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Multiple Time &

Dialogic Space

Dionne Brand

Postmodern CityTexts 2013 Fall

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Outline

IntroductionImmigrants in Toronto &Canadian Multiculturalism inBriefDionne BrandWhat We All Long For

chaps 1-8

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After In the Skin of a Lion

Toronto the Good and theGrey in the first half of the 20 th centuryBritish, Irish, Italian, Jewish,East Europeans, Chinesehttp://www.thestar.com/news/immigratio

n/gta_immigration_history.html South Asians, the Caribbeans, etc. since1970‘s

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Evolution of Multiculturalism in Canada

EthnicityMulticulturalism

(1970s)*

EquityMulticulturalism

(1980s)*

CivicMulticulturalism

(1990s)*

IntegrativeMulticulturalism

(2000s)Focus Celebrating

differencesManagingdiversity

Constructiveengagement

Inclusivecitizenship

ReferencePoint

Culture Structure Societybuilding

Rights andresponsibilities

Mandate Ethnicity Race relations Citizenship IdentityProblemSource

Prejudice Systemicdiscrimination

Exclusion Globalization,security

Solution Culturalsensitivity

Employmentequity

Inclusiveness ???

KeyMetaphor

‗Mosaic' ‗Level playingfield'

‗Belonging' ‗Two-waystreet'

Page 4•Source :•Fleras, Augie and Jean L. Kunz. 2001. Media and Minorities: Representing Diversity in a Multicultural Canada . Thompson Education Publishin

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Multiculturalism: Questions

Cultural Distinctness, Assimilation or Social IntegrationImmigration Policy: How many is

too many?Identity: Babel or Pluralism(Unity in Disunity)

Two ExamplesMeeting Place (1990)Let's All Hate Toronto (2007)(41:00; 52:00; 57:00)

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Dionne Brand

A novelist, poet and essayist. A Marxist, Lesbian and Non-Elite

• Not here, nor there:

(femininity Silvera 361-63 )

( )( )

( Birbalsingh 1996 : 122 )

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Dionne Brand

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Biographical Sketch --fyi

1953 Born in Trinidad

1970 immigrated to Canada at the age of 17

1970s-80s community worker in Toronto

1983 Information Officer for the Caribbean

People‘s Development Agencies and the Agencyfor Rural Transformation in Grenada

1997 won the Governor General‘s Award forPoetry and the Trillium Award for Land to Light On

A communist who believes in equal distribution ofwealth and ending exploitation

Founded and edited O u r L i v e s , Canada‘s firstblack women‘s newspaper

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Brand —a thinker, writer and filmmaker

BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in thePhilosophy of Education – in University of Toronto .Writer and Filmmaker -- A few examples:

―Blossom Sans Souci and other Stories (1988)

9 collections of poems , includingNo Language is Neutral (1990), thirsty

4 documentary films , includingSisters in Struggle (1991), Long Time Comin' (1993),Listening for Something (1996) —(Adrienne Rich)

NovelsIn Another Place, Not Here (1997)--novelLand To Light On (1997)

At the Full and Change of the Moon —novelWhat We All Long For (2006) Toronto Book Award

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Toronto's new Poet Laureate

: Dionne Brand, 2009

Page 10

photo by:

jasonchowphotography.com

Her Reading:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LVxo31hI8 Intro to Toronto & the novelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72T6viUe8M

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Winter Epigrams (1984)

I give you these epigrams, Toronto,these winter fragmentsthese stark white papersbecause you mothered me

because you held me with a distance that Iexpected ,here, my mittens,here, my frozen body,because you gave me nothing moreand i took nothing less,i give you winter epigramsbecause you are a liar,there is no other season here

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What We All Long For: Characters

Page 12

Tuan & Cam

Lam

Binh

Quy

Ali

Tuyen

Derrick &Angie/Nadine

Carla

Jamal

Fitz & Mother

Oku

Mother &father

Jackie

Vietnamese Italian-Black Caribbean from NovaScotia

artist courier poet fashion storeowner

heterosexual

homosexual

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What We All Long For:Discussion Questions

1. Description of the city : how it isdescribed and personified?

2. Omniscient narrator and Quy : how

are they related to the reader ―you ?3. 2nd -Generation characters & their

parents : how do they each relate totheir parents?

4. 2nd -Generation characters & theirdesires : what do they long for?

5. Quy: will he belong? (Guess!)Page 13

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Plot Summary Chaps 1-8chap Main Character(s)/Themes

1 An overview of the city in early Spring, on subwaytrain –3 of the four characters & Quy

Quy --leaving Vietnam; at Pulau Bidong

2 Tuyen – her brother visiting; about Carla, her parents[the four and their parents]

3 Carla – remembering her visit to Mimico; Carla facingthe streets at night

4 Tuyen – calling her friends to help, discussing Jamaland being black [the four and their parents]Oku Jackie; Tuyen Carla

5 City overview —Tuyen‘s family in Richmond Hill; aboutQuy

Quy At the camp

6 Jackie and Oku

7 Oku – about his father Fitz

8 Jackie -- on the streetcar, about her family, Ab und Zu Page 14

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Toronto City – Can you relate to it?

Anonymity is the big lie of a city. Youaren‘t anonymous at all. You‘re common,really, common like so many pebbles, somany specks of dirt, so many atoms ofmateriality. (3)What floats in the air on a subway trainlike this is chance. People stand or sitwith the thin magnetic film of their life

wrapped around them. They thinkthey‘re safe, but they know they‘re not.

Any minute you can crash into someoneelse‘s life, and if you‘re lucky, it‘s good,

it‘s like walking on light. (2) Page 15

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TorontoThe 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 knowthey‘re not.

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Descriptions of the city:Can you relate to it?

City (commercial center) onMondays pp. 41, 53-55

A shalwa kamese and aMuslim cap

Page 17

Salwar Kameez

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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 countries20

think their own families boring 19their parents‘ expectation of their living―regular Canadian life (47)

debating about Jamal again (48)being black

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2nd Generation Characters

What do they long for? [related to family]

Tuyen: an artist, presenting city dwellers‘longing; Carla (Italian —non-Vietnamese)

Tuyen (their sexual intimacy and a space ofleave-taking) 50-51 –their talk about C‘s

having no desire (a week before the lawyercalled) 52Carla: loyalty to her dead mother

Carla‘s experience: pp. 28 -30 bike riding (thecity has muscles and selves); watching 39(the streets) Oku: aspiring writer; walking in the city ;JackieJackie: [ upward mobility] away from poverty,going down ―the paths of flowers and trees Page 19

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Tuyen and her Parents

Hates her Vietnamese background: About the Viet. Restaurant p. 21Parents

(65) father: From civil engineer torestaurant ownerMother: manicurist

Her familyfamily in Richmond Hill – antiseptic and rootlessand desolate 55; Cam – laminates proofs

Tuyen ‘s (―my shit hole ) p. 56; to her mother 62Tuyen – has wanted to ―not be them Binh and Tuyen – serve as translators for theirparents (67), becoming smarter

Against Quy 60 Page 20

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Tuyen‘s Love & Art works

Loves Carla -- 17 reminds her of apainting by Remedios Varo *.

50 – 52 waiting for her to come around

She wanted sensuality, not duty. (61)Her Art

Expresses her love for CarlaExpresses her sense of identity

Traveller 64Her lubaio (14-17) ―Messages to thecity (17)

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Quy

What do you think about him?Top Concern: Survivalon the boat (7): mistreatedat the camp: a mixture of goodness

and brutality--One rule —eat; you ―Don‘t besentimental. Don‘t ascribe goodintentions. (9)

-- ran up to be photographed eachtime (9)-- metal toy and a boy ―the last sign of[his] innocence (10)

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Quy: The Fittest Survive

Quy and the ―wicked boy:no mercy for the old playmate, onlyfighting back in order to survive pp.74-75

I would have maybe said sorry myself;I did not miss him. (75)

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Q

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Quy

Communicating to ―you

Avoid being sentimental or fault-finding;seeing through media superficialityabout their leaving Vietnam;One parent let go of his hand. ―I won‘t say

who. (7) Re. journalist

Feel “a lightness, a nonexistence”Other tragedies have

overshadowed his. (74)

Note: Pulau Bidong ( source )

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C l

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CarlaHer action in and observation of the city —relating to the city through action and

gazingriding from the prison to Etobicoke – HighPark – the ―muscle of highway and streets(31) – flies when she rides the bike, embracedby the prison when she stops. (32)

Monday- -walks against the current.Pre- occupied by Jamal‘s problems

Jamal – his phone calls & his stories (33-34)(past: tried to get Derek to help without success)

Distant from Nadine and Derrick.(37) A wall between her and Tuyen (40)

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PERSONAJE ASTRALMadness of the Cat

By REMEDIOS VARO

http://davidjure.wordpress.com/category/figuration-feminine-women-painting-women/

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Jackie & Oku (chap 6)

Oku – finds himself losing ground,losing Jackie (72)His poems for her missed their markJackie and Oku in traffic:

People moving, stopping, and the streetcarmoving again, with her beautiful backdisappearingJackie held him in a kind of glimmer (72)

―men are so innocent (72 -73)Oku – finds himself sounding foolishsaying ―hook a brother up (81),hoping that ―the cards and posters

contain ―a map to her (81) Page 27

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Oku

He hasn‘t done anyone any harm, ever. (80) – the idea of moving out (freedom) given up(82-83);Oku & --Fitz

– asked him to work;

Fitz -- ―small man for Oku (47); gives the samelesson every morning 83;Oku does not share anything with him except theirlove of music (84-85)Fitz -- Felt held back (86)Oku‘s question ―you happy Pop? (86 -87)

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Oku

-- Oku – dropping out of school; doubts abouta lit master‘s degree (87) -- no talking to Fitz, who has to be certainabout everything, or pretends to be.-- Oku does not have the father‘s self -containment or pig-headedness. (88)

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Jackie (chap 8)in the world of fashion,

writing to InStyle (use of different languages) Ab und Zu – advertised itself as selling post-bourgeois clothing (99);

about her pastwith ―the same mix of desire and revulsion

(91); Alexandra Park (92); Paramount, the fatherinto the crap games, and the mother, fightinglike men. (West Indian girls vs. Scotian girls)Paramount, like church (95)

despised people who don‘t know what washappening to them (91)different feelings about Reiner (apart and incontrol) and Oku (on the train, liquid and

jittery) Page 30

Jackie: ―men are so innocent (73)