, poder, sexo, gênero e classe social. As obras analisadas nesta tese apresentam personagens excluídos socialmente, revelando narrativas que se afastam de estereótipos socialmente construídos e estabelecem novos paradigmas. Este trabalho surge com o objetivo principal de analisar um total de 12 obras a fim de compreender a maneira como Kincaid, Brand e Evaristo desenvolvem noções como identidade, memória, diáspora e pós- olonialidade. Utilizamos como arcabouço teórico autores como Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Aníbal Quijano, Frantz Fanon, Alberto Memmi, Paul Gilroy, Roland Walter, Carole Boyce Davies, Aleida Assmann, Lélia Gonzalez, Eurídice Figueiredo, entre outros, com o intuito de comprovar que as interpelações identitárias vão se construindo através das experiências de cada personagem. As narrativas analisadas abordam sujeitos que são frutos das sociedades ‘multiculturais’, sendo que estas não escondem a existência de uma ‘consciência patriarcal/colonial/imperial’ que interferem diretamente no estabelecimento das relações sociais, revelando assim as nuances da colonialidade do poder e da subalternidade. As obras analisadas se estabelecem, portanto, na maneira como Kincaid, Brand e Evaristo compreendem as marcas do colonialismo na sociedade e nas relações humanas, bem como as nuances da opressão feminina e da opressão racial. / Literature is capable of contributing significantly to the comprehension of human existence through the construction of fictional worlds. Postcolonialist literature has gained ground and notoriety because it reveals experiences of peoples who lived under colonial rule and still experience the consequences of such a past. That literature breaks the silence imposed by the colonizer’s discourse, seeks for the right of speech and retrieval of the past. It is noticeable that the colonial heritage is still very present in the literature produced in the Americas. Writers such as Jamaica Kincaid (Antigua-United States of America), Dionne Brand (Trinidad and Tobago-Canada), and Conceição Evaristo (Brazil) present in their writings a connection to the post-colonial context, and focus on significant sociocultural issues such as ethnicity, race, power, sex, gender, and social class. The literary works analyzed in this thesis present socially excluded characters, revealing narratives that problematize socially-constructed stereotypes and establish new paradigms. This study aims to mainly analyze 12 books written by the aforementioned authors in order to comprehend how Kincaid, Brand, and Evaristo develop notions of identity, memory, diaspora, and postcoloniality. The theoretical framework of this study was based on scholarly publications of Stuart Hall, Gayatri Spivak, Aníbal Quijano, Frantz Fanon, Alberto Memmi, Paul Gilroy, Roland Walter, Carole Boyce Davies, Aleida Assmann, Lélia Gonzalez, Eurídice Figueiredo, and others, with the aim of proving that identitarian interpellations are built through each character’s experiences. The narratives analyzed deal with individuals who are results of ‘multicultural’ societies, these societies do not hide the existence of a ‘patriarchal/colonial/imperial conscience’ that interferes directly with the establishment of social relations, thus revealing the nuances of the coloniality of power and subalternity. The studied literary works established themselves, therefore, according to how Kincaid, Brand, and Evaristo comprehend the marks of colonialism in society and human relations, as well as the nuances of women’s and racial oppression.

A translation of a selection of chapters and passages from Dionne Brand's novel What We All Long. It includes translator's notes and the source text.

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 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.

Ce projet inscrit la figure du flâneur dans la littérature contemporaine et examine les liens possibles entre le trauma et la pratique de la flânerie en milieu urbain. Plus spécifiquement, par l’analyse de The Lonely Hearts Hotel de Heather O’Neill, Cockroach de Rawi Hage, What We All Long For de Dionne Brand et Bottle Rocket Hearts de Zoe Whittall, cette dissertation démontre que le fait d’être un flâneur peut se révéler être une pratique à la fois traumatisante et thérapeutique. La façon dont les jeunes protagonistes de ces romans occupent les différents espaces de la ville est profondément enracinée dans leurs expériences traumatiques, qu’il s’agisse de traumatismes passés ou de traumatismes liés à la métropole en soi. En effet, la ville peut devenir un lieu propice à la création de communautés et à l’émancipation, permettant ainsi à la personne ayant subi un traumatisme de (re)prendre le contrôle de son propre parcours et de commencer un processus de guérison. En revanche, la ville peut se révéler traumatisante en soi, dans un contexte où l’individu est soit victime, soit témoin d’un événement tragique. Le flâneur, en tant que spectateur attentif de l’urbanité qui l’entoure, peut être confronté à des éléments évoquant des événements passés, ce qui peut ainsi générer de nouveaux traumatismes. Outre l’analyse du potentiel thérapeutique et traumatique de la ville, cette étude propose une nouvelle interprétation de la figure du flâneur dans la littérature contemporaine et met en lumière son évolution depuis que Charles Baudelaire l’a définie dans son essai de 1863 intitulé « Le Peintre de la vie moderne ». Par ailleurs, ce projet s’appuie sur les réflexions des plus importants auteurs spécialisés dans les théories du trauma pour interpréter ces romans et explorer la manière dont les expériences traumatiques exercent une pression sur la définition même du flâneur. L’analyse de ces quatre récits en tenant compte de la notion de flânerie permet d’explorer de nouvelles perspectives quant à la manière dont la victime perçoit l’espace, le temps et les autres lors de ses déplacements urbains. La façon dont un individu flâne dans la ville devient un symptôme qui témoigne des effets, des problèmes et des processus associés à la fois au trauma et à la flânerie. / This doctoral dissertation places the figure of the flâneur in a contemporary context and analyzes the possible intersections between trauma and the performance of flânerie within the metropolis. More specifically, through the analysis of Heather O’Neill’s The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Rawi Hage’s Cockroach, Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For, and Zoe Whittall’s Bottle Rocket Hearts, this study demonstrates the different ways in which being a flâneur can be both a traumatic and therapeutic practice. The protagonists of these novels are young flâneurs whose modes of being in the city are deeply rooted in the traumatic experiences that define them, whether this trauma comes from past experiences or from the urban landscape itself. On the one hand, the city has the potential to serve as a space of community and empowerment that allows the person who has experienced trauma to take control of their own path and initiate their journey towards their recovery process. On the other hand, the city can be traumatic in and of itself in a context where the individual is either the victim or the witness of a tragic event. To the flâneur’s acute observing eye, the city can also confront them with a past event, the resurfacing of which can be retraumatizing. In addition to analyzing the therapeutic and traumatic potential of the city, this dissertation also proposes a reexamination of the flâneur figure in contemporary literature and highlights the ways it has evolved since its early definition by Charles Baudelaire in his 1863 essay “The Painter of Modern Life.” Furthermore, this project draws upon the observations of the most prominent trauma theorists to read the selected novels and to explore the ways in which trauma puts pressure on the very definition of flânerie. Reading these four narratives through the lens of flânerie allows new perspectives of the victim’s view of space, time, and others as they move through the city. The way a person performs flânerie becomes a symptom that speaks to the effects, the problematics, and the processes of both trauma and urban walking.