Focusing on Beatrice Mosioniers fictional autobiography <i>In Search of April Raintree</i>, this thesis analyzes April and Cheryl Raintrees emotional and psychological responses to oppression and racism and to freedom and love. One of the main arguments is that the sisters suffer internalized oppression and self-hatred after being exposed to colonial control and oppression and suffer internalized racism, self-hatred, and self-alienation and are acculturated to white cultural standards after experiencing racism. The sisters oppression re-enforces white dominance, and racism fosters white cultural control. The second main argument is that April and Cheryl are freed from internalized oppression when they have personal freedom and experience self-acceptance and embrace their ancestry and Aboriginal culture when they enjoy accepting, prizing love that validates their Aboriginal ancestry. The sisters personal freedom destabilizes white dominance and their self-acceptance and disalienation subvert white cultural values. The arguments are guided by the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon, Carl Rogers, and Eduardo and Bonnie Duran. This thesis also examines the importance that cultural practice has in April and Cheryls healing, studies the love the Raintree family shared in spite of the colonial forces tearing the family apart, and examines April as the narrator, showing how she is, at times, unreliable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-07052009-125801 |
| Date | 10 July 2009 |
| Creators | Dyck, Melanie |
| Contributors | Gingell, Susan, Parkinson, David, Macdougall, Brenda, Fagan, Kristina, Cooley, Ron |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-07052009-125801/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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