Unit 1 Exercises

UNIT 1 EXERCISES Unit 1- Textbook Page 12
-What does the term postmodernism mean? How can it be defined in general terms? Postmodernism is a widely used term that has come to stand for a cultural condition. Whether we like it or not, we live in a postmodern culture, the term postmodern alluding to the fact that this cultural condition is rooted in modernity while going well beyond it. Actually, our present so-called cultural stage is often referred to as late modernity -How does Fredric Jameson understand postmodernism? he American mar!ist critic "redric #ameson, in an essay later e!panded into a book entitled Post $odernism, %r the &ultural logic of 'ate &apitalism ()*+,-, sees postmodernism as a cultural dominant characteri.ed by the results of late capitalist dissolution of bourgeois hegemony and the development of mass culture (/utcheon )*++0 1-. -What do the concepts metanarratives or grandnarratives signify? he term metanarratives or grand narratives denotes those doctrines or systems that need not legitimation because they are themselves self-legitimating. his means that they not only e!plain a certain domain of knowledge, but they legitimate the power and social relations deriving from it. What does Lyotard mean when he asserts that incredulity toward metanarratives is the central characteristic of postmodernism? "or 'yotard incredulity toward metanarratives is the defining feature of postmodernism ()*+20 !!iv-. 3y this he means that the various stories about human emancipation and progress, such as the 4nlightment or $ar!ism, that once served to ground knowledge and legitimate certain politics, are no longer credible. - ccording to Linda Hutcheon! what role does language play in the configuration of postmodernism? As /utcheon argues, language is as social contract0 everything that is presented and thus received through language is already loaded with meaning inherent in the conceptual patterns of the speaker5s culture ()*++0 62-. %n the other hand, all cultural practices have an ideological subte!t which determines the conditions of the very possibility of their production of meaning ()*++0 !ii-. he crisis of both knowledge and representation are therefore key issues at the heart of postmodernism. 7et the concepts of knowledge and representation are in no way dismissed. /utcheon very precisely describes the postmodern as the contradictory phenomenon that uses and abuses, installs and then subverts, the very concepts it challenges 8 be it in literature, painting, sculpture, film, video, dance, television, music, philosophy, aesthetic theory, psychoanalysis, linguistics or historiography ()*++0 9-.
-Which are the most significant differences between modernism and postmodernism? 3ut postmodernism will provide us with more radically shifting perspectives by means of narrative voices alternatively split between the first and the third person, and:or with limited and provisional viewpoints to be suddenly contradicted. ;arrators may become either disconcertingly multiple offering different perspectives of the same event or difficult to locate. &ertainties are also positional and there are no natural hierarchies. $arginal or e!-centric characters are given centrality in order to show that there are no fi!ed or natural categories or values. &ultures hitherto marginal contest and challenge the values of the traditionally hegemonic Western culture e!posing its self-serving interests under the cover of its civilising enterprises. <nity and centre no longer hold, and plurality and differences of every kind = gender, race, ethnicity, class, se!ual preference=are emphasi.ed instead. How have they been reflected in the conte"t of #nglish literature? he transition from modernism to postmodernism has not been easy in 4ngland, on account of the ideological and moral chaos brought about by the >econd World War. ?uring the third decade of the twentieth century, literature in general focused on political commitment and, as a conse@uence, realist representation was the medium thought to better reflect the concerns about the growing danger of totalitarian ideologies and their impingement on social relationships. At was impossible for writers to ignore the threatening nature of public affairs such as the collapse of markets and subse@uent economic depression and the growing menace of fascism. At is small wonder therefore that literature turned from aesthetics and formalism to a concerned reflection on public issues. An her essay he 'eaning ower, published in )*,B, Cirginia Woolf identified some of the factors that accounted for the literary change0 An )*9B it was impossible =if you were young, sensitive, imaginative= not to be interested in politicsD not to find public causes of much more pressing interest than philosophy. An )*9B young men E were forced to be aware of what was happening in FussiaD in GermanyD in AtalyD in >pain. hey could not go on discussing aesthetic emotions and personal relations E they had to read the politicians. hey read $ar!. hey became communistsD they became antifascists. (An Fandall >tevenson )*H10 9BAf the literature of the thirties was on the whole politically committed, the forties was thought of as a frustrated decade0 &yril &onnolly referred to it as five years of total war and five more of recrimination and e!haustion during which the $odern $ovement unobtrusively e!pired (>tevenson )*H10 1+-. An the forties and fifties depression and gloom featured largely in the prevailing social and literary moodD and nostalgia for a better past was also paramount. >ocial realism and liberal humanism were the upheld values in the face of the past horrors and the fast growing consumerism and mass culture. Within this panorama, the critic ". F. 'eavis e!erted a strong influence on the academia from the forties to the si!ties, upholding literature as a means of moral and humane education and calling for a return to the best writers of an 4nglish tradition he set himself to create. 3y great writers he meant those who had e!pressed with the utmost intensity in their literary works the values of a somehow ineffable essence he termed 4nglishness. As ingredients of this essence 'eavis advocated values modernism had strongly contested, and if he admired and included within his canon of greatness modernist writers such as ?. /. 'awrence it was for reasons @uite foreign to the aesthetics and ideological foundations modernism postulated.
3y the end of the fifties the world was felt to be fast changing yet again. We are all of us, directly or indirectly, caught up in a great whirlwind of change, wrote ?oris 'essing in )*2H. ?espite the key role 3ritain had played in the war, it was no longer an empire, and its political status in the world had changed accordingly. At would take @uite long to come to terms with the fact of its international decline. An fact, the swift process of decoloni.ation, accelerating in the fifties and si!ties, drove 3ritain by )*1B into a deepening confusion about its imperial identity and role as a world power. $eanwhile, the Welfare >tate and the growth in number of 3ritish universities throughout the country were opening up the range of educational and Iob opportunities for young people from small towns and particularly for women. 7et, despite increasing consumer affluence, the early si!ties were pervaded by a pessimistic mood of decline. here was a general sense of national enervation and bewilderment at the fast-rising crime rate, football hooliganism, severe industrial unrest, continuous crises in the pound, race riots and political scandals (Waugh )**20 2*-. he counter-cultural movement of the si!ties which reached its clima! with the student5s protests in the late si!ties marked the end of a commitment to a universal culture characterised by a consensually validated /igh Art. As Patricia Waugh puts it in her book Harvest of the Sixties ()**2-, the si!ties provided less the opportunity to cement social unity through participation in a national culture than the chance to pursue individual or subcultural paths to liberation from it0 consumer liberation from post-war austerityD cultural liberation from leisure-class valuesD se!ual liberation from Cictorian moresD and a celebration and making of the new, of youth, technology, design and fashion (HS, )B-. Absurdism, Gothic, the grotes@ue, e!tremism, the theatre of cruelty, the poetry of diminished e!pectation, apocalyptic fantasy and self-refle!ivity are some of the literary modes developed (HS, )B-. he breakdown of cultural consensus is a process welcomed as liberationist by some and condemned by others as the symptom of cultural relativism, while a sense of inescapable complicity of art in a debased consumer culture began to develop.
-#"plain why $atricia Waugh affirms that the %uestion of value in literature or indeed the very constitution of #nglish literature &has become' problematic( We should reflect on the way in which the @uestion of value in literature or indeed the very constitution of 4nglish literature Jhas becomeK problematic (HS, )2B-. "or Patricia Waugh, simply in geographical terms, L4nglish literature5 is difficult to identify. ;ot only is it now to be distinguished from Lliteratures in 4nglish5, but the <nited Mingdom itself is a comple! historical composite of different nations and peoples ()2B-. An a way, )*,+ has come to signal the symbolic beginning of 3lack 3ritish history. An that year the ;ationality Act was passed, encouraging immigration from 3ritish colonies and former colonies, and on #une 66, )*,+ the SS Empire Windrush docked at ilbury. "our hundred and ninety two West Andian immigrants disembarked. Although the category black initially demarcated a unified front against what would become an increasingly e!plicit racialised white national community, it has metamorphosed and since the mid-)*+Bs there has been a growing attention to its potential as both a political and aesthetic signifier, cha racterised by difference and alterity (#ames Procter 6BBB0 2-. 3lack does no longer, or at least does not always, refer to a biologically innate essential @uality, but constitutes a culturally constructed label that emerges at a particular historical Iuncture and covers a wide range of literatures and writers of different geographical and ethnic origins (West Andian, Andian, African-. 3eing a political signifier, the borders of the field are rather fluid, and it is often the case that writers sharing the same country of origin and the same race are grouped under the category black, or they go unmarked. $embers of ethnic and other social and cultural minorities =women, gays and lesbians= have made creative use of the fantastic and postmodern modes of writing in order to e!press alterity and othernessD also as means of e!posing and disrupting repressive notions of nationalism and identity and of defamiliarising normative assumptions about the constitution of the real. he study of Postmodern 3ritish fiction is interesting because its deconstructing strategies are not as overt as those flaunted by American fiction. $any of the te!ts we are going to discuss are postmodern in the sense /utcheon described them as firmly installing realism only to subvert it later. he presence of the past is therefore important but, opposite to modernism, always as a critical reworking, never a nostalgic Lreturn5.
Linda Hutcheon' a!"c#e Incredulity
-)iscuss Hutcheon*s contentions concerning the problemati+ing of history in the postmodern conte"t( Postmodernism Anne Friedberg: conservative/subversive politics, return/revolt of tradition, unmooring/reassertion of patriarchy. Jean-Francois Lyotard: a state of incredulity towards metanarratives. Jurgen albermas: a set of smaller and multiple narratives which do not see! "or obtain# any universali$ing stabili$ation or legitimi$ation. %ichard %orry almost overblown sense of the role of philosophy &ouble encoding as complicity and criti'ue (ostmodernism has no theori$ed agency. )t has no strategies of real resistance because it cannot.
-$inpoint the most significant lin,s that Hutcheon establishes between postmodernism and feminism( Postmodernism & Feminism *riti'ue of metanarrative shared %esist to incorporate to (ostmodernism because of the danger of their political agendas. Feminism goes beyond (ostmodernism in changing the systems. Feminism doesn+t e,plain the crisis outside of patriarchal ideology, as (ostmodernism does " umanism, istory, %eligion, (rogress, etc.# (ostmodernist re-ection of a privileged position as ideological as feminism. Feminism uses postmodern parodic strategies of deconstruction, but no suffering from confusion of political agenda. (ostmodernism coincides with Feminism in re-evaluation of non-canonical forms of narrative discourse. .oth challenge Literature, and what was considered as seamless, unified narrative of representations of sub-ectivity in life-writing. (ostmodernism only can un-do, but cannot do something else. Feminism had urged postmodernism to reconsider its anti-metanarrative challenges to /0an1 and have /undone1 the separation of the private and the public, personal and political. (ostmodernism parodic and ironic representational strategies have offered feminist artists an effective way of wor!ing within and challenging dominant patriarchal metanarrative discourses. 2he differences between feminism and postmodernism are clear. Feminism is a politics. (ost-modernism is not.
-)o you agree with Hutcheon*s ideas on the three main topics of her respective articles? -ubstantiate your answer with arguments ta,en from them( I agree in that Feminism goes beyond Postmodernism because Feminism is more active from the political point of view with demonstrations and protests all around the world, not only in Literature, as Postcolonialism does. Both re-evaluate the canon, but feminism has a more oriented political agenda.
Postmodern
-)iscuss Hutcheon*s contentions concerning the problemati+ing of history in the postmodern conte"t( L)3&A 42* 563 is very careful to distinguish between postmodernity and postmodernism. 2he former she understands to mean 7the designation of a social and philosophical period or +condition+7 " Politics 89#, specifically the period or 7condition7 in which we now live. 2he latter she associates with cultural e,pressions of various sorts, including 7architecture, literature, photography, film, painting, video, dance, music7 "Politics :# and so on. )ndeed, utcheon diagnoses as one reason why critics have been led to such disparate opinions about the 7postmodern7 is because of the conflation of these two disparate if associated domains "socio-historical on the one hand, aesthetic on the other hand#. .y distinguishing between the two domains, utcheon offers a criti'ue of Fredric Jameson+s influential attac! against the postmodern: 72he slippage from postmodernity to postmodernism is constant and deliberate in Jameson+s wor!: for him postmodernism is the +cultural logic of late capitalism+7 "Politics 8;#. Jameson thus sees postmodern art and theory as merely reinforcing the many things he finds distressing in postmodern culture, particularly the conditions of multinational latecapitalism. utcheon does not deny that postmodernity and postmodernism are 7ine,tricably related7 "Politics 8<#= however, she wants to maintain the possibility that postmodernism+s cultural wor!s could be successful in achieving a critical distance from the problems of our contemporary age. 6n the whole, she agrees with other critics regarding the elements that ma!e up the postmodern condition: a world dominated by the logic of capitalism, which has no regard for the rights of oppressed laborers or the ravagement of the natural world= a society increasingly under the scrutiny of government agencies that insist on casting their disciplining ga$e ever deeper into our private lives= an increasing reliance on technologies that separate us from other people and the natural world, thus feeding into our sense of atomism and unease= an emphasis on flat, spatial representations "screens, statistics, ads# that serve to sever us from our former sense of temporality and history= and a culture increasingly dominated by simulacra "computer images, commercial advertising, ollywood ideali$ations, commercial mass reproduction, televisuality, and technological replications of all stripes#, thus contributing to our sense of separation from the real.
>here utcheon departs from critics of postmodernity is by underscoring the ways that postmodern cultural wor!s engage in effective political criti'ues of the postmodern world around us: 7criti'ue is as important as complicity in the response of cultural postmodernism to the philosophical and socio-economic realities of postmodernity: postmodernism here is not so much what Jameson sees as a systemic form of capitalism as the name given to cultural practices which ac!nowledge their inevitable implication in capitalism, without relin'uishing the power or will to intervene critically in it7 " Politics 8?#. utcheon therefore e,plores a wide variety of wor!s from various genres and media to illustrate how the cultural wor!s of postmodernism effect their criti'ue of the present. @ome of those strategies postmodernism borrows from modernism, in particular its self-consciousness and self-refle,ivity, as well as its 'uestioning of such 5nlightenment values as progress, science, and empire or such nineteenth-century values as bourgeois domesticity, capitalism, utilitarianism, and industry. "@ee the )ntroduction to (ostmodernism for an outlining of the differences and similarities between modernism and postmodernism.# owever, utcheon argues that postmodernism does differ from modernism in important ways and that it is this difference from the modernist pro-ect that e,emplifies the critical potential of postmodern cultural wor!. For one, utcheon p oints out that postmodern wor s tends to be critical of !modernism"s elitist and sometimes almost totalitarian modes of e#ecting... "radical change"$from those of %ies van der &ohe to those of Pound and 'liot, not to mention ()line! * Politics +,-. .utcheon points out how modernists pursued radical change without ac nowledging the price that must be paid by the more e/tremist positions assumed by modernist authors *e.g., fascism, futurism, primitivism, anarchism, etc.-. 0he also 1uestions how e#ective elitist modernist pro2ects could ever be as political criti1ue.
If there is one thing that especially distinguishes postmodernism from modernism, according to .utcheon, it is postmodernism"s relation to mass culture. 3hereas modernism !de4ned itself through the e/clusion of mass culture and was driven, by its fear of contamination by the consumer culture burgeoning around it, into an elitist and e/clusive view of aesthetic formalism and the autonomy of art! * Politics +5-, postmodern wor s are not afraid to renegotiate !the di#erent possible relations *of complicity and criti1ue- between high and popular forms of culture! *Politics +5-. In The Politics of Postmodernism, she gives postmodern photography as a perfect e/ample, since it !moves out of the hermeticism and narcissism that is always possible in self-referentiality and into the cultural and social world, a world bombarded daily with photographic images! * Politics +6-. 7hose contemporary wor s that are particularly autonomous and auto-referential .utcheon tends to call !late modernist! *Politics +,- rather than postmodernist because, as she argues, !7hese formalist e/tremes are precisely what are called into 1uestion by the historical and social grounding of postmodern 4ction and photography! *Politics +,-. 7he other techni1ues that .utcheon associates with postmodern cultural wor s include8 the de-naturali9ation of the natural *i.e. a refusal to present !what is really constructed meaning as something inherent in that which is being represented! :Politics ;6<-= the 1uestioning of the distinction between 4ction and history *thus subscribing to the poststructuralist contention that so-called !ob2ective! history is, in fact, 2ust as a#ected by generic and ideological constructs or the arti4cial structures of narrative form as is 4ction-= note a re2ection of grand narratives *in favor of what Lyotard terms petits rcits or small narratives$ multiple and even contradictory histories rather than !.istory!-= an ac nowledgement of the present"s in>uence on our nowledge of the past *for e/ample, the e#ect of present-day historical narration on the supposedly !ob2ective! past-= a recognition of our reliance on te/tuality *documents, wri?en histories, etc.- and on the limited perspectives of individuals in understanding the past or even any event in the present= the de-naturali9ation of gender and se/ *feminisms !have made postmodernism thin , not 2ust about the body, but about the female body= not 2ust about the female body, but about its desires$and about both as socially and historically constructed through representation! : Politics @;A<-. Blong with the brea down between high and low cultural forms, the most important strategy that for .utcheon distinguishes postmodern aesthetic wor s from modernist wor s is parody. *0ee the ne/t .utcheon module on parody-. 7ogether such strategies allow postmodern wor s to maintain a continual and e#ective criti1ue of postmodernity without, at the same time, ever falling prey to the belief that one can ever completely escape complicity with the ideologies that determine our sense of reality in the postmodern condition.
-.omment on the relationship that Hutcheon establishes between the postmodern and the postcolonial(
"Circling the Downspout of Empire": Post-&olonialism and Postmodernism

LINDA HUTCHEON
/4 SUBJECT %" Daphne
Marlatt's phrase !ir!lin" the do#nspo$t
o% Empire is &C'anadians( and she is not alone in seein" Canada as still !a$"ht $p in the ma!hinations o% Empire and !olon)( imperial metropolis and pro*in!ial hinterland +see Mon,
-./0 Ir*in" La)ton on!e de1ned An"lo2Canadian in these

terms3
A nati*e o% 4in"ston( Ont( 2 t#o "randparents Canadian and still li*in" His !omple5ion 6orid as a maple lea% in late a$t$mn( %or three )ears he attended O5%ord No# his a!!ent ma,es e*en En"lishmen #in!e( and %eel $nspea,a7l) !olonial0 +S!ott and Smith 89/
:hate*er tr$th there ma) 7e in these a!!$sations o% neo2!olonialism( there are man) others #ho are !omin" to pre%er to tal, a7o$t Canada in terms o% post2!olonialism( and to pla!e it in the !onte5t o% other nations #ith #hi!h it shares the e5perien!e o% !oloni;ation0 In m$!h re!ent !riti!ism( this !onte5t has also !ome to o*erlap #ith that o% postmodernism0 Pres$ma7l)( it is not <$st a matter o% the !ommon pre15 or o% the !ontemporaneit) o% the t#o enterprises0
In literar) !riti!al !ir!les( de7ates ra"e a7o$t #hether the post2!olonial is the postmodern or #hether it is its *er) antithesis +see Ti=n( Post2Colonialism /0
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Part o% the pro7lem in de!idin" #hi!h !amp to 7elon" to is that in man) o% these de7ates the term postmodernism is rarel) de1ned pre!isel) eno$"h to 7e more than a s)non)m %or toda)'s m$ltinationalist !apitalist #orld at lar"e0 B$t it !an ha*e a more pre!ise meanin"0 The ar!hite!t$re #hi!h 1rst "a*e aestheti! %orms the la7el postmodern is( interestin"l)( 7oth a !riti?$e o% Hi"h Modern ar!hite!t$re +#ith its p$rist ahistori!al em7ra!in" o% #hat( in e@e!t( #as the modernit) o% !apitalism/ and a tri7$te to its te!hnolo"i!al and material ad*an!es0 E5tendin" this de1nition to other art %orms( postmodern !o$ld then 7e $sed( 7) analo")( to des!ri7e art #hi!h is parado5i!all) 7oth sel%2re6e5i*e +a7o$t its te!hni?$e and material/ and )et "ro$nded in histori!al and politi!al a!t$alit)0 The 1!tion o% #riters li,e 4. L0 Do!toro#( Araham S#i%t( Salman B$shdie( Mi!hael Ondaat<e( Toni Morrison( and An"ela Carter mi"ht pro*ide e5amples0 I ha*e deli7eratel) in!l$ded here #riters #ho #o$ld 7e !ate"ori;ed 7) others as either post2!olonial or %eminist in pre%eren!e to the la7el postmodem0 :hile I #ant to ar"$e here that the lin,s 7et#een the post2!olonial and the postmodem are stron" and !lear ones( I also #ant to $nderline %rom the start the ma<or di@eren!e( a di@eren!e post!olonial art and !riti!ism share #ith *ario$s %orms o% %eminism0 Both ha*e distin!t politi!al a"endas and o%ten a theor) o% a"en!) that allo# them to "o 7e)ond the postmodem limits o% de!onstr$!tin" e5istin" orthodo5ies into the realms o% so!ial and politi!al a!tion0 :hile it is tr$e that post2!olonial literat$re( %or e5ample( is also ine*ita7l) impli!ated and( in Helen Ti=n's #ords( in%ormed
7) the imperial *ision + Post2Colonialism -8C/( it still possesses a stron" politi!al moti*ation that is intrinsi! to its oppositionalit)0 Ho#e*er( as !an 7e seen 7) its re!$peration +and re<e!tion/ 7) 7oth the Bi"ht and the Le%t( postmodemism is politi!all) am7i*alent3 its !riti?$e !oe5ists #ith an e?$all) real and e?$all) po#er%$l !ompli!it) #ith the !$lt$ral dominants #ithin #hi!h it ines!apa7l) e5ists0 Those !$lt$ral dominants( ho#e*er( are shared 7) all three %or!es0 As Aa)atri Spi*a, notes3 There is an a=nit) 7et#een the imperialist s$7<e!t and the s$7<e!t o% h$manism +C>C/0 :hile post2!olonialism ta,es the 1rst as its o7<e!t o% !riti?$e and postmodernism ta,es the se!ond( %eminists point to the patriar!hal
CIBCLINA THE DO:NSPOUT OD EMPIBE
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$nderpinnin"s o% 7oth0 The title o% a re!ent 7oo, o% essa)s on !olonial and post2!olonial #omen's #ritin" pinpoints this3 A
Do$7le Coloni;ation +Petersen and B$ther%ord/0 Deminisms ha*e

had similar impa!ts on 7oth postmodern and post2!olonial !riti!ism0 The) ha*e redire!ted the $ni*ersalist 2 h$manist and li7eral2 dis!o$rses +see Larson/ in #hi!h 7oth are de7ated and !ir!$ms!ri7ed0 The) ha*e %or!ed a re!onsideration o% the nat$re o% the do$7l) !oloni;ed +7$t perhaps not )et do$7l) de2!oloni;ed/ s$7<e!t and its representations in art +see Donaldson/0 The !$rrent post2str$!t$ralist<postmodern !hallen"es to the !oherent( a$tonomo$s s$7<e!t ha*e to 7e p$t on hold in %eminist and post2!olonial dis!o$rses( %or 7oth m$st #or, 1rst to assert and a=rm a denied or alienated s$7<e!ti*it)3 those radi!al postmodern !hallen"es are in man) #a)s the l$5$r) o% the dominant order #hi!h !an a@ord to !hallen"e that #hi!h it se!$rel) possesses0 Despite this ma<or di@eren!e 7et#een the postmodern and the post2!olonial2 #hi!h %eminisms help to %ore"ro$nd and #hi!h
m$st al#a)s 7e ,ept in mind 2 there is still !onsidera7le o*erlap in their !on!erns3 %ormal( themati!( strate"i!0 This does not mean that the t#o !an 7e !on6ated $npro7lemati!all)( as man) !ommentators seem to s$""est +Pa!heE 4roller( Postmodernism E SIemon( Ma"i! /0 Dormal iss$es s$!h as #hat is !alled ma"i! realism( themati! !on!erns re"ardin" histor) and mar"inalit)( and dis!$rsi*e strate"ies li,e iron) and alle"or) are all shared 7) 7oth the postmodern and the post2!olonial( e*en i% the 1nal $ses to #hi!h ea!h is p$t ma) di@er +!%0 D$rin" -FG9( HIF/0 It is not a matter o% the post2!olonial 7e!omin" the postmodern( as one !riti! has s$""ested +Berr) HC-/( 7$t rather that the mani%estations o% their +di@erent( i% related/ !on!erns o%ten ta,e similar %ormsE %or e5ample( 7oth o%ten %ore"ro$nd te5t$al "aps 7$t their sites o% prod$!tion di@er3 there are those prod$!ed 7) the !olonial en!o$nter and those prod$!ed 7) the s)stem o% #ritin" itsel% +SIemon( Ma"i! C>/( and the) sho$ld not 7e !on%$sed0 The %ormal te!hni?$e o% ma"i! realism +#ith its !hara!teristi! mi5in" o% the %antasti! and the realist/ has 7een sin"led o$t 7) man) !riti!s as one o% the points o% !on<$n!tion o% postmodernism and post2!olonialism0 Its !hallen"es to "enre distin!tions and to the !on*entions o% realism are !ertainl) part o% the pro<e!t o% 7oth
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LINDA HUTCHEON
enterprises0 As Stephen SIemon has ar"$ed( $ntil re!entl) it has 7een $sed to appl) to Third :orld literat$res( espe!iall) Latin Ameri!an +see Dash/ and Cari77ean( 7$t no# is $sed more 7roadl) in other post2!olonial and !$lt$rall) mar"inali;ed !onte5ts to si"nal #or,s #hi!h en!ode #ithin themsel*es some resistan!e to the massi*e imperial !entre and its totali;in" s)stems +SIemon( Ma"i! IOE also Mon$ments /0 It has e*en 7een lin,ed #ith the ne# realism o% A%ri!an #ritin" +Irele 8>28 I/ #ith its emphasis
on the lo!ali;ed( politi!i;ed and( ine*ita7l)( the histori!i;ed0 Th$s it 7e!omes part o% the dialo"$e #ith histor) that 7oth postmodernism and post2!olonialism $nderta,e0 A%ter modernism's ahistori!al re<e!tion o% the 7$rden o% the past( postmodern art has so$"ht sel%2!ons!io$sl) +and o%ten e*en parodi!all)/ to re!onstr$!t its relationship to #hat !ame 7e%oreE similarl)( a%ter that imposition o% an imperial !$lt$re and that tr$n!ated indi"eno$s histor) #hi!h !olonialism has meant to man) nations( post2!olonial literat$res are also ne"otiatin" +o%ten parodi!all)/ the on!e t)ranni!al #ei"ht o% !olonial histor) in !on<$n!tion #ith the re*al$ed lo!al past0 The postmodern and the post2!olonial also !ome to"ether( as Dran, Da*e) has e5plained( 7e!a$se o% the predominant non2E$ropean interpretation o% modernism as an international mo*ement( elitist( imperialist( 'totali;in"(' #illin" to appropriate the lo!al #hile 7ein" !ondes!endin" to#ard its pra!ti!e +I -F/ 0 In postmodern response( to $se Canadian e5amples( Mar"aret At#ood re#rites the lo!al stor) o% S$sanna Moodie( B$d) :ie7e that o% Bi" Bear and Lo$is Biel( Aeor"e Bo#erin" that o% Aeor"e Jan!o$*er0 And in so doin"( all also mana"e to !ontest the dominant E$ro!entri! interpretation o% Canadian histor)0 Despite the Mar5ist *ie# o% the postmodern as ahistori!al 2 7e!a$se it ?$estions( rather than !on1rms( the pro!ess o% Histor) 2 %rom its roots in ar!hite!t$re on( postmodernism has 7een em7roiled in de7ates and dialo"$es #ith the past +see H$t!heon/0 This is #here it o*erlaps si"ni1!antl) #ith the post2!olonial +4roller( Politi!s
I C I/
#hi!h( 7) de1nition( in*ol*es a re!o"nition o% histori!al(
politi!al( and so!ial !ir!$mstan!es +Br)don 8/0 To sa) this is not to appropriate or re!$perate the post2!olonial into the postmodern( 7$t merel) to point to the !on<$n!tion o% !on!erns #hi!h has( I thin,( 7een the reason %or the po#er as m$!h as the pop$larit)
-9H
o% #riters s$!h as Salman B$shdie( Bo7ert 4roets!h( Aa7riel Aar!ia Mar?$e;( and so man) others0 At this themati! and str$!t$ral le*el( it is not <$st the relation to histor) that 7rin"s the t#o posts to"etherE there is also a stron" shared !on!ern #ith the notion o% mar"inali;ation( #ith the state o% #hat #e !o$ld !all e52!entri!it)0 In "rantin" *al$e to +#hat the !entre !alls/ the mar"in or the Other( the postmodern !hallen"es an) he"emoni! %or!e that pres$mes !entralit)( e*en as it a!,no#led"es that it !annot pri*ile"e the mar"in #itho$t a!,no#led"in" the po#er o% the !entre0 As Bi!, Sal$tin #rites( Canadians are not mar"inal 7e!a$se o% the ?$ir,iness o% o$r ideas or the inade?$a!) o% o$r ar"$ments( 7$t 7e!a$se o% the po#er o% those #ho de1ne the !entre +I/0 B$t he too admits that po#er0 The re"ionalism o% ma"i! realism and the lo!al and parti!$lar %o!$s o% postmodern art are 7oth #a)s o% !ontestin" not <$st this !entralit)( 7$t also !laims o% $ni*ersalit)0 Postmodernism has 7een !hara!teri;ed as that tho$"ht #hi!h re%$ses to t$rn the Other into the Same +D$rin" -FG8( HH/ and this is( o% !o$rse( #here its si"ni1!an!e %or post2!olonialism !omes in0 In Canada( it has 7een K$e7e!ois artists and !riti!s #ho ha*e em7ra!ed most readil) the rhetori! o% this post2!olonial li7eration 2 %rom Emile Bord$as in -F.G to Parti Pris in the si5ties0 Ho#e*er real this e5perien!e o% !oloni;ation is in K$e7e!( there is a histori!al dimension here that !annot 7e i"nored0 K$e7e! ma) ali"n itsel% politi!all) #ith %ran!ophone !olonies s$!h as Al"eria( T$nisia and Haiti +4roller( Politi!s
-C>/(
7$t there is a ma<or politi!al and histori!al di@eren!e3
the pre2!olonial histor) o% the Dren!h in K$e7e! #as an imperialist one0 As 7oth Leonard Cohen's Bea$ti%$l Losers and H$7ert A?$in's Tro$ de memoire point o$t( the Dren!h #ere the
1rst imperial %or!e in #hat is no# Canada and that too !annot 7e %or"otten 2 #itho$t ris,in" 7ad %aith0 This is not to den)( on!e a"ain( the *er) real sense o% !$lt$ral dispossession and so!ial alienation in K$e7e!( 7$t histor) !annot 7e !on*enientl) i"nored0 A related pro7lem is that postmodern notions o% di@eren!e and positi*el) *al$ed mar"inalit) !an themsel*es 7e $sed to repeat +in a more !o*ert #a)/ !oloni;in" strate"ies o% domination #hen $sed 7) Dirst :orld !riti!s dealin" #ith the Third :orld +see Cho# F
I ): the
pre!ise point at #hi!h interest and !on!ern 7e!ome im -9.
LINDA HUTCHEON
periali;in" appropriation is a hotl) !ontested one0 In addition some !riti!s( o% !o$rse( see postmodernism as itsel% the dominant( E$ro!entri!( nee2$ni*ersalist( imperial dis!o$rse +Br)don 9E Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8>28C/0 There are no eas) sol$tions to an) o% these iss$es raised 7) the perhaps $n!om%orta7le o*erlap o% iss$es 7et#een the postmodern and the post2!olonial( 7$t that in itsel% is no reason not to e5plore that pro7lemati! site o% intera!tion0 Besides the %ormal and themati! areas o% m$t$al !on!ern that I ha*e alread) mentioned( there is #hat !o$ld 7e !alled a strate"i! or rhetori!al one3 the $se o% the trope o% iron) as a do$7led or split dis!o$rse #hi!h has the potential to s$7*ert %rom #ithin0 Some ha*e seen this *alori;ation o% iron) as a si"n o% the in!reasin" p$r!hase o% post2str$!t$ral !odes o% re!o"nition in :estern so!iet) +Slemon( Post2Colonial -98/( 7$t post2str$!t$ralism !an also 7e seen as a prod$!t o% the lar"er !$lt$ral enterprise o% postmodernism +see H$t!heon/0 In either !ase( tho$"h( as a do$7letal,in"( %or,ed2ton"$ed mode o% address( iron) 7e!omes a pop$lar rhetori!al strate") %or #or,in" #ithin e5istin" dis!o$rses and !ontestin" them at the same time0 Its inherent semanti! and str$!t$ral do$7leness also ma,es it a most !on*enient trope %or the parado5i!al
d$alities o% 7oth postmodern !ompli!ito$s !riti?$e and post2!olonial do$7led identit) and histor)0 And indeed iron) +li,e alle"or)( a!!ordin" to SIemon/ has 7e!ome a po#er%$l s$7*ersi*e tool in the re2thin,in" and re2addressin" o% histor) 7) 7oth postmodern and post2!olonial artists0 Sin!e I #o$ld li,e to dis!$ss this point in more detail #ith parti!$lar re%eren!e to Canadian art( I m$st 1rst ma,e #hat mi"ht seem a di"ression( 7$t #hi!h is( I 7elie*e( !r$!ial3 one o% the lessons o% postmodernism is the need to respe!t the parti!$lar and the lo!al( and there%ore to treat Canada as a post2!olonial !o$ntr) seems to me to re?$ire some spe!i1!ation and e*en e5planation0 This is not to den) in an) #a) that Canada's histor) and #hat ha*e 7een !alled the ps)!holo"i!al e@e!ts o% a !olonial past +4eith H/ are not 7oth *er) real and *er) important0 Indeed( parts o% Canada( espe!iall) the :est( still %eel !oloni;ed +see Harrison C>GE Coole) -GC/0 It is almost a tr$ism to sa) that Canada as a nation has ne*er %elt !entral( !$lt$rall) or politi!all)E it has
-99
al#a)s %elt #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls a deep sense o% mar"inalit) 3

The Indian #riter( the Jamai!an( the Ni"erian( the Canadian and the A$stralian( ea!h one ,no#s #hat it is li,e to 7e a peripheral man #hose ho#l dissipates $nheard0 He ,no#s #hat it is to s$@er a7sol$te emotional and intelle!t$al de*al$ation( to die $n%$l1lled and still isolated %rom the #orld's !entre0 +M$,her<ee Blaise -9-/
B$t to sa) this is still not the same as e?$atin" the #hite Canadian e5perien!e o% !olonialism( and there%ore o% post2!olonialism( #ith that o% the :est Indies or A%ri!a or India0 Commentators are rather too ?$i!, to !all Canada a Third :orld +Sa$l 9H/ and there%ore post2!olonial !$lt$re +SIemon( Ma"i! ->/0 Let( the)
ha*e 7ehind them the #ei"ht o% the %amo$s prono$n!ement o% Mar"aret La$ren!e that Canadians are Third :orId #riters 7e!a$se the) ha*e had to 1nd &their' o#n *oi!es and #rite o$t o% #hat is tr$l) &theirs'( in the %a!e o% an o*er#helmin" !$lt$ral imperialism +-8/0 :hile this ma) 7e tr$e and #hile !ertainl) Canadian literar) models remained those o% Britain and more re!entl) o% Ameri!a +-G/( I !annot help %eelin" that there is somethin" in this that is 7oth tri*iali;in" o% the Third :orId e5perien!e and e5a""erated re"ardin" the +#hite/ Canadian0 O% !o$rse Canada #as politi!all) a !olon)E 7$t the !onse?$en!es %or #hite +not Nati*e/ #riters toda) o% that past are di@erent %rom those %or #riters in A%ri!a( India( or the Cari77ean0 The str$!t$ral domination o% Empire +see Starn and Spen!e H2./ 2 not to mention the ra!ial and !$lt$ral 2 di@ers !onsidera7l)( as e*en thin,in" a7o$t somethin" as o7*io$s as e!onomi! $nder2de*elopment +Dorsin*ille( Pa)s -9/ #o$ld s$""est0 As Helen Ti=n and Diana Br)don ha*e pointed o$t( there are di@erent t)pes o% !olonial !onditions e*en #ithin the British Empire0 On the one hand( in !o$ntries li,e A%ri!a and India( the !$lt$ral imposition asso!iated #ith !olonialism too, pla!e on the home"ro$nd o% the !oloni;ed people +Ti=n( Comparison and J$d"ement H I ; Br)don H/0 On the other hand( in !o$ntries li,e Canada( A$stralia( and Ne# Mealand( the En"lish lan"$a"e and !$lt$re #ere transpIanted +7) settlers( !on*iets( sla*emasters/ to a %orei"n territor) #here the indi"eno$s inha7itants #ere either annihilated or mar"inali;ed +Br)don H/0 Af Canada is an) e5-9I
LINDA HUTCHEON
ample( these settler !olonies meant the near destr$!tion o% the indi"eno$s !$lt$re +and people/3 it is one thin" to impose one !$lt$re $pon anotherE it is another thin" pra!ti!all) to #ipe o$t
#hat e5isted #hen the !oloni;ers appeared on the s!ene0 Drom this perspe!ti*e( it !o$ld 7e said that the British relation to the Nati*e peoples in Canada and their !$lt$re #as almost more destr$!ti*e than that relation o% imposition that too, pla!e in A%ri!a or India0 To rele"ate a !$lt$re to se!ondar) stat$s is not the same as ma,in" it ille"al0 B$t #hen Canadian !$lt$re is !alled post2!olonial toda) the re%eren!e is *er) rarel) to the Nati*e !$lt$re( #hi!h mi"ht 7e the more a!!$rate histori!al $se o% the term0 The !$lt$re re%erred to most %re?$entl) is the En"lish2lan"$a"e one o% the des!endants o% the #hole !olonial settlers0 +The %a!t that this is not ?$ite a!!$rate is important 2 "i*en Canada's pl$riethni!it) 2 7$t I #ill ret$rn to that later0/ Nati*e and Metis #riters are toda) demandin" a *oi!e +C$thandE Armstron"E Camp7ell/ and perhaps( "i*en their arti!$lations o% the dama"e to Indian !$lt$re and people done 7) the !oloni;ers +Dren!h and British/ and the pro!ess o% !oloni;ation( theirs sho$ld 7e !onsidered the resistin"( post2!olonial *oi!e o% Canada0 Or perhaps the 7est model is that o% Helen Ti=n3 the a7ori"inal #ritin" sho$ld 7e read as standin" in #hat Bi!hard Terdiman !alls a !o$nterdis!$rsi*e relation to the settler literat$re( <$st as that settler literat$re stands !o$nter2dis!$rsi*el) a"ainst the imperial !$lt$re +Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8HE Post2Colonial Literat$res C>/0 Ne*ertheless( there is still a di@eren!e in the de"ree and e*en ,ind o% !oloni;ation end$red0 As Coral Ann Ho#ells p$ts it3
Coloni;ation o% the prairie #as in the deepest sense a po#er str$""le 7et#een #hites and Indians o*er possession o% the land !ompli!ated 7) the !lash o% irre!on!ila7le *al$es( %or possession o% the land meant *er) di@erent thin"s to the t#o parties in !on6i!t0 In &B$d) :ie7e's no*el( The Temptations o%' Bi" Bear the pro!ess o% !oloni;ation is presented in pre!isel) these terms o% !$lt$ral
!lash and e*ent$al imperial domination0 To the #hites land o#nership meant e5!l$si*e possession o% the prairies thro$"h the si"nin" o% land treaties #ith the Indians #hi!h %ore*er e5tin"$ished( as the Prime Minister li,e &si!' to sa) it( all nati*e ri"hts 0000 Dor them land spelt e!onomi! and politi!al po#er( an e5tension o% the British Empire0 Dor the Indians ho#e*er the land #as li%e itsel%( ne!essar) to their ph)si!al( !$lt$ral and spirit$al s$r*i*al0 + -.F/
-98
This is not ?$ite the "eno!ide o% the Cari7s or Ara#a,s in the :est Indies( 7$t it is still somethin" #hi!h m$st 7e !onsidered #hen dealin" #ith the spe!i1!it) o% Canadian post2!olonialism +see Pons and Bo!ard on the Canadian Nati*e as an iss$e o% !oloni;ation/ 0 This important di@eren!e in the *ario$s histories o% !olonialism !an 7e seen !learl) i% #e e5tend e*en 7rie6) this !omparison o% the Canadian e5perien!e #ith that o% the :est Indies( #hi!h some also see as e5amples o% settler !olonies +altho$"h to others sla*er) or e5ile in !onditions o% 7onda"e &M!Donald 8GJ remains the dominant herita"e/0 Both the Cari77ean !o$ntries and Canada shared that E$ropean !oloni;ation #hi!h more or less e@e!ti*el) destro)ed !ertain Amerindian !$lt$res0 In :ilson Harris's #ords3 this a7ori"inal !on?$est e5ists li,e a r$in o% ps)!holo"i!al premises and 7iases in o$r midst +H/0 B$t Canada had no imported A%ri!an sla*e la7o$r and no indent$red #or,ers0 %rom India or China to repla!e them a%ter A7olition +tho$"h the $s$all) i"nored Chinese rail#a) #or,ers in Canada mi"ht 7e a !lose appro5imation/0 The ra!ial !omposition o% the t#o !o$ntries has there%ore 7een di@erent( and so too has 7een the di@erent ra!es' sense o% 7elon"in"0 Indent$red la7o$rers( $nli,e sla*es or settlers( #ere al#a)s !onsidered itinerantE the) ne*er 7elon"ed to #here the)
#or,ed and li*ed0 In the :est Indies( the %a!t that these Indian ser*ants #ere o%ten poor and !aste27o$nd !ontri7$ted to the ease #ith #hi!h their o#n !$lt$re !o$ld 7e s$ppressed0 :hile !$lt$rall) a h)7rid( li,e all post2!oloni;ed nations +Ti=n( PostColonial Literat$res -8/( Canada has e5perien!ed no a!t$al !reoli;ation #hi!h mi"ht ha*e !reated somethin" ne# o$t o% an adaptation pro!ess #ithin a split ra!ial !onte5t +see Brath#aite/ 0 :itho$t this ra!ial mi5in"( Canada's !olonial !$lt$re la!,ed some o% the sense o% a !i*ili;in" mission( 7$t still de1ned itsel% in terms o% *al$es #hi!h !an( toda)( 7e seen as British( #hite( middle2!lass( heterose5$al( and male( and it passed on these *al$es most o7*io$sl) in its ed$!ational s)stem0 In her no*el( Cat's E)e( Mar"aret At#ood o@ers a !hild's *ie# o% #hat #as learned in Canadian s!hools in the middle o% the t#entieth !ent$r)3
In !o$ntries that are not the British Empire( the) !$t o$t !hildren's ton"$es( espe!iall) those o% 7o)s0 Be%ore the British Empire there
158 LINDA HUTCHEON
#ere no railroads or postal ser*i!es in India( and A%ri!a #as %$ll o% tri7al #ar%are( #ith spears( and had no proper !lothin"0 The Indians in Canada did not ha*e the #heel or telephones( and ate the hearts o% their enemies in the heathenish 7elie% that it #o$ld "i*e them !o$ra"e0 The British Empire !han"ed all that0 It 7ro$"ht in ele!tri! li"hts0 (79) The iron) o% the !hild's perspe!ti*e $nderlines the politi!s o% !olonialism 2 in Canada and in the rest o% the Empire0 Sin"in" The Maple Lea% Dore*er( thin,in" it is the Canadian !ontent to 7alan!e sin"in" B$le Britannia( the )o$n" "irl noti!es that it too is reall) a7o$t En"land3 :ol%e( the da$ntless hero( !ame N and planted 1rm Britannia's 6a" N On Canada's %air domain (80) .
As Da*id Amason e5plains the histor) o% this neo2!olonialism( Canada #as settled 7) immi"rants #ho did not re"ard themsel*es as Canadians( 7$t as En"lishmen li*in" in a ne# land0 The sense o% histor) o% this 1rst "eneration o% immi"rants is the sense o% histor) o% the mother !o$ntr)( not o% Canada +9./0 As #riters( these immi"rants( not s$rprisin"l)( #rote in the tradition o% Britain at least $ntil the realit) o% the Canadian e5perien!e 7e"an to %or!e alterations in the inherited %orms0 The in6$5 o% British Lo)alists at the time o% the Ameri!an Be*ol$tion %$rther en%or!ed the *al$es o% Empire0 A!!ordin" to one *ie#( Lo)alist m)ths ha*e en!o$ra"ed $s Canadians to hono$r !olonial s)m7ols instead o% adoptin" o$r o#n( and to s$7stit$te %or nationalism a pe!$liar %orm o% !oattails imperialism0 Lo)alist m)th2ma,ers ha*e ne*er 7een a7le to ima"ine a Canada disentan"led %rom Britain0 Perhaps this is #h)( %or a lon" time a%ter Con%ederation( %e# Canadians !o$ld thin, o% Canada as a nation( and no lon"er as a mere !olon)0 +Bell and Tepperman 79) The nostal"ia %or the British Empire #hi!h #as in!$l!ated in At#ood's !hara!ter has its e!ho in another t)pi!al !$lt$ral iron) pointed o$t 7) Ar$n M$,her<ee3 the e?$estrian stat$e o% 4in" Aeor"e #hi!h sits in Toronto's aptl) named K$een's Par, #as 7ro$"ht to Canada %rom India a%ter the latter de!ided to dis!ard all *is$al reminders o% its !olonial masters +GG/0 This e5ample onl) !on1rms the lon" histor) o% !olonialism in Canada3 %rom the British North Ameri!a A!t +passed in :estminster( not Otta#a/
-9F
to the *er) re!ent repatriation o% the Constit$tion itsel%0 A%ter all( $ntil -F.8( Canadians #ere de1ned as British s$7<e!ts0 This perhaps lon"( seemin" di"ression is intended to ma,e the point that one !an !ertainl) tal, o% post2!olonialism in Canada(
7$t onl) i% the di@eren!es 7et#een its parti!$lar *ersion and that o%( espe!iall)( Third :orld nations is ,ept in mind0 T#o other distin!tions m$st 7e made( ho#e*er( #hi!h %$rther !ondition the $se o% the term in a Canadian !onte5t0 The 1rst is the pl$ri2ethni! +and latel) more m$ltira!ial/ nat$re o% Canadian so!iet)0 Some o% the immi"rants #ho pop$late this !o$ntr) are not %rom !oloni;ed so!ieties and the) o%ten !ons!io$sl) resist 7ein" la7elled post!olonial0 Dilippo Sal*atore( an Italian Canadian #riter li*in" in K$e7e! and #ritin" in Dren!h( states3 the de%eat o% the Plains o% A7raham and that o% the Patriotes in r837 did not lea*e indeli7le ps)!hi! s!ars on me0 Ps)!holo"i!all) I am not part o% a !oloni;ed people +C>H/0 Dor him and others( the immi"rant e5perien!e !an e*en 7e seen as a re*erse o% that o% !oloni;ation( a !ons!io$s de!ision to !han"e !$lt$re +Ca!!ia t I. / 0 B$t there are other immi"rants #ho do not share this element o% !hoi!e( #ho !ome to Canada %rom the :est Indies( Asia or Latin Ameri!a and see it as a ne!essaril) o!!$pied territor) 7e!a$se land #as denied some#here else +Da*ies 33). This is lar"el) non2E$ropean immi"ration( and the histori!al and politi!al !onte5ts o% post2!oloni;ation !annot $s$all) 7e i"nored( as the) mi"ht in an Italian or other E$ropean perspe!ti*e0 The spe!i1!it) o% Canadian post2!olonial !$lt$re toda) is 7ein" !onditioned 7) this arri*al o% immi"rants %rom other post2!olonial nations0 To 7e ed$!ated( as At#ood des!ri7ed( in a British2inspired s!hool s)stem in Canada is still di@erent %rom 7ein" so ed$!ated in Jamai!a( #here the s)stem is seen( 7) 7la!, #riters #ho #ere trained in it( as e*en more o7*io$sl) and pro$dl) "eared to#ards the needs o% the British e!onom) and as !learl) maintainin" the so!ial strati1!ation that deni"rates the li*in" lan"$a"e o% the people +Allen II/0 Immi"rants #ith this e5perien!e( #ho then !ome to Canada(
7rin" #ith them an e5tra2a!$te sense o% !olonialism #hieh is 7o$nd to !han"e the nat$re o% post2!olonialism in Canada itsel%0 :itness C)ril Da7)deen's poem( Sir James Do$"las( Dather o% British Col$m7ia( #hi!h opens #ith -I>
LINDA HUTCHEON
Lo$ #ere 7orn #here I #as 7orn0 Demerara's s$n in )o$r 7lood( A$iana's rain on )o$r s,in0 Lo$ !ame %rom Creole sto!, ta,in" a nati*e #i%e0 +.
I)
The A$)anese Canadian poet addresses Do$"las as part o% m) herita"e too N despite !olonialism0 The pie!e ends #ith the poet po$rin" +demerara/ s$"ar into his tea and thin,in" if )o$ #ere more S!ottish N I'd 7e less o% the tropi!s +.C/0 This is the do$7led sense o% post2!olonialism that is part o% some o% the #ritin" #e no# !all Canadian0 There is )et one other spe!i1! %a!tor o% Canadian e5perien!e #hi!h !annot 7e separated %rom the notion o% #hat post2!olonial means to it0 Dor )ears no# +see Morton
ISO/(
Canadians ha*e %elt
that the) are 7ein" !oloni;ed 7) Ameri!an !apital0 The $se o% the term !oloni;ation is not totall) metaphori!( %or Al7ert Memmi de1ned it as a7o*e all( e!onomi! and politi!al e5ploitation +-.F/( and there are man) Canadian e!onomi! nationalists #ho #o$ld !laim that this is pre!isel) #hat the United States is doin" to Canada0 E*en i% one does not a"ree #ith the e5tremit) o% s$!h an e*al$ation( it is still the !ase that Canadians o%ten %eel at least !$lt$rall) !oloni;ed 7) Ameri!an mass media0 The) also o%ten %eel someho# politi!all) threatened 7) the !onstant reminders o% the po#er and imperialist imp$lses o% o$r nei"h7o$r to the so$th +%or a !lassi! Canadian *ie# o% Ameri!an po#er( see Arant/ 0
And spea,in" the same lan"$a"e as 7oth the real histori!al !oloni;ers and the present2da) #o$ld27e !oloni;ers has !reated pro7lems %or Canadian #riters tr)in" to hear their o#n En"lish ton"$es +4roets!h I ; Ha7erl)/0 :ith these additional iss$es o% the o%ten do$7led post2!olonial %o!$s o% man) Canadians and the sensiti*it) to Ameri!an imperialism( the *er) $se o% the #ord post!olonial !annot help 7$t 7e a !omple5 iss$e in a Canadian !onte5t0 The %a!t that postmodernism is alternatel) !laimed as an in*ention o% either Latin Ameri!a or the United States (d. Ti=n( PostColonialism -8>/ is interestin" in this li"ht( %or it indire!tl) points to the interse!tion o% the !on!erns o% postmodernism and post!olonialism that interests me here0 Both terms( #hate*er their
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"eo"raphi! ori"ins( are tethered to earlier entities 2 !olonialism and modernism( respe!ti*el)0 Some Canadian artists ha*e addressed this do$7le tetherin"( most nota7l) photo"rapher Aeo@ Miles in his Dorei"n Belations3 Be2:<ritin" a Narrati*e in Parts0 A series o% te5ts and photo"raphi! ima"es a7o$t !olonial relations( this #or, o@ers a *ie# o% Canada( not as the Third :orld( 7$t !ertainl) also not as the Dirst0 An his !atalo"$e( Miles notes that to dis!$ss the photo"raph as a postmodern art o7<e!t in Canada is to do so #ithin the !on1nes o% !olonialism and the !olonisin" po#er o% the "a;e o% the other +s /0 Dor is it not tr$e that #e are in the $ni?$e position o% 7ein" !olonised 7) three "a;es all at on!eE that o% Dran!e( Britain( and the United States +C/0 Neither postmodernism nor post2!olonialism !an "o 7a!,#ardsE 7oth 7) de1nition !ontest the imperialist de*al$in" o% the other and the di@erent0 B$t Miles %eels that the dis!o$rse o% photo"raph) in Canada is still *er) m$!h !a$"ht #ithin the limits o% the !olonial
and the modernist0 B$t in a #a) this also des!ri7es an) post!olonial or postmodern art( inso%ar as 7oth +as the *er) semanti! !omposition o% the ad<e!ti*es s$""ests/ operate in terms o% that #hi!h the) oppose3 7oth !ontest %rom #ithin0 The ?$estion Miles as,s himsel% is one #hi!h has a n$m7er o% possi7le ans#ers3 Ho# do #e !onstr$!t a dis!o$rse #hi!h displa!es the e@e!ts o% the !olonisin" "a;e #hile #e are still $nder its in6$en!eO +H/0 These ans#ers in!l$de( as he notes( de!onstr$!tin" e5istin" m)ths #hi!h s$pport the dis!o$rses o% !olonialism +in!l$din" modernism/ and !onstr$!tin" di@erent ones to ta,e their pla!e0 The) #o$ld also in!l$de iron) 2 that strate"i! trope that allo#s a #or, to address a !$lt$re %rom #ithin( #hile still arti!$latin" some !hallen"e0 :hen I 7e"an this dis!$ssion o% iron) as a dis!$rsi*e strate") o% 7oth postmodernism and post2!olonialism( I s$""ested that( not $nli,e alle"or)( iron) is a trope o% do$7leness0 And do$7leness is #hat !hara!teri;es not <$st the !ompli!ito$s !riti?$e o% the postmodern( 7$t( 7) de1nition( the t#o%old *ision o% the post2!olonial 2 not <$st 7e!a$se o% the o7*io$s d$al histor) +Slemon( Ma"i! 15) 7$t 7e!a$se a sense o% d$alit) #as the mar, o% the !olonial as #ell0 Do$7leness and di@eren!e are esta7lished 7) !olonialism 7) its parado5i!al mo*e to en%or!e !$lt$ral sameness +JanMohamed
62) #hile( at the same time( prod$!in" di@erentiations and dis -IC
LINDA HUTCHEON
!riminations +Bha7ha( Si"ns -9H/0 This is the do$7leness o%ten represented in the metaphor o% Prospero and Cali7an +MannoniE Dorsin*ille( Cali7anE %or a !riti?$e o% this see Ba,er( espe!iall) -F>2FI( and Donaldson/0 At is the do$7leness o% the !olonial !$lt$re imposed $pon the !oloni;ed +Me)ers *ii/0 B$t it is also the do$7leness o% the !oloni;ed in relation to the !oloni;er( either as model or antithesis +Memmi -.>/0 As Ba)mond :illiams has
ar"$ed( ho#e*er( all national literat$res de*elop in this sort o% #a) 2 $p to a point3 %rom imitation o% a dominant pattern to assimilation or internali;ation o% it +see also Mar!ha, -GC/( 7$t then to a sta"e o% open re*olt #here #hat #as initiall) e5!l$ded 7) the dominant pattern "ets re*alori;ed +-C -2CG/0 Is the last one here the post2!olonial sta"e( as most !riti!s s$""estO Af so( then it !an still 7e ar"$ed that its re*olt !ontin$es to operate #ithin the po#er 1eld o% that dominant !$lt$re( no matter ho# radi!al its re*alori;ation o% its indi"eno$s !$lt$re +Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8C/0 This is #h) iron)( the trope that #or,s %rom #ithin a po#er 1eld 7$t still !ontests it( is a !onsistentl) $se%$l strate") %or post!olonial dis!o$rse0 Ne*ertheless( Homi Bha7ha has ar"$ed in a series o% in6$ential arti!les that iron) and mimi!r) are the modes o% the !olonialist( not the post2!olonial3 The dis!o$rse o% post2Enli"htenment En"lish !olonialism o%ten spea,s in a ton"$e that is %or,ed( not %alse and this( he %eels( is the strate") o% !olonial po#er and ,no#led"e + O% Mimi!r) -CI/0 Bha7ha sees iron) as appropriatin" the !oloni;ed Other( and impli!itl) there%ore as part o% the am7i*alen!e and h)7ridit) that !hara!teri;e the !olonial + Bepresentation FHE Si"ns -9.E The Other K$estion -G/ in #hat 7oth Ed#ard Said and Al7ert Memmi ha*e seen as its ines!apa7le and !omple5 m$t$al interrelations #ith the !oloni;ed0 In Memmi's #ords3 The 7ond 7et#een !oloni;er and !oloni;ed is th$s destr$!ti*e and !reati*e (89)' :itho$t den)in" an) o% this do$7leness o% the e5perien!e and literat$re o% !oloni;ation( it is still possi7le to see a di@erent and !onse?$ent do$7leness as !hara!teri;in" the post2!olonial3 #hat has 7een !alled its 7i!$lt$ral *ision +Parames#aran C.-/ or metaph)si!al !lash +Ti=n( Comparison and J$d"ement HCE see( too( Comparati*e Methodolo")
CF/0 And the #a) post2!olonial !riti!s tal, a7o$t this literat$re
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s$""ests the potential importan!e o% iron) as the s$7*ersi*e %or!e operatin" %rom #ithin3 the !hallen"e is to $se the e5istin" lan"$a"e( e*en if it is the *oi!e o% a dominant 'other' 2 and )et spea, thro$"h it3 to disr$pt 000 the !odes and %orms o% the dominant lan"$a"e in order to re!laim spee!h %or itsel% +Ne#( Dreams 5/0 Iron) is one #a) o% doin" pre!isel) this( a #a) o% resistin" and )et a!,no#led"in" the po#er o% the dominant0 At ma) not "o the ne5t step 2 to s$""est somethin" ne# 2 7$t it !ertainl) ma,es that step possi7le0 O%ten !om7ined #ith some sort o% sel%2re6e5i*it)( iron) allo#s a te5t to #or, #ithin the !onstraints o% the dominant #hile %ore"ro$ndin" those !onstraints as !onstraints and th$s $nderminin" their po#er0 On the le*el o% lan"$a"e( iron) 7e!omes one o% the !hie% !hara!teristi!so% #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls the step2mother ton"$e in #hi!h post2!olonial #riters #rite( impl)in" as it does the responsi7ilit)( a@e!tion( a!!ident( loss( and se!reti*e roots?$est in adopti*e2%amil) sit$ations +M$,her<ee Blaise -.8/0 Iron) is th$s one #a) o% !reati*el) modi%)in" +JanMohamed G.E Ne#( Ne# Lan"$a"e HIH/ or e*en t#istin" the lan"$a"e so as to si"nal the %orei"nness o% 7oth the $ser and herIhis e5perien!e0 :0 H0 Ne# has tra!ed( as one !ommon thread in Common#ealth literat$re( the sense o% iron)( the sense o% 7ein" !a$"ht 7et#een t#o #orlds3 Tho$"h d$alities a7o$nd in the ironist's #orld( the stan!es he ma) ta,e ran"e %rom parod) and inn$endo thro$"h sar!asm and sel%2dispara"ement to a7s$rdit) and nihilism0000 At its 7est( the ironi! stan!e pro*o,es a serio$s deli7eration into the pro7lems that led to d$alities in the 1rst pla!e +Ne#( Amon" :orlds H/0 This in*ol*es a re2*ie#in" o% !olonial and post!olonial
histor) thro$"h the do$7led lenses o% ironi! de%amiliari;ation3 in Canada( Cohen's Bea$ti%$l Losers remains perhaps the most po#er%$l e5ample o% this pro!ess0 The !ontradi!tions and hetero"eneo$s d$alities that ma,e $p the post2!olonial e5perien!e also resonate #ith the parado5es and m$ltipli!ities o% the postmodern and( in 7oth( iron) seems to 7e a pre%erred trope %or the arti!$lation o% that do$7leness0 The postmodern !hallen"es to h$manist $ni*ersals !ome to"ether #ith post2!olonial !ontestin"s pro*o,ed 7) statements li,e A0 #. M0 Smith's %amo$s *alori;ation o% those Canadian poets #ho made an e@ort to es!ape the limita-I.
LINDA HUTCHEON
tions o% pro*in!ialism or !olonialism 7) enterin" into the $ni*ersal !i*ili;in" !$lt$re o% ideas +55i*/0 S$!h
des!ription !an toda)
7e seen as p$re neo2!olonialism( loo,in" as it does to Arnoldian standards %or *alidation( standards #hi!h ha*e 7een ar"$ed to 7e an)thin" 7$t $ni*ersal 2 7$t rather the prod$!t o% spe!i1!all) nineteenth2!ent$r) British( middle2!lass( #hite( male *al$es +Belse)/ 0 Be!a$se iron) is also the trope o% the $nsaid( it 7e!omes as #ell a possi7le #a) to en!ode a s$7te5t #hi!h #ill de6e!t the ris,s o% &%'$ll *isi7ilit) and a!!essi7ilit) 000 &#hi!h' !onstit$te an inherent dan"er %or the !oloni;ed +:eir I-/0 As Lorraine :eir ar"$es( iron)
in the hands o% those #ho e5er!i;e "en$ine po#er is *er) di@erent %rom the same de*i!e in the hands o% those !lassi1ed as po#erless0 Amon" those #hose 7asi! !omm$ni!ation ma) %re?$entl) depend $pon the s,illed $se and re!eption o% ironi! $tteran!e 2 that is( amon" the po#erless 2 iron) #ill 7e all the more po#er%$l0 The Irish( as is !ommonl) ,no#n( are masters o% iron) and in*e!ti*eE so is the primar) !omm$nit) o% #omen0 +I8/
Joinin" #omen and the Irish here #o$ld 7e ironi! post2!olonial #riters as o7*io$s as Nara)an and B$shdie( ea!h in his di@erent #a)( and others perhaps less immediatel) o7*io$s3 B$th Pra#er Jha7*ala +see Aooneratne I928G/ or N"$"i and Ta)i7 Salih +Said 9./0 Iron) is the trope o% the redeplo)a7le and the re%ra!ted as #ell as simpl) o% the do$7le( 7$t do$7leness seems to pro*ide %ertile "ro$nd %or its $sa"e0 This ma,es Canada 2 as a post2!olonial nation +in the *er) spe!i1! sense o@ered a7o*e/ and as part o% a "eneral postmodern !$lt$re 2 ri!h terrain indeed3
Canada est omnis di*isa in partes d$o3 all Canada is di*ided into
t#o parts0 :e $sed to ha*e Upper and Lo#er Canada( 7$t( #ith the settlin" o% the plains 7e)ond Ontario( this di*ision is no# e5pressed as East and :est0 There's also North and So$th and lots o% di*isions not 7ased on "eo"raph)3 a politi!al di*ision 7et#een the Pro*in!ial and Dederal "o*ernmentsE an e!onomi! one 7et#een the ha*e and ha*e2not pro*in!esE a se!torial one 7et#een ind$strial re"ions and a"ri!$lt$ralE a lin"$isti! one 7et#een En"lish and Dren!h0 And so on0 +Pe!hter 291)
B$t the m$ltipli!it) o% these d$alities does not al#a)s ma,e the
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o%ten res$ltin" ironies eas) to interpret( %or these are %re?$entl) do$7le2dire!ted ironies0 Dor e5ample( James Beane)'s poem( The Bo)al Jisit +in Bar7o$r and S!o7ie 9G/( $ses repetition to si"nal iron)3 the repeated line that 7oth those in Strat%ord( Ontario( #ho #ere sli"hted 7) not 7ein" presenta7le and th$s presented to ro)alt) and those #ho did not mana"e to see the K$een 7e!a$se the train mo*ed too ?$i!,l) thro$"h the to#n #o$ld remem7er the e*ent to their d)in" da)0 B$t is the iron) dire!ted a"ainst !olonial ro)alists in CanadaO a"ainst an in!$l!ated neo2!olonial
mentalit)O a"ainst ro)alt) %or not !arin" eno$"h %or those #ho !ared %or themO or a"ainst all o% these sim$ltaneo$sl)O :hat a7o$t the s$7tle( sel%2reBatin" Canadian ironies o% Miriam :addin"ton's Ba!, at Lor, Uni*ersit) +C8-28C/ #here the narrator !on%ronts the d$al !oloni;ation o% Canadian !$lt$re3
I am #al,in" 7a!, to an En"lish !olon)( #at!h me !han"e into an Ameri!an aspiration( loo,( I'm #hisperin" into a Canadian ans#er27o5 000
B$t neither :addin"ton nor Beane) are $s$all) !onsidered postmodem #riters( and so it is hard to see %rom these passin" e5amples #here iron) a!t$all) mar,s the o*erlappin" o% !on!erns %or #hi!h I ha*e 7een ar"$in"0 B$t in order to sho# that( instead o% loo,in" to the #ritin" o% At#ood( Ondaat<e( 4roets!h or other #riters in Canada #ho are "enerall) seen as 7oth post2!olonialist and postmodem( I #o$ld li,e to !han"e media and in*esti"ate 7rie6) the interse!tion o% the post2!olonial #ith the postmodern in Canadian *is$al art and 1lm #hi!h are $s$all) la7elled as postmodern( 7$t #hi!h I thin, o$"ht to 7e *ie#ed in the li"ht o% post2!olonialism as #ell( espe!iall) in their $se o% iron) in the ne"otiation o% the aestheti! and histori!al herita"e #ithin #hi!h the) #or,0 Some Canadian artists do see themsel*es as #or,in" #ithin the 7o$nds o% a histori!all) determined !olonialism0 London artist Are" C$rnoe #rites3 the artists #ho are ori"inal( #ho 7rea, o$t o% the !olonial mode( are the ones #ho reall) a@e!t o$r !$lt$re 000 7e!a$se the) de*elop o$t o% their #hole 7a!,"ro$nd +?$oted in The7er"e -8/0 None o% Smith's $ni*ersalism %or C$rnoeP Post-II
LINDA HUTCHEON
!olonial art( he implies( #o$ld 7e that #hi!h deri*es dire!tl) %rom its o#n lo!al and parti!$lar sit$ation0 This too is a tenet o% postmodernism( o% !o$rse0 Another e5ample o% the ,ind o% artist #ho mi"ht 7e sim$ltaneo$sl) post2!olonial and postmodern is Charles Pa!hter0 Li,e man) other Canadians +s$!h as Mar"aret At#ood and Jo)!e :ieland/( Pa!hter's time in the United States seems to ha*e sharpened his sense o% #hat !onstit$tes 7oth the histori!al and !$rrent nat$re o% !olonialism in Canada0 His -F8C series o% paintin"s and prints on the theme o% K$een and Moose !hooses deli7eratel) pro*o!ati*e s$7<e!ts and %orms3 the K$een as the s)m7ol o% nostal"i! neo2!olonialism meets the Ur2!li!he o% the Canadian #ilderness e5perien!e0 His ironi! portra)als and sit$ations e5plode 7oth m)ths( or rather( he ma,es them implode $nder their o#n a!!$m$lated !$lt$ral #ei"ht0 The entire ?$estion o% Canadian identit) has 7e!ome a ,ind o% pla)"ro$nd 2 or 7attle1eld 2 %or the postmodern as #ell as the post2!olonial de1nin" o% di@eren!e and *al$e0 As La$ra M$l*e) has #ritten3
The ?$estion o% Canadian national identit) is politi!al in the most dire!t sense o% the #ord( and it 7rin"s the politi!al to"ether #ith the !$lt$ral and ideolo"i!al iss$es immediatel) and ine*ita7l)0 Dor the Canada delineated 7) m$ltinationals( international 1nan!e( U0S0 e!onomi! and politi!al imperialism( national identit) is a point o% resistan!e( de1nin" the 7order %orti1!ations a"ainst e5terior !olonial penetration0 Here nationalism !an per%orm the politi!al %$n!tion %amiliar in Third :orld !o$ntries0 +IO/
M$l*e) ar"$es that Aeo@ Miles's #or,( The rapperNs Pleas$re
o% the Te5t( de!onstr$!ts the Canadian identit) and red$!es it to

its male( An"lo2Sa5on and !apitalist de1nin" essen!es0 And it #o$ld seem to 7e iron) that tri""ers and e*en ena7les this de!onstr$!tion0
The title alone( #ith its in!on"r$o$s <$5taposition o% a #ell2,no#n #or, 7) Boland Barthes and the notion o% a trapper( sets $p the possi7ilit) %or iron)0 The trapper here is the ori"inal E$ropean( #hite( male tra*eller( e5ploitin" nat$re %or 1nan!ial "ain( #ho made !oloni;ation possi7le in Canada0 B$t in !on<$n!tion #ith the photo"raph +o% a street s!ene de*oid o% people e5!ept %or the shado# o% the photo"rapher/( the person #ho !apt$res the *is$al ima"e is also a trapper3 also a #hite male( he has <$st
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ret$rned %rom st$d)in" in En"landE he too e5ploits e5ternal realit) %or potential 1nan!ial "ain +i% he !an sell his photo"raphs/0 Li,e the trapper o% old( he not onl) !apt$res realit) 7$t 15es it and in that sense destro)s its li%e0 This too is a %orm o% metaphori! !oloni;ation( a ta,in" o*er thro$"h representations0 As M$l*e) #rites3 the metaphor ironi;es and parodies the #a) that photo"raphi! aestheti!s ha*e apotheosi;ed the de!isi*e moment +the ,ill/ and !onse?$entl) the 'Trapper' himsel% as hero +->/0 D$rther ironies res$lt %rom the te5t #hi!h a!!ompanies the *is$al ima"e3 one( positioned near the photo"rapher's shado#( reads Standin" a7o*e it all N he sensed the po#er N o% his position0 The pre)in" and the *o)e$risti! are !learl) not a7sent %rom this a#areness o% position0 On the other side( a#a) %rom the shado#( #e read3 The te5t needs its shado#P N This shado# is a 7it o% ideolo")( N a 7it o% representation( a 7it o% s$7<e!t0 And( o% !o$rse( 'a shado# !an( 7) de1nition( onl) e*er 7e a 7it o% a s$7<e!t and a 7it o% a representation0 :itho$t a shado#( that is( #itho$t a sel%re6e5i*el) re*elator) do$7lin"( the te5t is in dan"er o% repla!in" the photo"raph as a transparent realist medi$m pres$min" dire!t a!!ess to the real0 The deli7erate e!hoin" o% Barthes( %rom the title to these te5ts( also re!alls Barthes' o#n a$to7io"raphi!al and
!omple5 ironi! $se o% photo"raphs and te5t in 7oth Boland Barthes 7) Boland Barthes and Camera L$!ida3 Be6e!tions on Photo"raph)0 In Miles's #or, too( the *ie#er m$st respond a!ti*el) to de!ipher ironies and !onstr$!t meanin"s in the relation o% te5t to ima"e0 The post2!olonial Trapper and the postmodern Pleas$re o% the Te5t o*erlap #ithin the pro7lemati!s o% ironi! do$7leness0 The same d$alities or perhaps( more a!!$ratel)( the same $nre!on!iled and $nresol*ed !ontradi!tions that !hara!teri;e 7oth the postmodern and the post2!olonial !an 7e seen in Jo)!e :ieland's politi!al 1lm trilo")( Tr$e Patriot Lo*e( a title #hose e!ho o% > Canada immediatel) %ore"ro$nds the si"ni1!an!e o% her Canadianness to her e5ploration o% the interse!tion o% the aestheti! and the politi!al in these 1lms0 The 1rst( Bat Li%e and Diet in North Ameri!a( #as made #hen :ieland #as li*in" in Ne# Lor, in -FIG0 B$t it is also s$7tl) !on!erned #ith histori!al as #ell as !$rrent !olonialism( %or it is a lo*in" parod) o% Beatri5 Potter
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LINDA HUTCHEON
narrati*es0 It is a7o$t the re7ellion o% a "ro$p o% rats +a!t$all) "er7ils in the 1lm/ a"ainst the oppression o% Ne# Lor, and the Jietnam :ar0 These politi!al prisoners es!ape to Canada #here the) li*e on an or"ani! !o2op %arm0 Some !riti!s ha*e ar"$ed that this idealisti! and nai*e *ie# o% Canada sho#s :ieland to 7e remo*ed %rom the politi!al mainstream +Ma"idson and :ri"ht HF/( 7$t perhaps it depends on #hose politi!al mainstream0 :hat s$!h a *ie# misses are the ironies that perhaps onl) Canadians #o$ld noti!e3 ironies o% dis<$n!tion 7et#een the real and the ideal Canada( and ironies res$ltin" %rom the *ie# that( %or a Canadian( e*en a less than ideal Canada mi"ht 7e pre%era7le to the United States 2 a point Ameri!an !riti!s mi"ht 7e %or"i*en %or missin"0 The se!ond 1lm( Beason o*er Passion +-FI82IF/ is an ironi!
re#or,in" o% the !on*entions o% the tra*el do!$mentar)0 At portra)s the Canadian lands!ape as re!orded 7) a hand2held !amera thro$"h the #indo#s o% trains and !ars0 There are also %ree;e%rame pi!t$res o% the %a!e o% Pierre Tr$dea$( the man #ho $ttered the rationalist statement that "i*es :ieland her title0 This material is rephoto"raphed %rom a mo*iola to "et a "rain) e@e!t that sel%re6e5i*el) ser*es to introd$!e an immediatel) noti!ea7le *isi7le mediation 7et#een the re!ordin" and the re!orded0 The ima"es are a!!ompanied 7) a *ariet) o% ma!hine noises( a %emale *oi!e( and 9H8 printed perm$tations o% the title's letters( as sele!ted 7) reason's instr$ment 2 a !omp$ter0 This reappropriation o% the lands!ape o% Canada as the s$7<e!t o% art is a politi!al and !$lt$ral statement o% the *al$e o% the lo!al and the parti!$lar o*er the $ni*ersal and the eternal0 At is not( as some !riti!s ha*e s$""ested( a nostal"i! mo*e( 7$t a postmodern and post2!olonial !hallen"in" that 7oth !ontests nostal"ia and postmodernl) mi5es ele") #ith e5altation in the *ie#in" o% the land0 And it is the ironi! <$5taposition o% the title( the Tr$dea$ shots( and the so$ndtra!, #ith the lands!ape( as #ell as the sel%2re6e5i*e mode o% re!ordin"( that ma,es this do$7le !ontestin" possi7le0 The third 1lm( Pierre Jallieres( is the most o*ertl) politi!al( as its title s$""ests( %or it is a parod) o% the do!$mentar) portrait0 Its three parts lin, K$e7e! !oloni;ation and sear!h %or li7eration #ith that o% #omen0 The 15ed !amera %rames the K$e7e! re*ol$tionar) Jallieres's mo$th %rom #hi!h !ome the #ords #e hear3
-IF
thirt)2three min$tes o% monolo"$e #ith s$7titles0 A%ter a #hile the mo$sta!hed mo$th #ith its !roo,ed( dis!olo$red teeth "oes 7e)ond s$""estin" the parado5i!al re*ol$tionar) %ol, hero and #or,in"!lass *i!tim ima"ed as one +see Ba7ino*it;( Dilms -IG2IF/ to
impl) almost a ,ind o% se52in*erted( ironi! *a"ina dentata( the terror o% #hi!h in%orms the messa"es o% #omen's li7eration as #ell as K$e7e! de!oloni;ation in the so$ndtra!,0 Man) o% these same national and "ender ironies are pi!,ed $p in her -F8 I National Aaller) retrospe!ti*e( also !alled Tr$e Patriot Lo$e%Jerita7le Amo$r Patrioti?$e0 The entire sho# #as set $p to %eel li,e a !o$ntr) %air( perhaps in itsel% si"nallin" a %eminist s$7*ersion o% the honori1! retrospe!ti*e %ormat0 She e*en sold 7ottles o% a per%$me she !reated( !alled S#eet Bea*er3 The Per%$me o% Canadian Li7eration0 The 7ea*er as s#eet here s$""ests more than a nostal"i! lon"in" %or a Canadian #ilderness past +Ba7ino*it;( Iss$es .>/0 As a s)m7ol o% Canada( the 7ea*er is s#eet 7e!a$se it is 7oth pleas$ra7le and inno!ent( 7$t also 7e!a$se it #as an appealin" l$re to E$ropean %$r2traders and !oloni;ers( 1rst( and then to Ameri!an !apital0 As medie*alists also ,no# #ell( the 7ea*er +!astor/ has traditionall) in the :est represented a "entle +male/ 7east and the se!retions o% its s!ent "lands #ere !onsidered important to medi!ine 2 #hile ser*in" the 7ea*er as a mode o% se5$al attra!tion0 In *ario$s *ersions o% m)th( #hen h$nted( the 7ea*er is said to 7ite o@ its o#n testi!les +mista,en %or s!ent "lands/ and th$s es!ape #ith its li%e0 :ieland's Canadian 7ea*er ma) also 7e sel%2m$tilatin" 7$t sa%e( attra!tin" 7$t medi!inal0 The lin, 7et#een !astration and !astor is also an e*ident one( o@erin" another %orm o% sa%et)( this time %rom se5$al *i!es and sins0 B$t( as a n$m7er o% !riti!s ha*e noted( toda) this ima"e also !annot help !onnotin" porno"raphi! red$!tions o% #omen as #ell3 Canada's histor) as a land raped and !oloni;ed 7) En"land and then 7) the United States parallels #omen's histor) o% oppression +Ba7ino*it;( Iss$es .>/ 0 Moreo*er( 7) ironi!all)( i% indire!tl)( pointin" to the !apitalist and patriar!hal
representations o% #omen +in 7oth porno"raph) and in ad*ertisin" 2 she did ma,e the per%$me a !ommer!ial o7<e!t/( :ieland adds another le*el o% iron)3 per%$me here is the *er) %emininel) !oded medi$m that deli*ers a messa"e #hi!h de1es the tri*iali;a-8>
LINDA HUTCHEON
tion it seems to in*ite0 Per%$me has traditionall) 7een $sed to enhan!e #omen's se5$al attra!tion to men( 7$t here the s#eet l$re is loadedP The %eminist( the en*ironmentalist and the Canadian nationalist ironies here are at one and the same time postmodern and post2!olonial0 S$!h is also the !ase in Dast#iirms' installation( Dather Bre7e$%'s D$"$e State0 A!!ordin" to medi!al ps)!holo")( a %$"$e state is a state #herein a#areness o% identit) seems to disappear0 This #or, politi!i;es and histori!i;es2 and there7) ironi;es2 this term in relation to the spirit$al !on?$est o% North Ameri!a( #hi!h #as the 1rst step in the Dren!h !oloni;ation o% Canada's a7ori"inal peoples and the destr$!tion o% their identit)0 Usin" ind$strial materials to !reate postmodern ironi! in!on"r$ities in the representation o% histori!al o7<e!ts( this #or, s$""ests the <$5taposition o% the Jes$it missionaries' !oloni;in" ?$est #ith the resistan!e o% the Nati*e peoples( in!l$din" their tort$re o% Dather Jean de Bre7e$% in -I.F0 Tarpaper #alls and 6$ores!ent li"hts impli!itl) si"nal the loss and indeed the total destr$!tion o% one !$lt$re( the one !lose to nat$reE a !harred #ooden !ross s$""ests the s$r*i*al( despite man) trials( o% the other0 As one !ommentator des!ri7es another part o% the installation3 Heaped onto a pile o% !ons$mer ,its!h and <$n, "oods o% :estern !$lt$re are a %e# !o7s o% Indian !orn and a !omplete deer s,eleton( the le" 7ones o% #hi!h prop $p a 7ar7e!$e "rill topped #ith a stea, 2 the sta,e o% !oloni;ation +Dis!her -C/0 B$t it is also( most ironi!all) and horri1!all)( the
sta,e at #hi!h Bre7e$% #as 7$rned 2 or 7ar7e!$ed0 Let the !ross remains( ho#e*er !harred( and all that is le%t o% the Nati*e !$lt$re is 7ones0 This is the loss o% identit) s$""ested 7) the title's %$"$e state3 Bre7e$%'s loss o% the memor) o% the a!t o% !oloni;ation and its s$7se?$ent destr$!tion o% the identit) o% others0 The art o% Aeo@ Miles( Jo)!e :ieland and Dast#lirms( ea!h in its o#n #a)( !on%ronts the amnesia o% !olonialism thro$"h the memor) o% post2!olonialism0 And all three $se the dis!$rsi*e strate") o% iron) to $nderline the politi!al dimension o% that !on%rontation0 B$t in ea!h !ase( the !ontestin" is done %rom #ithin the dominant dis!o$rse( as ma) 7e ine*ita7le "i*en the str$!t$re o% the trope o% iron)0 The post2!olonial is there%ore as impli!ated in that #hi!h it !hallen"es as is the postmodern0 Criti?$e ma) al#a)s 7e
-8-
!ompli!ito$s #hen iron) is its primar) *ehi!le0 Dor this reason( I #o$ld disa"ree #ith one important part o% Simon D$rin"'s parti!$lar de1nition o% post2!olonialism as the need( in nations or "ro$ps #hi!h ha*e 7een *i!tims o% imperialism( to a!hie*e an identit) $n!ontaminated 7) $ni*ersalist or E$ro!entri! !on!epts and ima"es +-FG8( HH/0 Most post2!olonial !riti!s #o$ld oppose this as an essentialist( not to sa) simpli%)in"( de1nition( and I #o$ld ha*e to a"ree #ith them that the entire post2!olonial pro<e!t $s$all) posits pre!isel) the impossi7ilit) o% that identit) e*er 7ein" $n!ontaminated 3 <$st as the #ord post2!olonialism holds #ithin it its o#n !ontamination 7) !olonialism( so too does the !$lt$re itsel% and its *ario$s artisti! mani%estations( in Canada as else#here0 Colonies mi"ht #ell spea, $nre6e!tin"l)( as Dennis Lee has s$""ested +-IH/( 7$t the post2!olonial has at its disposal *ario$s #a)s o% s$7*ertin" %rom #ithin the dominant !$lt$re 2 s$!h as iron)( alle"or)( and sel%2re6e5i*it) 2 that it shares #ith the
!ompli!ito$s !riti?$e o% postmodernism( e*en i% its politi!s di@er in important #a)s0 I ret$rn to this last point on!e a"ain to emphasi;e the di@eren!e that the $se o% iron) 7) 7oth $nderlines0 The post2!olonial( li,e the %eminist( is a dismantlin" 7$t also !onstr$!ti*e politi!al enterprise inso%ar as it implies a theor) o% a"en!) and so!ial !han"e that the postmodern de!onstr$!ti*e imp$lse la!,s0 :hile 7oth post2 s $se iron)( the post2!olonial !annot stop at iron)( as Iha7 Hassan's e5position o% the trope's postmodern %eat$res in the end s$""ests3
I ron)0 This !o$ld also 7e !alled( a%ter 4enneth B$r,e( perspe!ti*ism0 In the a7sen!e o% a !ardinal prin!iple or paradi"m( #e t$rn to pla)( interpla)( dialo"$e( pol)lo"$e( alle"or)( sel%2re6e!tion2in short( to iron)0 This iron) ass$mes indetermina!)( m$lti*alen!eE it aspires to !larit)( the !larit) o% dem)sti1!ation( the p$re li"ht o% a7sen!e0 :e meet *ariants o% it in Ba,htin( B$r,e( de Man( Ja!?$es Derrida( and Ha)den :hite0 And in Alan :ilde #e see an e@ort to dis!riminate its modes3 'mediate iron)(' 'dis<$n!ti*e iron)(' and 'postmodern' or 's$spensi*e iron)' '#ith its )et more ra!ial *ision o% m$ltipli!it)( randomness( !ontin"en!)( and e*en a7s$rdit)0' Iron)( perspe!ti*ism( re6e5i*eness3 these e5press the inel$!ta7le re!reations o% mind in sear!h o% a tr$th that !ontin$all) el$des it( lea*in" it #ith onl) an ironi! a!!ess or e5!ess o% sel%2!ons!io$sness0 (5>I/
-8C
LINDA HUTCHEON
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-8H
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Dreams o% Spee!h and Jiolen!e3 The Art o% the Short Stor) in Canada
and Ne# Mealand0 Toronto3 U o% Toronto P( -FG80 OOO Ne# Lan"$a"e( Ne# :orld0 A#a,ened Cons!ien!e3 St$dies in Common#ealth Literat$re0 Ed0 C0 D0 Narasimhaiah0 Ne# Delhi3 Sterlin"( -F8G0HI>2880 Pa!he( :alter0 'The Di!tion Ma,es Us Beal'3 Aspe!ts o% Postmodernism in
Canada0 Aainin" Aro$nd3 E$ropean Criti!s on Canadian Literat$re0 Ed0 Bo7ert 4roets!h and Bein"ard H0 Nis!hi,0 Edmonton3 Ne:est P( -FG90 I.28G0 Parames#aran( Uma( Amid the Alien Corn3 Bi!$lt$ralism and the Challen"e o% Common#ealth Literar) Criti!ism0 :orld Literat$re :ritten in En"lish C-0- +-FGC/3 C.>29H0 Pe!hter( Ed#ard0 O% Ants and Arasshoppers3 T#o :a)s +or More/ to Lin, Te5ts and Po#er0 Poeti!s Toda) F0C +-FGG/3 CF-2H>I0 Petersen( 4irsten Holst and Anna B$ther%ord( eds0 A Do$7le Coloni;ation3 Colonial and Post2Colonial :omen's :ritin"0 M$ndelstr$p( Denmar,3 Dan"aroo P( -FGI0
-89
Pi*ato( Joseph( ed0 Contrasts3 Comparati*e Essa)s on Italian Canadian :ritin"0 Montreal3 A$erni!a( )*G90 Ba7ino*it;( La$ren0 Iss$es o% Deminist Aestheti!s3 J$d) Chi!a"o and Jo)!e :ieland0 :omen's Art Jo$rnal -0C +I "G>2G-/3 HG2.-0 OOOOO. The Dilms o% Jo)!e :ieland0 Jo)!e :ieland0 Toronto3 AAOE 4e) Porter Boo,s( I"G80 --82C>( -I-28F0 Said( Ed#ard :0 Intelle!t$als in the Post2Colonial :orld0 Salma"$ndi 8>28 I +I "GI/3 ..2I.0 Sal$tin( Bi!,0 Mar"inal Notes3 Challen"es to the Mainstream0 Toronto3 Lester and Orpen Denn)s( I FG.0 Sal*atore( Dilippo0 The Italian :riter o% K$e7e!3 Lan"$a"e( C$lt$re and Politi!s0 Trans0 Da*id Homel0 Pi*ato -G"2C>I0 Sa$l( John Balston0 :e Are Not A$thors o% the Post2No*el No*el0 Bri!, +:inter I"GG/3 9C29.0 S!ott( D0 B0 and A0 J0 M0 Smith( eds0 The Blasted Pine3 An Antholo") o% Satire( In*e!ti*e and Disrespe!t%$l Jerse0 Be*0 ed0 Toronto3 Ma!millan( -FI8R SIemon( Stephen0 Ma"i! Bealism as Post2Colonial Dis!o$rse0 Canadian Literat$re --I +l"GG/3 F2CH0 OOOOO Mon$ments o% Empire3
AllQ"or)NCo$nter2Dis!o$rseNPost2Colonial
:ritin"0 4$napipi F0H +l"G8/3 -2-I0 OOOO Post2Colonial Alle"or) and the Trans%ormation o% Histor)0 Jo$rnal
o% 0Common#ealth Literat$re CH0 I +I "GG/3 -982IG0 Smith( A0
J. M0( ed0 The O5%ord Boo, o% Canadian Jerse in En"lish and
Dren!h0 Toronto3 O5%ord UP( I"I>0 Spi*a,( Aa)atri Cha,ra*ort)0 In Other :orlds3 Essa)s in C$lt$ral Politi!s0 Ne# Lor, and London3 Bo$tled"e( I"GG0 Starn( Bo7ert and Lo$ise Spen!e0 Colonialism( Ba!ism( and Bepresentation0 S!reen C.0C +I FGH/3 C2C>0 The7er"e( Pierre0 Are" C$rnoe0 Otta#a3 National Aaller) o% Canada( I"GC0 Ti=n( Helen0 Common#ealth Literat$re and Comparati*e Methodolo")0 :orld Literat$re :ritten in En"lish CH0 I +l"G./3 CI2H>0 OOOO Common#ealth Literat$re3 Comparison and J$d"ement0 The Histor) and Historio"raph) o% Common#ealth Literat$re0 Ed0 Dieter Biemens!hneider0 Tti7in"en 3 A$nter Nan( -FGH0 -F2H90 OOOO Post2Colonial Literat$res and Co$nter2Dis!o$rse0 4$napipi F0H +-FG8/3 -82H.0 OOOO00 Post2Colonialism( Post2Modernism and the Beha7ilitation o% PostColonial Histor)0 Jo$rnal o% Common#ealth Literat$re CH0- +l"GG/3 -IF2G -0 :addin"ton( Miriam0 Colle!ted Poems0 Toronto3 O5%ord UP( I"GI0 :eir( Lorraine0 To#ard a Deminist Hermene$ti!s3 Ja) Ma!pherson's :el!omin" Disaster0 A)no!riti!s3 Deminist Approa!hes to Canadian and K$e7e! :omen's :ritin"NA)no!riti?$es3 Demar!hes %eministes a l'e!rit$re des Canadiennes et K$e7e!oises0 Ed0 Bar7ara Aodard0 Toronto3 EC: P( -FG809F28T0 :ieland( Jo)!e( dir0 Bat Li%e and Diet in North Ameri!a0 -FIG0
OOOOdir( Beason O*er Passion0 -FI82IF0
OOOOdir0 Pierre Jallieres0 I "8C0 :illiams( Ba)mond0 Mar5ism and Literat$re0 O5%ord3 O5%ord UP( I"880
-$inpoint the most significant lin,s that Hutcheon establishes between postmodernism and feminism( /ntroduction
0o much of contemporary critical theory alienates the uninitiated and e/asperates even the most determined reader. Bnd postmodern commentaries, which promise to unloc the mysteries of the movement, oCen ma e be?er doorstops or co#ee-coasters than easy entries into the twisted and lugubrious passageways of postmodernist thought. (ontemporary feminist theory has not always been free from this tendency either. Linda .utcheon, one of the most respected and renown of (anada"s theorists, has long been nown to dismiss this proclivity with an easy shrug of the shoulders. .er e/tensive writings, both on postmodernity and feminism, provide lucid and succinct analyses of the most slippery of topics -- parody, irony, aesthetics -- and do not stop there. In each wor she adds her own valuable insights from her bac ground in literature, her interest in art and architecture, and her understanding of contemporary philosophy. 3ith such a diverse bac ground it is oCen diDcult to characteri9e her wor with a single title. 0he is nown by many to be a !cultural theorist! or !literary critic!, by others as a !feminist!= some thin of her as an !art critic!, while she is oCen seen to be !a specialist in (anadian literature!= others still, thin of her as a !philosopher! in her own right. Ef course, it is li ely true that she is all of these things, and more. 3hat is not disputed is that her writings are always engaging, dynamic, and above all else, proli4c. Linda .utcheon is Professor of 'nglish and (omparative Literature, at the Fniversity of 7oronto. .er theoretical wor s include A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction= The Politics of Postmodernism= Narcissistic Narrative: the eta!ctional Parado" = A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of T#entieth$%entury Art Forms= The %anadian Postmodern: A &tudy of %ontemporary 'nglish$%anadian Fiction= &pli(ng Images: %ontemporary %anadian Ironies= and most recently )pera: *esire, *isease, *eath with %ichael .utcheon.
+ou have recently co$authored a ,oo- #hich e"amines the aesthetic and erotic representation of disease in the heroines from various operas. /hat did your study uncover a,out the construction $$ or in your #ords 0mythifying0 $$ of gender, desire and illness1 +ou also note the relation ,et#een the 23th century scienti!c understanding of disease and its su,se4uent gendered representation in art. Have you noted similar contemporary parallels1 7he research I did with my *physician- husband on the cultural construction of women and disease in opera was a real eye-opener for me, I must confess. Li e everyone else, whenever anyone mentioned disease in the conte/t of opera, I thought of Puccini"s %imi in 5a 6oh7me or Gerdi"s Giole?a in 5a Traviata8 because of the strength of the stereotype, I imagined that there were all inds of other such consumptive operatic heroines. 3ell, there aren"t. 7here are only a few more. 7his is what prompted us to study the reasons for the power of this stereotype and, thereby, to e/amine the cultural meanings given to diseases and those who have them.
Bs you might imagine, our wor was also provo ed by the fact that we have all been watching the cultural construction of meaning of a new medical condition -- BIH0. 3e discovered that the representations in the media and in art of this syndrome have played out the history of many other illnesses -- from the plague *it was called the !gay plague! in the early @65Is- to syphilis *as a se/ually transmi?ed disease-. 3e have all watched the press and television ma e the di#erentiation between !innocent! and other victims --thereby passing a moral 2udgment, while apparently dealing with a medical issue. 7his slippage isn"t new, of course8 the history of disease and its representation in art *thin of leprosy in earlier periods- is a history of social and moral values as much as medical information. In )pera: *esire, *isease, *eath *@66J-, we loo ed at moments in medical history when ma2or scienti4c changes occurred in the understanding of a disease -- for instance, @55+, when &obert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus, and taught us that tuberculosis was not something you inherited as a ma?er of familial disposition, but was something you could catch from someone else. 3e then studied how this medical information made its way into the art forms of the day8 5a 6oh7me *@56J-, with its insistence on urban poverty and the hero"s fear of contagion *he leaves %imi aCer she has a bad night of coughing-, is a post-Koch opera, though its romantici9ing of the consumptive heroine -- in all her pale and feverish beauty and desirability -- is a continuation from the earlier construction of women with the disease. I noted #ith great interest that your de!nition of postmodernism *in 7he Politics of Postmodernism- states that this movement, particularly its a9ention to di:erence and marginality, has ,een signi!cantly shaped ,y feminism. ost commentators $$ those compiling the anthologies and encyclopedias $$ have stated the opposite: that feminism is the direct result of a ,urgeoning postmodernism. This may seem a trivial o,servation $$ the ,eginnings of a 0chic-en and egg0 argument $$ ,ut it may also ,e indicative of the proclivity of academic te"ts to consign feminist #riters to the sidelines, the happy cheerleaders of the postmodern movement. %y sense has always been that there were certain important social movements in the @6JIs *and before- that made the postmodern possible8 the women"s movement *though, of course, the movement e/isted much earlier, but this wave of it in the @6JIs was crucial- and, in Lorth Bmerica, the civil rights movement. 0uddenly gender and racial di#erences were on the table for discussion. Ence that happened, !di#erence! became the focus of much thin ing -- from newer issues of se/ual choice and postcolonial history to more familiar ones such as religion and class. I thin feminisms *in the plural- were important for articulating early on the variety of political positions possible within the umbrella term of gender -- from liberal humanist to cultural materialist. Feminist discussions !comple/-i4ed! 1uestions of identity and di#erence almost from the start, and raised those upseMng *but, of course, productive- issues of social and cultural marginality. /hy have so many feminist artists and theorists resisted the lure of postmodernism1
In part, it has been because the early constructions of the postmodern were resolutely male *and that"s one of the reasons I chose to write on the sub2ect-8 male writers, artists and theorists were for a long time in the foreground. 0ometimes this was a real blind-spot= sometimes it was what we might call a form of gender-caution8 people were afraid, because of that resistance of feminists, to label women writers or theorists as postmodern. 7his was, in part, because, women were indeed resisting such labeling, sometimes out of a worry that the political agenda of their feminisms would be subsumed under the !apolitical! aesthetici9ing label of postmodernism. But it depends on whose de4nition of the postmodern we are tal ing about. I happen to thin that postmodernism is political, but not in a way that is of much use, in the long run, to feminisms8 it does challenge dominant discourses *usually through selfconsciousness and parody-, but it also re-instates those very discourses in the act of challenging them. 7o put it another way, postmodernism does deconstruct, but doesn"t really reconstruct. Lo feminist is happy with that ind of potential 1uietism, even if she *or heapproves of the deconstructing impulse8 you simply can"t stop there. 7his important issue of agency has become central not only to feminism, of course, but to !1ueer theory! and to postcolonial theory. +ou have noted in your theoretical #or- ;and a,ove< that feminism has ta-en a variety of forms in di:erent cultures, and you prefer to spea- of 0feminisms0 in your te"ts rather than a single feminist movement. uch is no# ,eing #ri9en on the distinct forms of feminism emerging from countries li-e Italy, France, India, 6ritain and America. Is there a distinctly %anadian ;Anglo and French< feminism1 Bs a feminist who has been in>uenced by postmodern thin ing -- with its challenging of universals and its stress on the local and particular -- I can"t help believing that (anadian feminism is di#erent8 our social situation as women in (anada is di#erent even from that of women in Britain or the F.0. -- because of legal as well as cultural di#erences -- and our intellectual conte/t is, for historical reasons, perhaps more of a hybrid than most *though obviously related to that of post-colonial nations-. Framed geographically and historically between two ma2or anglophone empires *past and present-, (anada has e/perienced an odd amalgam of British and Bmerican in>uences and both have played their role in shaping our intellectual heritage. 3hen you add the Nu)bec conte/t, with its strong lin s to French feminism -- the hybridity increases. 7he mi/ of the Bnglo-Bmerican activist strain with the more theoretical 'uropean focus has been fruiOul, I thin , for (anadian feminists. uch of your #or- has focused on or included representations of 0the feminine0 in literature and other art forms. In an early #or- *7he (anadian Postmodern- you suggest a shared pa9ern of irony and parody in te"ts ,y #omen #riters generally and %anadian !ction. /hat motivates this similarity1
%arginali9ation -- in a word. Pust as women have traditionally been positioned on the fringes of male culture, so (anadians oCen feel as if they are watching the action *be it Bmerican or 'uropean- from the sidelines. Faced with a strong colonial heritage that conditions its response to Britain *and France, but in a di#erent way- and confronted with an even stronger cultural power to the south of us in the F0B, (anadians have oCen turned to irony to position themselves *self-deprecatingly- or to contest the strength of those dominant cultural forces of history or of the current situation. I wrote a boo called &pli(ng Images: %ontemporary %anadian Ironies to try to e/plain my sense of the pervasiveness of parody and irony as a (anadian response to marginali9ation *oCen self-marginali9ation, I should say-. +ou have placed parody at the centre of your descriptions of postmodern art, music, architecture and literature. Is this also, in your vie#, the de!ning feature of contemporary feminist #or-1 Qes, if you stress !a! *and not !the!- de4ning feature. It seems to me that, li e (anadians, women are oCen in the position of de4ning themselves BRBIL07 a dominant culture or discourse. Ene way to do that, a way with great subversive potential, is to spea the language of the dominant *which allows you to be heard-, but then to subvert it through ironic strategies of e/aggeration, understatement, or literali9ation. Parody is the mode that allows you to mimic that speech, but to do so through re-conte/tuali9ing it and therefore without subscribing to its implied ideals and values. 3omen writers *witness Pane Busten- have nown of this transgressive power of parody for a long time. %en too create parodies, of course, but interestingly the most cogent and forceful of these lately have oCen been produced from the point of view of marginali9ed men who position themselves by se/ual choice as gay *such as the (anadian photographer nown as 'vergon- or by "nationality" as postcolonial *such as 0alman &ushdie, to pic a controversial e/ample-. But women writers today -- from Peane?e 3interson and Bngela (arter to %argaret Btwood and Bnn-%arie %acHonald -- have certainly put parody to e/cellent political use. +our te"ts on irony and parody, and your #or- on postmodernism and feminism are all ,ursting #ith e"amples from a varied mi"ture of art forms: performance art, architecture, television, literature, movies, opera and pop music. It is not uncommon to encounter in your #riting e"amples from &ha-espeare, 5aurie Anderson and /ayne=s /orld interspersed to illustrate the same theoretical point. In addition to mi"ing 0high0 and 0lo#0 art forms, your theoretical assertions arise directly from concrete e"amples. Is this a conscious methodology on your part1 And does it arise from your position as a female academic, as a feminist, as a %anadian1 This is a rare treat #hen so much of the theoretical #or-s produced today o:er as proof for their conclusions #ise #ords from other critics or philosophers, producing a -ind of insular and incestuous argument.
I guess I"ve always believed that theory had to be theori9ing -- in the sense that you had to theori9e from something and that something should be as broad as possible in its de4nition. Bny theory of irony and parody that only wor ed for literature, for instance, was *for mean inade1uate theory not worthy of its name. 0o, I chose to wor from e/amples from visual art or music or 4lm and try to understand how irony, for instance, wor ed -- how it came to !happen! for people in viewing or hearing these te/ts. 7eaching has taught me that popular cultural e/amples can be very helpful in e/plaining comple/ theoretical ideas. But, when wor ing on the postmodern, it became crucial -- because of the postmodern blurring of the boundaries between art forms, between high and popular art -- to deal with that variety in theori9ing this cultural phenomenon. I tried to model it from the 4rst relatively uncontested usage of the term -- in architecture -- and then loo ed to other art forms, from the novel to photography and 4lm with similar manifestations. 7his strategy also allowed me to bring in the wor of women writers and artists who had LE7 been seen as postmodern *for some of the reasons outlined above-, but who clearly had used techni1ues similar to those used by male postmodern writers -- but with an added political, contestatory edge. I"m thin ing of people li e Bngela (arter or Barbara Kruger. 0o, I suppose, my feminist interests also condition why I theori9e in the way I do.
-)o you agree with Hutcheon*s ideas on the three main topics of her respective articles? -ubstantiate your answer with arguments ta,en from them( ) agree that (ostmodern is ahistorical, because history is a cultural issue. ) also agree that istory and fiction are discourses. ) also agree with that /)maginative reconstruction1 is the focus of postdmodernism, which she calls /historiographic metafiction1.
The Post Al#ays >ings T#ice
-)iscuss Hutcheon*s contentions concerning the problemati+ing of history in the postmodern conte"t( Postmodernism Anne Friedberg: conservative/subversive politics, return/revolt of tradition, unmooring/reassertion of patriarchy. Jean-Francois Lyotard: a state of incredulity towards metanarratives. Jurgen albermas: a set of smaller and multiple narratives which do not see! "or obtain# any universali$ing stabili$ation or legitimi$ation. %ichard %orry almost overblown sense of the role of philosophy &ouble encoding as complicity and criti'ue (ostmodernism has no theori$ed agency. )t has no strategies of real resistance because it cannot.
-$inpoint the most significant lin,s that Hutcheon establishes between postmodernism and feminism( Postmodernism & Feminism *riti'ue of metanarrative shared %esist to incorporate to (ostmodernism because of the danger of their political agendas. Feminism goes beyond (ostmodernism in changing the systems. Feminism doesn+t e,plain the crisis outside of patriarchal ideology, as (ostmodernism does " umanism, istory, %eligion, (rogress, etc.# (ostmodernist re-ection of a privileged position as ideological as feminism. Feminism uses postmodern parodic strategies of deconstruction, but no suffering from confusion of political agenda. (ostmodernism coincides with Feminism in re-evaluation of non-canonical forms of narrative discourse. .oth challenge Literature, and what was considered as seamless, unified narrative of representations of sub-ectivity in life-writing. (ostmodernism only can un-do, but cannot do something else. Feminism had urged postmodernism to reconsider its anti-metanarrative challenges to /0an1 and have /undone1 the separation of the private and the public, personal and political. (ostmodernism parodic and ironic representational strategies have offered feminist artists an effective way of wor!ing within and challenging dominant patriarchal metanarrative discourses. 2he differences between feminism and postmodernism are clear. Feminism is a politics. (ost-modernism is not.
-)o you agree with Hutcheon*s ideas on the three main topics of her respective articles? -ubstantiate your answer with arguments ta,en from them( I agree in that Feminism goes beyond Postmodernism because Feminism is more active from the political point of view with demonstrations and protests all around the world, not only in Literature, as Postcolonialism does. Both re-evaluate the canon, but feminism has a more oriented political agenda.
Postmodern
-)iscuss Hutcheon*s contentions concerning the problemati+ing of history in the postmodern conte"t( L)3&A 42* 563 is very careful to distinguish between postmodernity and postmodernism. 2he former she understands to mean 7the designation of a social and philosophical period or +condition+7 " Politics 89#, specifically the period or 7condition7 in which we now live. 2he latter she associates with cultural e,pressions of various sorts, including 7architecture, literature, photography, film, painting, video, dance, music7 "Politics :# and so on. )ndeed, utcheon diagnoses as one reason why critics have been led to such disparate opinions about the 7postmodern7 is because of the conflation of these two disparate if associated domains "socio-historical on the one hand, aesthetic on the other hand#. .y distinguishing between the two domains, utcheon offers a criti'ue of Fredric Jameson+s influential attac! against the postmodern: 72he slippage from postmodernity to postmodernism is constant and deliberate in Jameson+s wor!: for him postmodernism is the +cultural logic of late capitalism+7 "Politics 8;#. Jameson thus sees postmodern art and theory as merely reinforcing the many things he finds distressing in postmodern culture, particularly the conditions of multinational latecapitalism. utcheon does not deny that postmodernity and postmodernism are 7ine,tricably related7 "Politics 8<#= however, she wants to maintain the possibility that postmodernism+s cultural wor!s could be successful in achieving a critical distance from the problems of our contemporary age. 6n the whole, she agrees with other critics regarding the elements that ma!e up the postmodern condition: a world dominated by the logic of capitalism, which has no regard for the rights of oppressed laborers or the ravagement of the natural world= a society increasingly under the scrutiny of government agencies that insist on casting their disciplining ga$e ever deeper into our private lives= an increasing reliance on technologies that separate us from other people and the natural world, thus feeding into our sense of atomism and unease= an emphasis on flat, spatial representations "screens, statistics, ads# that serve to sever us from our former sense of temporality and history= and a culture increasingly dominated by simulacra "computer images, commercial advertising, ollywood ideali$ations, commercial mass reproduction, televisuality, and technological replications of all stripes#, thus contributing to our sense of separation from the real.
>here utcheon departs from critics of postmodernity is by underscoring the ways that postmodern cultural wor!s engage in effective political criti'ues of the postmodern world around us: 7criti'ue is as important as complicity in the response of cultural postmodernism to the philosophical and socio-economic realities of postmodernity: postmodernism here is not so much what Jameson sees as a systemic form of capitalism as the name given to cultural practices which ac!nowledge their inevitable implication in capitalism, without relin'uishing the power or will to intervene critically in it7 " Politics 8?#. utcheon therefore e,plores a wide variety of wor!s from various genres and media to illustrate how the cultural wor!s of postmodernism effect their criti'ue of the present. @ome of those strategies postmodernism borrows from modernism, in particular its self-consciousness and self-refle,ivity, as well as its 'uestioning of such 5nlightenment values as progress, science, and empire or such nineteenth-century values as bourgeois domesticity, capitalism, utilitarianism, and industry. "@ee the )ntroduction to (ostmodernism for an outlining of the differences and similarities between modernism and postmodernism.# owever, utcheon argues that postmodernism does differ from modernism in important ways and that it is this difference from the modernist pro-ect that e,emplifies the critical potential of postmodern cultural wor!. For one, utcheon p oints out that postmodern wor s tends to be critical of !modernism"s elitist and sometimes almost totalitarian modes of e#ecting... "radical change"$from those of %ies van der &ohe to those of Pound and 'liot, not to mention ()line! * Politics +,-. .utcheon points out how modernists pursued radical change without ac nowledging the price that must be paid by the more e/tremist positions assumed by modernist authors *e.g., fascism, futurism, primitivism, anarchism, etc.-. 0he also 1uestions how e#ective elitist modernist pro2ects could ever be as political criti1ue.
If there is one thing that especially distinguishes postmodernism from modernism, according to .utcheon, it is postmodernism"s relation to mass culture. 3hereas modernism !de4ned itself through the e/clusion of mass culture and was driven, by its fear of contamination by the consumer culture burgeoning around it, into an elitist and e/clusive view of aesthetic formalism and the autonomy of art! * Politics +5-, postmodern wor s are not afraid to renegotiate !the di#erent possible relations *of complicity and criti1ue- between high and popular forms of culture! *Politics +5-. In The Politics of Postmodernism, she gives postmodern photography as a perfect e/ample, since it !moves out of the hermeticism and narcissism that is always possible in self-referentiality and into the cultural and social world, a world bombarded daily with photographic images! * Politics +6-. 7hose contemporary wor s that are particularly autonomous and auto-referential .utcheon tends to call !late modernist! *Politics +,- rather than postmodernist because, as she argues, !7hese formalist e/tremes are precisely what are called into 1uestion by the historical and social grounding of postmodern 4ction and photography! *Politics +,-. 7he other techni1ues that .utcheon associates with postmodern cultural wor s include8 the de-naturali9ation of the natural *i.e. a refusal to present !what is really constructed meaning as something inherent in that which is being represented! :Politics ;6<-= the 1uestioning of the distinction between 4ction and history *thus subscribing to the poststructuralist contention that so-called !ob2ective! history is, in fact, 2ust as a#ected by generic and ideological constructs or the arti4cial structures of narrative form as is 4ction-= note a re2ection of grand narratives *in favor of what Lyotard terms petits rcits or small narratives$ multiple and even contradictory histories rather than !.istory!-= an ac nowledgement of the present"s in>uence on our nowledge of the past *for e/ample, the e#ect of present-day historical narration on the supposedly !ob2ective! past-= a recognition of our reliance on te/tuality *documents, wri?en histories, etc.- and on the limited perspectives of individuals in understanding the past or even any event in the present= the de-naturali9ation of gender and se/ *feminisms !have made postmodernism thin , not 2ust about the body, but about the female body= not 2ust about the female body, but about its desires$and about both as socially and historically constructed through representation! : Politics @;A<-. Blong with the brea down between high and low cultural forms, the most important strategy that for .utcheon distinguishes postmodern aesthetic wor s from modernist wor s is parody. *0ee the ne/t .utcheon module on parody-. 7ogether such strategies allow postmodern wor s to maintain a continual and e#ective criti1ue of postmodernity without, at the same time, ever falling prey to the belief that one can ever completely escape complicity with the ideologies that determine our sense of reality in the postmodern condition.
-.omment on the relationship that Hutcheon establishes between the postmodern and the postcolonial(
"Circling the Downspout of Empire": Post-&olonialism and Postmodernism

LINDA HUTCHEON
/4 SUBJECT %" Daphne
Marlatt's phrase !ir!lin" the do#nspo$t
o% Empire is &C'anadians( and she is not alone in seein" Canada as still !a$"ht $p in the ma!hinations o% Empire and !olon)( imperial metropolis and pro*in!ial hinterland +see Mon,
-./0 Ir*in" La)ton on!e de1ned An"lo2Canadian in these

terms3
A nati*e o% 4in"ston( Ont( 2 t#o "randparents Canadian and still li*in" His !omple5ion 6orid as a maple lea% in late a$t$mn( %or three )ears he attended O5%ord No# his a!!ent ma,es e*en En"lishmen #in!e( and %eel $nspea,a7l) !olonial0 +S!ott and Smith 89/
:hate*er tr$th there ma) 7e in these a!!$sations o% neo2!olonialism( there are man) others #ho are !omin" to pre%er to tal, a7o$t Canada in terms o% post2!olonialism( and to pla!e it in the !onte5t o% other nations #ith #hi!h it shares the e5perien!e o% !oloni;ation0 In m$!h re!ent !riti!ism( this !onte5t has also !ome to o*erlap #ith that o% postmodernism0 Pres$ma7l)( it is not <$st a matter o% the !ommon pre15 or o% the !ontemporaneit) o% the t#o enterprises0
In literar) !riti!al !ir!les( de7ates ra"e a7o$t #hether the post2!olonial is the postmodern or #hether it is its *er) antithesis +see Ti=n( Post2Colonialism /0
-9>
LINDA HUTCHEON
Part o% the pro7lem in de!idin" #hi!h !amp to 7elon" to is that in man) o% these de7ates the term postmodernism is rarel) de1ned pre!isel) eno$"h to 7e more than a s)non)m %or toda)'s m$ltinationalist !apitalist #orld at lar"e0 B$t it !an ha*e a more pre!ise meanin"0 The ar!hite!t$re #hi!h 1rst "a*e aestheti! %orms the la7el postmodern is( interestin"l)( 7oth a !riti?$e o% Hi"h Modern ar!hite!t$re +#ith its p$rist ahistori!al em7ra!in" o% #hat( in e@e!t( #as the modernit) o% !apitalism/ and a tri7$te to its te!hnolo"i!al and material ad*an!es0 E5tendin" this de1nition to other art %orms( postmodern !o$ld then 7e $sed( 7) analo")( to des!ri7e art #hi!h is parado5i!all) 7oth sel%2re6e5i*e +a7o$t its te!hni?$e and material/ and )et "ro$nded in histori!al and politi!al a!t$alit)0 The 1!tion o% #riters li,e 4. L0 Do!toro#( Araham S#i%t( Salman B$shdie( Mi!hael Ondaat<e( Toni Morrison( and An"ela Carter mi"ht pro*ide e5amples0 I ha*e deli7eratel) in!l$ded here #riters #ho #o$ld 7e !ate"ori;ed 7) others as either post2!olonial or %eminist in pre%eren!e to the la7el postmodem0 :hile I #ant to ar"$e here that the lin,s 7et#een the post2!olonial and the postmodem are stron" and !lear ones( I also #ant to $nderline %rom the start the ma<or di@eren!e( a di@eren!e post!olonial art and !riti!ism share #ith *ario$s %orms o% %eminism0 Both ha*e distin!t politi!al a"endas and o%ten a theor) o% a"en!) that allo# them to "o 7e)ond the postmodem limits o% de!onstr$!tin" e5istin" orthodo5ies into the realms o% so!ial and politi!al a!tion0 :hile it is tr$e that post2!olonial literat$re( %or e5ample( is also ine*ita7l) impli!ated and( in Helen Ti=n's #ords( in%ormed
7) the imperial *ision + Post2Colonialism -8C/( it still possesses a stron" politi!al moti*ation that is intrinsi! to its oppositionalit)0 Ho#e*er( as !an 7e seen 7) its re!$peration +and re<e!tion/ 7) 7oth the Bi"ht and the Le%t( postmodemism is politi!all) am7i*alent3 its !riti?$e !oe5ists #ith an e?$all) real and e?$all) po#er%$l !ompli!it) #ith the !$lt$ral dominants #ithin #hi!h it ines!apa7l) e5ists0 Those !$lt$ral dominants( ho#e*er( are shared 7) all three %or!es0 As Aa)atri Spi*a, notes3 There is an a=nit) 7et#een the imperialist s$7<e!t and the s$7<e!t o% h$manism +C>C/0 :hile post2!olonialism ta,es the 1rst as its o7<e!t o% !riti?$e and postmodernism ta,es the se!ond( %eminists point to the patriar!hal
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$nderpinnin"s o% 7oth0 The title o% a re!ent 7oo, o% essa)s on !olonial and post2!olonial #omen's #ritin" pinpoints this3 A
Do$7le Coloni;ation +Petersen and B$ther%ord/0 Deminisms ha*e

had similar impa!ts on 7oth postmodern and post2!olonial !riti!ism0 The) ha*e redire!ted the $ni*ersalist 2 h$manist and li7eral2 dis!o$rses +see Larson/ in #hi!h 7oth are de7ated and !ir!$ms!ri7ed0 The) ha*e %or!ed a re!onsideration o% the nat$re o% the do$7l) !oloni;ed +7$t perhaps not )et do$7l) de2!oloni;ed/ s$7<e!t and its representations in art +see Donaldson/0 The !$rrent post2str$!t$ralist<postmodern !hallen"es to the !oherent( a$tonomo$s s$7<e!t ha*e to 7e p$t on hold in %eminist and post2!olonial dis!o$rses( %or 7oth m$st #or, 1rst to assert and a=rm a denied or alienated s$7<e!ti*it)3 those radi!al postmodern !hallen"es are in man) #a)s the l$5$r) o% the dominant order #hi!h !an a@ord to !hallen"e that #hi!h it se!$rel) possesses0 Despite this ma<or di@eren!e 7et#een the postmodern and the post2!olonial2 #hi!h %eminisms help to %ore"ro$nd and #hi!h
m$st al#a)s 7e ,ept in mind 2 there is still !onsidera7le o*erlap in their !on!erns3 %ormal( themati!( strate"i!0 This does not mean that the t#o !an 7e !on6ated $npro7lemati!all)( as man) !ommentators seem to s$""est +Pa!heE 4roller( Postmodernism E SIemon( Ma"i! /0 Dormal iss$es s$!h as #hat is !alled ma"i! realism( themati! !on!erns re"ardin" histor) and mar"inalit)( and dis!$rsi*e strate"ies li,e iron) and alle"or) are all shared 7) 7oth the postmodern and the post2!olonial( e*en i% the 1nal $ses to #hi!h ea!h is p$t ma) di@er +!%0 D$rin" -FG9( HIF/0 It is not a matter o% the post2!olonial 7e!omin" the postmodern( as one !riti! has s$""ested +Berr) HC-/( 7$t rather that the mani%estations o% their +di@erent( i% related/ !on!erns o%ten ta,e similar %ormsE %or e5ample( 7oth o%ten %ore"ro$nd te5t$al "aps 7$t their sites o% prod$!tion di@er3 there are those prod$!ed 7) the !olonial en!o$nter and those prod$!ed 7) the s)stem o% #ritin" itsel% +SIemon( Ma"i! C>/( and the) sho$ld not 7e !on%$sed0 The %ormal te!hni?$e o% ma"i! realism +#ith its !hara!teristi! mi5in" o% the %antasti! and the realist/ has 7een sin"led o$t 7) man) !riti!s as one o% the points o% !on<$n!tion o% postmodernism and post2!olonialism0 Its !hallen"es to "enre distin!tions and to the !on*entions o% realism are !ertainl) part o% the pro<e!t o% 7oth
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LINDA HUTCHEON
enterprises0 As Stephen SIemon has ar"$ed( $ntil re!entl) it has 7een $sed to appl) to Third :orld literat$res( espe!iall) Latin Ameri!an +see Dash/ and Cari77ean( 7$t no# is $sed more 7roadl) in other post2!olonial and !$lt$rall) mar"inali;ed !onte5ts to si"nal #or,s #hi!h en!ode #ithin themsel*es some resistan!e to the massi*e imperial !entre and its totali;in" s)stems +SIemon( Ma"i! IOE also Mon$ments /0 It has e*en 7een lin,ed #ith the ne# realism o% A%ri!an #ritin" +Irele 8>28 I/ #ith its emphasis
on the lo!ali;ed( politi!i;ed and( ine*ita7l)( the histori!i;ed0 Th$s it 7e!omes part o% the dialo"$e #ith histor) that 7oth postmodernism and post2!olonialism $nderta,e0 A%ter modernism's ahistori!al re<e!tion o% the 7$rden o% the past( postmodern art has so$"ht sel%2!ons!io$sl) +and o%ten e*en parodi!all)/ to re!onstr$!t its relationship to #hat !ame 7e%oreE similarl)( a%ter that imposition o% an imperial !$lt$re and that tr$n!ated indi"eno$s histor) #hi!h !olonialism has meant to man) nations( post2!olonial literat$res are also ne"otiatin" +o%ten parodi!all)/ the on!e t)ranni!al #ei"ht o% !olonial histor) in !on<$n!tion #ith the re*al$ed lo!al past0 The postmodern and the post2!olonial also !ome to"ether( as Dran, Da*e) has e5plained( 7e!a$se o% the predominant non2E$ropean interpretation o% modernism as an international mo*ement( elitist( imperialist( 'totali;in"(' #illin" to appropriate the lo!al #hile 7ein" !ondes!endin" to#ard its pra!ti!e +I -F/ 0 In postmodern response( to $se Canadian e5amples( Mar"aret At#ood re#rites the lo!al stor) o% S$sanna Moodie( B$d) :ie7e that o% Bi" Bear and Lo$is Biel( Aeor"e Bo#erin" that o% Aeor"e Jan!o$*er0 And in so doin"( all also mana"e to !ontest the dominant E$ro!entri! interpretation o% Canadian histor)0 Despite the Mar5ist *ie# o% the postmodern as ahistori!al 2 7e!a$se it ?$estions( rather than !on1rms( the pro!ess o% Histor) 2 %rom its roots in ar!hite!t$re on( postmodernism has 7een em7roiled in de7ates and dialo"$es #ith the past +see H$t!heon/0 This is #here it o*erlaps si"ni1!antl) #ith the post2!olonial +4roller( Politi!s
I C I/
#hi!h( 7) de1nition( in*ol*es a re!o"nition o% histori!al(
politi!al( and so!ial !ir!$mstan!es +Br)don 8/0 To sa) this is not to appropriate or re!$perate the post2!olonial into the postmodern( 7$t merel) to point to the !on<$n!tion o% !on!erns #hi!h has( I thin,( 7een the reason %or the po#er as m$!h as the pop$larit)
-9H
o% #riters s$!h as Salman B$shdie( Bo7ert 4roets!h( Aa7riel Aar!ia Mar?$e;( and so man) others0 At this themati! and str$!t$ral le*el( it is not <$st the relation to histor) that 7rin"s the t#o posts to"etherE there is also a stron" shared !on!ern #ith the notion o% mar"inali;ation( #ith the state o% #hat #e !o$ld !all e52!entri!it)0 In "rantin" *al$e to +#hat the !entre !alls/ the mar"in or the Other( the postmodern !hallen"es an) he"emoni! %or!e that pres$mes !entralit)( e*en as it a!,no#led"es that it !annot pri*ile"e the mar"in #itho$t a!,no#led"in" the po#er o% the !entre0 As Bi!, Sal$tin #rites( Canadians are not mar"inal 7e!a$se o% the ?$ir,iness o% o$r ideas or the inade?$a!) o% o$r ar"$ments( 7$t 7e!a$se o% the po#er o% those #ho de1ne the !entre +I/0 B$t he too admits that po#er0 The re"ionalism o% ma"i! realism and the lo!al and parti!$lar %o!$s o% postmodern art are 7oth #a)s o% !ontestin" not <$st this !entralit)( 7$t also !laims o% $ni*ersalit)0 Postmodernism has 7een !hara!teri;ed as that tho$"ht #hi!h re%$ses to t$rn the Other into the Same +D$rin" -FG8( HH/ and this is( o% !o$rse( #here its si"ni1!an!e %or post2!olonialism !omes in0 In Canada( it has 7een K$e7e!ois artists and !riti!s #ho ha*e em7ra!ed most readil) the rhetori! o% this post2!olonial li7eration 2 %rom Emile Bord$as in -F.G to Parti Pris in the si5ties0 Ho#e*er real this e5perien!e o% !oloni;ation is in K$e7e!( there is a histori!al dimension here that !annot 7e i"nored0 K$e7e! ma) ali"n itsel% politi!all) #ith %ran!ophone !olonies s$!h as Al"eria( T$nisia and Haiti +4roller( Politi!s
-C>/(
7$t there is a ma<or politi!al and histori!al di@eren!e3
the pre2!olonial histor) o% the Dren!h in K$e7e! #as an imperialist one0 As 7oth Leonard Cohen's Bea$ti%$l Losers and H$7ert A?$in's Tro$ de memoire point o$t( the Dren!h #ere the
1rst imperial %or!e in #hat is no# Canada and that too !annot 7e %or"otten 2 #itho$t ris,in" 7ad %aith0 This is not to den)( on!e a"ain( the *er) real sense o% !$lt$ral dispossession and so!ial alienation in K$e7e!( 7$t histor) !annot 7e !on*enientl) i"nored0 A related pro7lem is that postmodern notions o% di@eren!e and positi*el) *al$ed mar"inalit) !an themsel*es 7e $sed to repeat +in a more !o*ert #a)/ !oloni;in" strate"ies o% domination #hen $sed 7) Dirst :orld !riti!s dealin" #ith the Third :orld +see Cho# F
I ): the
pre!ise point at #hi!h interest and !on!ern 7e!ome im -9.
LINDA HUTCHEON
periali;in" appropriation is a hotl) !ontested one0 In addition some !riti!s( o% !o$rse( see postmodernism as itsel% the dominant( E$ro!entri!( nee2$ni*ersalist( imperial dis!o$rse +Br)don 9E Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8>28C/0 There are no eas) sol$tions to an) o% these iss$es raised 7) the perhaps $n!om%orta7le o*erlap o% iss$es 7et#een the postmodern and the post2!olonial( 7$t that in itsel% is no reason not to e5plore that pro7lemati! site o% intera!tion0 Besides the %ormal and themati! areas o% m$t$al !on!ern that I ha*e alread) mentioned( there is #hat !o$ld 7e !alled a strate"i! or rhetori!al one3 the $se o% the trope o% iron) as a do$7led or split dis!o$rse #hi!h has the potential to s$7*ert %rom #ithin0 Some ha*e seen this *alori;ation o% iron) as a si"n o% the in!reasin" p$r!hase o% post2str$!t$ral !odes o% re!o"nition in :estern so!iet) +Slemon( Post2Colonial -98/( 7$t post2str$!t$ralism !an also 7e seen as a prod$!t o% the lar"er !$lt$ral enterprise o% postmodernism +see H$t!heon/0 In either !ase( tho$"h( as a do$7letal,in"( %or,ed2ton"$ed mode o% address( iron) 7e!omes a pop$lar rhetori!al strate") %or #or,in" #ithin e5istin" dis!o$rses and !ontestin" them at the same time0 Its inherent semanti! and str$!t$ral do$7leness also ma,es it a most !on*enient trope %or the parado5i!al
d$alities o% 7oth postmodern !ompli!ito$s !riti?$e and post2!olonial do$7led identit) and histor)0 And indeed iron) +li,e alle"or)( a!!ordin" to SIemon/ has 7e!ome a po#er%$l s$7*ersi*e tool in the re2thin,in" and re2addressin" o% histor) 7) 7oth postmodern and post2!olonial artists0 Sin!e I #o$ld li,e to dis!$ss this point in more detail #ith parti!$lar re%eren!e to Canadian art( I m$st 1rst ma,e #hat mi"ht seem a di"ression( 7$t #hi!h is( I 7elie*e( !r$!ial3 one o% the lessons o% postmodernism is the need to respe!t the parti!$lar and the lo!al( and there%ore to treat Canada as a post2!olonial !o$ntr) seems to me to re?$ire some spe!i1!ation and e*en e5planation0 This is not to den) in an) #a) that Canada's histor) and #hat ha*e 7een !alled the ps)!holo"i!al e@e!ts o% a !olonial past +4eith H/ are not 7oth *er) real and *er) important0 Indeed( parts o% Canada( espe!iall) the :est( still %eel !oloni;ed +see Harrison C>GE Coole) -GC/0 It is almost a tr$ism to sa) that Canada as a nation has ne*er %elt !entral( !$lt$rall) or politi!all)E it has
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al#a)s %elt #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls a deep sense o% mar"inalit) 3

The Indian #riter( the Jamai!an( the Ni"erian( the Canadian and the A$stralian( ea!h one ,no#s #hat it is li,e to 7e a peripheral man #hose ho#l dissipates $nheard0 He ,no#s #hat it is to s$@er a7sol$te emotional and intelle!t$al de*al$ation( to die $n%$l1lled and still isolated %rom the #orld's !entre0 +M$,her<ee Blaise -9-/
B$t to sa) this is still not the same as e?$atin" the #hite Canadian e5perien!e o% !olonialism( and there%ore o% post2!olonialism( #ith that o% the :est Indies or A%ri!a or India0 Commentators are rather too ?$i!, to !all Canada a Third :orld +Sa$l 9H/ and there%ore post2!olonial !$lt$re +SIemon( Ma"i! ->/0 Let( the)
ha*e 7ehind them the #ei"ht o% the %amo$s prono$n!ement o% Mar"aret La$ren!e that Canadians are Third :orId #riters 7e!a$se the) ha*e had to 1nd &their' o#n *oi!es and #rite o$t o% #hat is tr$l) &theirs'( in the %a!e o% an o*er#helmin" !$lt$ral imperialism +-8/0 :hile this ma) 7e tr$e and #hile !ertainl) Canadian literar) models remained those o% Britain and more re!entl) o% Ameri!a +-G/( I !annot help %eelin" that there is somethin" in this that is 7oth tri*iali;in" o% the Third :orId e5perien!e and e5a""erated re"ardin" the +#hite/ Canadian0 O% !o$rse Canada #as politi!all) a !olon)E 7$t the !onse?$en!es %or #hite +not Nati*e/ #riters toda) o% that past are di@erent %rom those %or #riters in A%ri!a( India( or the Cari77ean0 The str$!t$ral domination o% Empire +see Starn and Spen!e H2./ 2 not to mention the ra!ial and !$lt$ral 2 di@ers !onsidera7l)( as e*en thin,in" a7o$t somethin" as o7*io$s as e!onomi! $nder2de*elopment +Dorsin*ille( Pa)s -9/ #o$ld s$""est0 As Helen Ti=n and Diana Br)don ha*e pointed o$t( there are di@erent t)pes o% !olonial !onditions e*en #ithin the British Empire0 On the one hand( in !o$ntries li,e A%ri!a and India( the !$lt$ral imposition asso!iated #ith !olonialism too, pla!e on the home"ro$nd o% the !oloni;ed people +Ti=n( Comparison and J$d"ement H I ; Br)don H/0 On the other hand( in !o$ntries li,e Canada( A$stralia( and Ne# Mealand( the En"lish lan"$a"e and !$lt$re #ere transpIanted +7) settlers( !on*iets( sla*emasters/ to a %orei"n territor) #here the indi"eno$s inha7itants #ere either annihilated or mar"inali;ed +Br)don H/0 Af Canada is an) e5-9I
LINDA HUTCHEON
ample( these settler !olonies meant the near destr$!tion o% the indi"eno$s !$lt$re +and people/3 it is one thin" to impose one !$lt$re $pon anotherE it is another thin" pra!ti!all) to #ipe o$t
#hat e5isted #hen the !oloni;ers appeared on the s!ene0 Drom this perspe!ti*e( it !o$ld 7e said that the British relation to the Nati*e peoples in Canada and their !$lt$re #as almost more destr$!ti*e than that relation o% imposition that too, pla!e in A%ri!a or India0 To rele"ate a !$lt$re to se!ondar) stat$s is not the same as ma,in" it ille"al0 B$t #hen Canadian !$lt$re is !alled post2!olonial toda) the re%eren!e is *er) rarel) to the Nati*e !$lt$re( #hi!h mi"ht 7e the more a!!$rate histori!al $se o% the term0 The !$lt$re re%erred to most %re?$entl) is the En"lish2lan"$a"e one o% the des!endants o% the #hole !olonial settlers0 +The %a!t that this is not ?$ite a!!$rate is important 2 "i*en Canada's pl$riethni!it) 2 7$t I #ill ret$rn to that later0/ Nati*e and Metis #riters are toda) demandin" a *oi!e +C$thandE Armstron"E Camp7ell/ and perhaps( "i*en their arti!$lations o% the dama"e to Indian !$lt$re and people done 7) the !oloni;ers +Dren!h and British/ and the pro!ess o% !oloni;ation( theirs sho$ld 7e !onsidered the resistin"( post2!olonial *oi!e o% Canada0 Or perhaps the 7est model is that o% Helen Ti=n3 the a7ori"inal #ritin" sho$ld 7e read as standin" in #hat Bi!hard Terdiman !alls a !o$nterdis!$rsi*e relation to the settler literat$re( <$st as that settler literat$re stands !o$nter2dis!$rsi*el) a"ainst the imperial !$lt$re +Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8HE Post2Colonial Literat$res C>/0 Ne*ertheless( there is still a di@eren!e in the de"ree and e*en ,ind o% !oloni;ation end$red0 As Coral Ann Ho#ells p$ts it3
Coloni;ation o% the prairie #as in the deepest sense a po#er str$""le 7et#een #hites and Indians o*er possession o% the land !ompli!ated 7) the !lash o% irre!on!ila7le *al$es( %or possession o% the land meant *er) di@erent thin"s to the t#o parties in !on6i!t0 In &B$d) :ie7e's no*el( The Temptations o%' Bi" Bear the pro!ess o% !oloni;ation is presented in pre!isel) these terms o% !$lt$ral
!lash and e*ent$al imperial domination0 To the #hites land o#nership meant e5!l$si*e possession o% the prairies thro$"h the si"nin" o% land treaties #ith the Indians #hi!h %ore*er e5tin"$ished( as the Prime Minister li,e &si!' to sa) it( all nati*e ri"hts 0000 Dor them land spelt e!onomi! and politi!al po#er( an e5tension o% the British Empire0 Dor the Indians ho#e*er the land #as li%e itsel%( ne!essar) to their ph)si!al( !$lt$ral and spirit$al s$r*i*al0 + -.F/
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This is not ?$ite the "eno!ide o% the Cari7s or Ara#a,s in the :est Indies( 7$t it is still somethin" #hi!h m$st 7e !onsidered #hen dealin" #ith the spe!i1!it) o% Canadian post2!olonialism +see Pons and Bo!ard on the Canadian Nati*e as an iss$e o% !oloni;ation/ 0 This important di@eren!e in the *ario$s histories o% !olonialism !an 7e seen !learl) i% #e e5tend e*en 7rie6) this !omparison o% the Canadian e5perien!e #ith that o% the :est Indies( #hi!h some also see as e5amples o% settler !olonies +altho$"h to others sla*er) or e5ile in !onditions o% 7onda"e &M!Donald 8GJ remains the dominant herita"e/0 Both the Cari77ean !o$ntries and Canada shared that E$ropean !oloni;ation #hi!h more or less e@e!ti*el) destro)ed !ertain Amerindian !$lt$res0 In :ilson Harris's #ords3 this a7ori"inal !on?$est e5ists li,e a r$in o% ps)!holo"i!al premises and 7iases in o$r midst +H/0 B$t Canada had no imported A%ri!an sla*e la7o$r and no indent$red #or,ers0 %rom India or China to repla!e them a%ter A7olition +tho$"h the $s$all) i"nored Chinese rail#a) #or,ers in Canada mi"ht 7e a !lose appro5imation/0 The ra!ial !omposition o% the t#o !o$ntries has there%ore 7een di@erent( and so too has 7een the di@erent ra!es' sense o% 7elon"in"0 Indent$red la7o$rers( $nli,e sla*es or settlers( #ere al#a)s !onsidered itinerantE the) ne*er 7elon"ed to #here the)
#or,ed and li*ed0 In the :est Indies( the %a!t that these Indian ser*ants #ere o%ten poor and !aste27o$nd !ontri7$ted to the ease #ith #hi!h their o#n !$lt$re !o$ld 7e s$ppressed0 :hile !$lt$rall) a h)7rid( li,e all post2!oloni;ed nations +Ti=n( PostColonial Literat$res -8/( Canada has e5perien!ed no a!t$al !reoli;ation #hi!h mi"ht ha*e !reated somethin" ne# o$t o% an adaptation pro!ess #ithin a split ra!ial !onte5t +see Brath#aite/ 0 :itho$t this ra!ial mi5in"( Canada's !olonial !$lt$re la!,ed some o% the sense o% a !i*ili;in" mission( 7$t still de1ned itsel% in terms o% *al$es #hi!h !an( toda)( 7e seen as British( #hite( middle2!lass( heterose5$al( and male( and it passed on these *al$es most o7*io$sl) in its ed$!ational s)stem0 In her no*el( Cat's E)e( Mar"aret At#ood o@ers a !hild's *ie# o% #hat #as learned in Canadian s!hools in the middle o% the t#entieth !ent$r)3
In !o$ntries that are not the British Empire( the) !$t o$t !hildren's ton"$es( espe!iall) those o% 7o)s0 Be%ore the British Empire there
158 LINDA HUTCHEON
#ere no railroads or postal ser*i!es in India( and A%ri!a #as %$ll o% tri7al #ar%are( #ith spears( and had no proper !lothin"0 The Indians in Canada did not ha*e the #heel or telephones( and ate the hearts o% their enemies in the heathenish 7elie% that it #o$ld "i*e them !o$ra"e0 The British Empire !han"ed all that0 It 7ro$"ht in ele!tri! li"hts0 (79) The iron) o% the !hild's perspe!ti*e $nderlines the politi!s o% !olonialism 2 in Canada and in the rest o% the Empire0 Sin"in" The Maple Lea% Dore*er( thin,in" it is the Canadian !ontent to 7alan!e sin"in" B$le Britannia( the )o$n" "irl noti!es that it too is reall) a7o$t En"land3 :ol%e( the da$ntless hero( !ame N and planted 1rm Britannia's 6a" N On Canada's %air domain (80) .
As Da*id Amason e5plains the histor) o% this neo2!olonialism( Canada #as settled 7) immi"rants #ho did not re"ard themsel*es as Canadians( 7$t as En"lishmen li*in" in a ne# land0 The sense o% histor) o% this 1rst "eneration o% immi"rants is the sense o% histor) o% the mother !o$ntr)( not o% Canada +9./0 As #riters( these immi"rants( not s$rprisin"l)( #rote in the tradition o% Britain at least $ntil the realit) o% the Canadian e5perien!e 7e"an to %or!e alterations in the inherited %orms0 The in6$5 o% British Lo)alists at the time o% the Ameri!an Be*ol$tion %$rther en%or!ed the *al$es o% Empire0 A!!ordin" to one *ie#( Lo)alist m)ths ha*e en!o$ra"ed $s Canadians to hono$r !olonial s)m7ols instead o% adoptin" o$r o#n( and to s$7stit$te %or nationalism a pe!$liar %orm o% !oattails imperialism0 Lo)alist m)th2ma,ers ha*e ne*er 7een a7le to ima"ine a Canada disentan"led %rom Britain0 Perhaps this is #h)( %or a lon" time a%ter Con%ederation( %e# Canadians !o$ld thin, o% Canada as a nation( and no lon"er as a mere !olon)0 +Bell and Tepperman 79) The nostal"ia %or the British Empire #hi!h #as in!$l!ated in At#ood's !hara!ter has its e!ho in another t)pi!al !$lt$ral iron) pointed o$t 7) Ar$n M$,her<ee3 the e?$estrian stat$e o% 4in" Aeor"e #hi!h sits in Toronto's aptl) named K$een's Par, #as 7ro$"ht to Canada %rom India a%ter the latter de!ided to dis!ard all *is$al reminders o% its !olonial masters +GG/0 This e5ample onl) !on1rms the lon" histor) o% !olonialism in Canada3 %rom the British North Ameri!a A!t +passed in :estminster( not Otta#a/
-9F
to the *er) re!ent repatriation o% the Constit$tion itsel%0 A%ter all( $ntil -F.8( Canadians #ere de1ned as British s$7<e!ts0 This perhaps lon"( seemin" di"ression is intended to ma,e the point that one !an !ertainl) tal, o% post2!olonialism in Canada(
7$t onl) i% the di@eren!es 7et#een its parti!$lar *ersion and that o%( espe!iall)( Third :orld nations is ,ept in mind0 T#o other distin!tions m$st 7e made( ho#e*er( #hi!h %$rther !ondition the $se o% the term in a Canadian !onte5t0 The 1rst is the pl$ri2ethni! +and latel) more m$ltira!ial/ nat$re o% Canadian so!iet)0 Some o% the immi"rants #ho pop$late this !o$ntr) are not %rom !oloni;ed so!ieties and the) o%ten !ons!io$sl) resist 7ein" la7elled post!olonial0 Dilippo Sal*atore( an Italian Canadian #riter li*in" in K$e7e! and #ritin" in Dren!h( states3 the de%eat o% the Plains o% A7raham and that o% the Patriotes in r837 did not lea*e indeli7le ps)!hi! s!ars on me0 Ps)!holo"i!all) I am not part o% a !oloni;ed people +C>H/0 Dor him and others( the immi"rant e5perien!e !an e*en 7e seen as a re*erse o% that o% !oloni;ation( a !ons!io$s de!ision to !han"e !$lt$re +Ca!!ia t I. / 0 B$t there are other immi"rants #ho do not share this element o% !hoi!e( #ho !ome to Canada %rom the :est Indies( Asia or Latin Ameri!a and see it as a ne!essaril) o!!$pied territor) 7e!a$se land #as denied some#here else +Da*ies 33). This is lar"el) non2E$ropean immi"ration( and the histori!al and politi!al !onte5ts o% post2!oloni;ation !annot $s$all) 7e i"nored( as the) mi"ht in an Italian or other E$ropean perspe!ti*e0 The spe!i1!it) o% Canadian post2!olonial !$lt$re toda) is 7ein" !onditioned 7) this arri*al o% immi"rants %rom other post2!olonial nations0 To 7e ed$!ated( as At#ood des!ri7ed( in a British2inspired s!hool s)stem in Canada is still di@erent %rom 7ein" so ed$!ated in Jamai!a( #here the s)stem is seen( 7) 7la!, #riters #ho #ere trained in it( as e*en more o7*io$sl) and pro$dl) "eared to#ards the needs o% the British e!onom) and as !learl) maintainin" the so!ial strati1!ation that deni"rates the li*in" lan"$a"e o% the people +Allen II/0 Immi"rants #ith this e5perien!e( #ho then !ome to Canada(
7rin" #ith them an e5tra2a!$te sense o% !olonialism #hieh is 7o$nd to !han"e the nat$re o% post2!olonialism in Canada itsel%0 :itness C)ril Da7)deen's poem( Sir James Do$"las( Dather o% British Col$m7ia( #hi!h opens #ith -I>
LINDA HUTCHEON
Lo$ #ere 7orn #here I #as 7orn0 Demerara's s$n in )o$r 7lood( A$iana's rain on )o$r s,in0 Lo$ !ame %rom Creole sto!, ta,in" a nati*e #i%e0 +.
I)
The A$)anese Canadian poet addresses Do$"las as part o% m) herita"e too N despite !olonialism0 The pie!e ends #ith the poet po$rin" +demerara/ s$"ar into his tea and thin,in" if )o$ #ere more S!ottish N I'd 7e less o% the tropi!s +.C/0 This is the do$7led sense o% post2!olonialism that is part o% some o% the #ritin" #e no# !all Canadian0 There is )et one other spe!i1! %a!tor o% Canadian e5perien!e #hi!h !annot 7e separated %rom the notion o% #hat post2!olonial means to it0 Dor )ears no# +see Morton
ISO/(
Canadians ha*e %elt
that the) are 7ein" !oloni;ed 7) Ameri!an !apital0 The $se o% the term !oloni;ation is not totall) metaphori!( %or Al7ert Memmi de1ned it as a7o*e all( e!onomi! and politi!al e5ploitation +-.F/( and there are man) Canadian e!onomi! nationalists #ho #o$ld !laim that this is pre!isel) #hat the United States is doin" to Canada0 E*en i% one does not a"ree #ith the e5tremit) o% s$!h an e*al$ation( it is still the !ase that Canadians o%ten %eel at least !$lt$rall) !oloni;ed 7) Ameri!an mass media0 The) also o%ten %eel someho# politi!all) threatened 7) the !onstant reminders o% the po#er and imperialist imp$lses o% o$r nei"h7o$r to the so$th +%or a !lassi! Canadian *ie# o% Ameri!an po#er( see Arant/ 0
And spea,in" the same lan"$a"e as 7oth the real histori!al !oloni;ers and the present2da) #o$ld27e !oloni;ers has !reated pro7lems %or Canadian #riters tr)in" to hear their o#n En"lish ton"$es +4roets!h I ; Ha7erl)/0 :ith these additional iss$es o% the o%ten do$7led post2!olonial %o!$s o% man) Canadians and the sensiti*it) to Ameri!an imperialism( the *er) $se o% the #ord post!olonial !annot help 7$t 7e a !omple5 iss$e in a Canadian !onte5t0 The %a!t that postmodernism is alternatel) !laimed as an in*ention o% either Latin Ameri!a or the United States (d. Ti=n( PostColonialism -8>/ is interestin" in this li"ht( %or it indire!tl) points to the interse!tion o% the !on!erns o% postmodernism and post!olonialism that interests me here0 Both terms( #hate*er their
-I-
"eo"raphi! ori"ins( are tethered to earlier entities 2 !olonialism and modernism( respe!ti*el)0 Some Canadian artists ha*e addressed this do$7le tetherin"( most nota7l) photo"rapher Aeo@ Miles in his Dorei"n Belations3 Be2:<ritin" a Narrati*e in Parts0 A series o% te5ts and photo"raphi! ima"es a7o$t !olonial relations( this #or, o@ers a *ie# o% Canada( not as the Third :orld( 7$t !ertainl) also not as the Dirst0 An his !atalo"$e( Miles notes that to dis!$ss the photo"raph as a postmodern art o7<e!t in Canada is to do so #ithin the !on1nes o% !olonialism and the !olonisin" po#er o% the "a;e o% the other +s /0 Dor is it not tr$e that #e are in the $ni?$e position o% 7ein" !olonised 7) three "a;es all at on!eE that o% Dran!e( Britain( and the United States +C/0 Neither postmodernism nor post2!olonialism !an "o 7a!,#ardsE 7oth 7) de1nition !ontest the imperialist de*al$in" o% the other and the di@erent0 B$t Miles %eels that the dis!o$rse o% photo"raph) in Canada is still *er) m$!h !a$"ht #ithin the limits o% the !olonial
and the modernist0 B$t in a #a) this also des!ri7es an) post!olonial or postmodern art( inso%ar as 7oth +as the *er) semanti! !omposition o% the ad<e!ti*es s$""ests/ operate in terms o% that #hi!h the) oppose3 7oth !ontest %rom #ithin0 The ?$estion Miles as,s himsel% is one #hi!h has a n$m7er o% possi7le ans#ers3 Ho# do #e !onstr$!t a dis!o$rse #hi!h displa!es the e@e!ts o% the !olonisin" "a;e #hile #e are still $nder its in6$en!eO +H/0 These ans#ers in!l$de( as he notes( de!onstr$!tin" e5istin" m)ths #hi!h s$pport the dis!o$rses o% !olonialism +in!l$din" modernism/ and !onstr$!tin" di@erent ones to ta,e their pla!e0 The) #o$ld also in!l$de iron) 2 that strate"i! trope that allo#s a #or, to address a !$lt$re %rom #ithin( #hile still arti!$latin" some !hallen"e0 :hen I 7e"an this dis!$ssion o% iron) as a dis!$rsi*e strate") o% 7oth postmodernism and post2!olonialism( I s$""ested that( not $nli,e alle"or)( iron) is a trope o% do$7leness0 And do$7leness is #hat !hara!teri;es not <$st the !ompli!ito$s !riti?$e o% the postmodern( 7$t( 7) de1nition( the t#o%old *ision o% the post2!olonial 2 not <$st 7e!a$se o% the o7*io$s d$al histor) +Slemon( Ma"i! 15) 7$t 7e!a$se a sense o% d$alit) #as the mar, o% the !olonial as #ell0 Do$7leness and di@eren!e are esta7lished 7) !olonialism 7) its parado5i!al mo*e to en%or!e !$lt$ral sameness +JanMohamed
62) #hile( at the same time( prod$!in" di@erentiations and dis -IC
LINDA HUTCHEON
!riminations +Bha7ha( Si"ns -9H/0 This is the do$7leness o%ten represented in the metaphor o% Prospero and Cali7an +MannoniE Dorsin*ille( Cali7anE %or a !riti?$e o% this see Ba,er( espe!iall) -F>2FI( and Donaldson/0 At is the do$7leness o% the !olonial !$lt$re imposed $pon the !oloni;ed +Me)ers *ii/0 B$t it is also the do$7leness o% the !oloni;ed in relation to the !oloni;er( either as model or antithesis +Memmi -.>/0 As Ba)mond :illiams has
ar"$ed( ho#e*er( all national literat$res de*elop in this sort o% #a) 2 $p to a point3 %rom imitation o% a dominant pattern to assimilation or internali;ation o% it +see also Mar!ha, -GC/( 7$t then to a sta"e o% open re*olt #here #hat #as initiall) e5!l$ded 7) the dominant pattern "ets re*alori;ed +-C -2CG/0 Is the last one here the post2!olonial sta"e( as most !riti!s s$""estO Af so( then it !an still 7e ar"$ed that its re*olt !ontin$es to operate #ithin the po#er 1eld o% that dominant !$lt$re( no matter ho# radi!al its re*alori;ation o% its indi"eno$s !$lt$re +Ti=n( Post2Colonialism -8C/0 This is #h) iron)( the trope that #or,s %rom #ithin a po#er 1eld 7$t still !ontests it( is a !onsistentl) $se%$l strate") %or post!olonial dis!o$rse0 Ne*ertheless( Homi Bha7ha has ar"$ed in a series o% in6$ential arti!les that iron) and mimi!r) are the modes o% the !olonialist( not the post2!olonial3 The dis!o$rse o% post2Enli"htenment En"lish !olonialism o%ten spea,s in a ton"$e that is %or,ed( not %alse and this( he %eels( is the strate") o% !olonial po#er and ,no#led"e + O% Mimi!r) -CI/0 Bha7ha sees iron) as appropriatin" the !oloni;ed Other( and impli!itl) there%ore as part o% the am7i*alen!e and h)7ridit) that !hara!teri;e the !olonial + Bepresentation FHE Si"ns -9.E The Other K$estion -G/ in #hat 7oth Ed#ard Said and Al7ert Memmi ha*e seen as its ines!apa7le and !omple5 m$t$al interrelations #ith the !oloni;ed0 In Memmi's #ords3 The 7ond 7et#een !oloni;er and !oloni;ed is th$s destr$!ti*e and !reati*e (89)' :itho$t den)in" an) o% this do$7leness o% the e5perien!e and literat$re o% !oloni;ation( it is still possi7le to see a di@erent and !onse?$ent do$7leness as !hara!teri;in" the post2!olonial3 #hat has 7een !alled its 7i!$lt$ral *ision +Parames#aran C.-/ or metaph)si!al !lash +Ti=n( Comparison and J$d"ement HCE see( too( Comparati*e Methodolo")
CF/0 And the #a) post2!olonial !riti!s tal, a7o$t this literat$re
-IH
s$""ests the potential importan!e o% iron) as the s$7*ersi*e %or!e operatin" %rom #ithin3 the !hallen"e is to $se the e5istin" lan"$a"e( e*en if it is the *oi!e o% a dominant 'other' 2 and )et spea, thro$"h it3 to disr$pt 000 the !odes and %orms o% the dominant lan"$a"e in order to re!laim spee!h %or itsel% +Ne#( Dreams 5/0 Iron) is one #a) o% doin" pre!isel) this( a #a) o% resistin" and )et a!,no#led"in" the po#er o% the dominant0 At ma) not "o the ne5t step 2 to s$""est somethin" ne# 2 7$t it !ertainl) ma,es that step possi7le0 O%ten !om7ined #ith some sort o% sel%2re6e5i*it)( iron) allo#s a te5t to #or, #ithin the !onstraints o% the dominant #hile %ore"ro$ndin" those !onstraints as !onstraints and th$s $nderminin" their po#er0 On the le*el o% lan"$a"e( iron) 7e!omes one o% the !hie% !hara!teristi!so% #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls the step2mother ton"$e in #hi!h post2!olonial #riters #rite( impl)in" as it does the responsi7ilit)( a@e!tion( a!!ident( loss( and se!reti*e roots?$est in adopti*e2%amil) sit$ations +M$,her<ee Blaise -.8/0 Iron) is th$s one #a) o% !reati*el) modi%)in" +JanMohamed G.E Ne#( Ne# Lan"$a"e HIH/ or e*en t#istin" the lan"$a"e so as to si"nal the %orei"nness o% 7oth the $ser and herIhis e5perien!e0 :0 H0 Ne# has tra!ed( as one !ommon thread in Common#ealth literat$re( the sense o% iron)( the sense o% 7ein" !a$"ht 7et#een t#o #orlds3 Tho$"h d$alities a7o$nd in the ironist's #orld( the stan!es he ma) ta,e ran"e %rom parod) and inn$endo thro$"h sar!asm and sel%2dispara"ement to a7s$rdit) and nihilism0000 At its 7est( the ironi! stan!e pro*o,es a serio$s deli7eration into the pro7lems that led to d$alities in the 1rst pla!e +Ne#( Amon" :orlds H/0 This in*ol*es a re2*ie#in" o% !olonial and post!olonial
histor) thro$"h the do$7led lenses o% ironi! de%amiliari;ation3 in Canada( Cohen's Bea$ti%$l Losers remains perhaps the most po#er%$l e5ample o% this pro!ess0 The !ontradi!tions and hetero"eneo$s d$alities that ma,e $p the post2!olonial e5perien!e also resonate #ith the parado5es and m$ltipli!ities o% the postmodern and( in 7oth( iron) seems to 7e a pre%erred trope %or the arti!$lation o% that do$7leness0 The postmodern !hallen"es to h$manist $ni*ersals !ome to"ether #ith post2!olonial !ontestin"s pro*o,ed 7) statements li,e A0 #. M0 Smith's %amo$s *alori;ation o% those Canadian poets #ho made an e@ort to es!ape the limita-I.
LINDA HUTCHEON
tions o% pro*in!ialism or !olonialism 7) enterin" into the $ni*ersal !i*ili;in" !$lt$re o% ideas +55i*/0 S$!h
des!ription !an toda)
7e seen as p$re neo2!olonialism( loo,in" as it does to Arnoldian standards %or *alidation( standards #hi!h ha*e 7een ar"$ed to 7e an)thin" 7$t $ni*ersal 2 7$t rather the prod$!t o% spe!i1!all) nineteenth2!ent$r) British( middle2!lass( #hite( male *al$es +Belse)/ 0 Be!a$se iron) is also the trope o% the $nsaid( it 7e!omes as #ell a possi7le #a) to en!ode a s$7te5t #hi!h #ill de6e!t the ris,s o% &%'$ll *isi7ilit) and a!!essi7ilit) 000 &#hi!h' !onstit$te an inherent dan"er %or the !oloni;ed +:eir I-/0 As Lorraine :eir ar"$es( iron)
in the hands o% those #ho e5er!i;e "en$ine po#er is *er) di@erent %rom the same de*i!e in the hands o% those !lassi1ed as po#erless0 Amon" those #hose 7asi! !omm$ni!ation ma) %re?$entl) depend $pon the s,illed $se and re!eption o% ironi! $tteran!e 2 that is( amon" the po#erless 2 iron) #ill 7e all the more po#er%$l0 The Irish( as is !ommonl) ,no#n( are masters o% iron) and in*e!ti*eE so is the primar) !omm$nit) o% #omen0 +I8/
Joinin" #omen and the Irish here #o$ld 7e ironi! post2!olonial #riters as o7*io$s as Nara)an and B$shdie( ea!h in his di@erent #a)( and others perhaps less immediatel) o7*io$s3 B$th Pra#er Jha7*ala +see Aooneratne I928G/ or N"$"i and Ta)i7 Salih +Said 9./0 Iron) is the trope o% the redeplo)a7le and the re%ra!ted as #ell as simpl) o% the do$7le( 7$t do$7leness seems to pro*ide %ertile "ro$nd %or its $sa"e0 This ma,es Canada 2 as a post2!olonial nation +in the *er) spe!i1! sense o@ered a7o*e/ and as part o% a "eneral postmodern !$lt$re 2 ri!h terrain indeed3
Canada est omnis di*isa in partes d$o3 all Canada is di*ided into
t#o parts0 :e $sed to ha*e Upper and Lo#er Canada( 7$t( #ith the settlin" o% the plains 7e)ond Ontario( this di*ision is no# e5pressed as East and :est0 There's also North and So$th and lots o% di*isions not 7ased on "eo"raph)3 a politi!al di*ision 7et#een the Pro*in!ial and Dederal "o*ernmentsE an e!onomi! one 7et#een the ha*e and ha*e2not pro*in!esE a se!torial one 7et#een ind$strial re"ions and a"ri!$lt$ralE a lin"$isti! one 7et#een En"lish and Dren!h0 And so on0 +Pe!hter 291)
B$t the m$ltipli!it) o% these d$alities does not al#a)s ma,e the
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o%ten res$ltin" ironies eas) to interpret( %or these are %re?$entl) do$7le2dire!ted ironies0 Dor e5ample( James Beane)'s poem( The Bo)al Jisit +in Bar7o$r and S!o7ie 9G/( $ses repetition to si"nal iron)3 the repeated line that 7oth those in Strat%ord( Ontario( #ho #ere sli"hted 7) not 7ein" presenta7le and th$s presented to ro)alt) and those #ho did not mana"e to see the K$een 7e!a$se the train mo*ed too ?$i!,l) thro$"h the to#n #o$ld remem7er the e*ent to their d)in" da)0 B$t is the iron) dire!ted a"ainst !olonial ro)alists in CanadaO a"ainst an in!$l!ated neo2!olonial
mentalit)O a"ainst ro)alt) %or not !arin" eno$"h %or those #ho !ared %or themO or a"ainst all o% these sim$ltaneo$sl)O :hat a7o$t the s$7tle( sel%2reBatin" Canadian ironies o% Miriam :addin"ton's Ba!, at Lor, Uni*ersit) +C8-28C/ #here the narrator !on%ronts the d$al !oloni;ation o% Canadian !$lt$re3
I am #al,in" 7a!, to an En"lish !olon)( #at!h me !han"e into an Ameri!an aspiration( loo,( I'm #hisperin" into a Canadian ans#er27o5 000
B$t neither :addin"ton nor Beane) are $s$all) !onsidered postmodem #riters( and so it is hard to see %rom these passin" e5amples #here iron) a!t$all) mar,s the o*erlappin" o% !on!erns %or #hi!h I ha*e 7een ar"$in"0 B$t in order to sho# that( instead o% loo,in" to the #ritin" o% At#ood( Ondaat<e( 4roets!h or other #riters in Canada #ho are "enerall) seen as 7oth post2!olonialist and postmodem( I #o$ld li,e to !han"e media and in*esti"ate 7rie6) the interse!tion o% the post2!olonial #ith the postmodern in Canadian *is$al art and 1lm #hi!h are $s$all) la7elled as postmodern( 7$t #hi!h I thin, o$"ht to 7e *ie#ed in the li"ht o% post2!olonialism as #ell( espe!iall) in their $se o% iron) in the ne"otiation o% the aestheti! and histori!al herita"e #ithin #hi!h the) #or,0 Some Canadian artists do see themsel*es as #or,in" #ithin the 7o$nds o% a histori!all) determined !olonialism0 London artist Are" C$rnoe #rites3 the artists #ho are ori"inal( #ho 7rea, o$t o% the !olonial mode( are the ones #ho reall) a@e!t o$r !$lt$re 000 7e!a$se the) de*elop o$t o% their #hole 7a!,"ro$nd +?$oted in The7er"e -8/0 None o% Smith's $ni*ersalism %or C$rnoeP Post-II
LINDA HUTCHEON
!olonial art( he implies( #o$ld 7e that #hi!h deri*es dire!tl) %rom its o#n lo!al and parti!$lar sit$ation0 This too is a tenet o% postmodernism( o% !o$rse0 Another e5ample o% the ,ind o% artist #ho mi"ht 7e sim$ltaneo$sl) post2!olonial and postmodern is Charles Pa!hter0 Li,e man) other Canadians +s$!h as Mar"aret At#ood and Jo)!e :ieland/( Pa!hter's time in the United States seems to ha*e sharpened his sense o% #hat !onstit$tes 7oth the histori!al and !$rrent nat$re o% !olonialism in Canada0 His -F8C series o% paintin"s and prints on the theme o% K$een and Moose !hooses deli7eratel) pro*o!ati*e s$7<e!ts and %orms3 the K$een as the s)m7ol o% nostal"i! neo2!olonialism meets the Ur2!li!he o% the Canadian #ilderness e5perien!e0 His ironi! portra)als and sit$ations e5plode 7oth m)ths( or rather( he ma,es them implode $nder their o#n a!!$m$lated !$lt$ral #ei"ht0 The entire ?$estion o% Canadian identit) has 7e!ome a ,ind o% pla)"ro$nd 2 or 7attle1eld 2 %or the postmodern as #ell as the post2!olonial de1nin" o% di@eren!e and *al$e0 As La$ra M$l*e) has #ritten3
The ?$estion o% Canadian national identit) is politi!al in the most dire!t sense o% the #ord( and it 7rin"s the politi!al to"ether #ith the !$lt$ral and ideolo"i!al iss$es immediatel) and ine*ita7l)0 Dor the Canada delineated 7) m$ltinationals( international 1nan!e( U0S0 e!onomi! and politi!al imperialism( national identit) is a point o% resistan!e( de1nin" the 7order %orti1!ations a"ainst e5terior !olonial penetration0 Here nationalism !an per%orm the politi!al %$n!tion %amiliar in Third :orld !o$ntries0 +IO/
M$l*e) ar"$es that Aeo@ Miles's #or,( The rapperNs Pleas$re
o% the Te5t( de!onstr$!ts the Canadian identit) and red$!es it to

its male( An"lo2Sa5on and !apitalist de1nin" essen!es0 And it #o$ld seem to 7e iron) that tri""ers and e*en ena7les this de!onstr$!tion0
The title alone( #ith its in!on"r$o$s <$5taposition o% a #ell2,no#n #or, 7) Boland Barthes and the notion o% a trapper( sets $p the possi7ilit) %or iron)0 The trapper here is the ori"inal E$ropean( #hite( male tra*eller( e5ploitin" nat$re %or 1nan!ial "ain( #ho made !oloni;ation possi7le in Canada0 B$t in !on<$n!tion #ith the photo"raph +o% a street s!ene de*oid o% people e5!ept %or the shado# o% the photo"rapher/( the person #ho !apt$res the *is$al ima"e is also a trapper3 also a #hite male( he has <$st
-I8
ret$rned %rom st$d)in" in En"landE he too e5ploits e5ternal realit) %or potential 1nan!ial "ain +i% he !an sell his photo"raphs/0 Li,e the trapper o% old( he not onl) !apt$res realit) 7$t 15es it and in that sense destro)s its li%e0 This too is a %orm o% metaphori! !oloni;ation( a ta,in" o*er thro$"h representations0 As M$l*e) #rites3 the metaphor ironi;es and parodies the #a) that photo"raphi! aestheti!s ha*e apotheosi;ed the de!isi*e moment +the ,ill/ and !onse?$entl) the 'Trapper' himsel% as hero +->/0 D$rther ironies res$lt %rom the te5t #hi!h a!!ompanies the *is$al ima"e3 one( positioned near the photo"rapher's shado#( reads Standin" a7o*e it all N he sensed the po#er N o% his position0 The pre)in" and the *o)e$risti! are !learl) not a7sent %rom this a#areness o% position0 On the other side( a#a) %rom the shado#( #e read3 The te5t needs its shado#P N This shado# is a 7it o% ideolo")( N a 7it o% representation( a 7it o% s$7<e!t0 And( o% !o$rse( 'a shado# !an( 7) de1nition( onl) e*er 7e a 7it o% a s$7<e!t and a 7it o% a representation0 :itho$t a shado#( that is( #itho$t a sel%re6e5i*el) re*elator) do$7lin"( the te5t is in dan"er o% repla!in" the photo"raph as a transparent realist medi$m pres$min" dire!t a!!ess to the real0 The deli7erate e!hoin" o% Barthes( %rom the title to these te5ts( also re!alls Barthes' o#n a$to7io"raphi!al and
!omple5 ironi! $se o% photo"raphs and te5t in 7oth Boland Barthes 7) Boland Barthes and Camera L$!ida3 Be6e!tions on Photo"raph)0 In Miles's #or, too( the *ie#er m$st respond a!ti*el) to de!ipher ironies and !onstr$!t meanin"s in the relation o% te5t to ima"e0 The post2!olonial Trapper and the postmodern Pleas$re o% the Te5t o*erlap #ithin the pro7lemati!s o% ironi! do$7leness0 The same d$alities or perhaps( more a!!$ratel)( the same $nre!on!iled and $nresol*ed !ontradi!tions that !hara!teri;e 7oth the postmodern and the post2!olonial !an 7e seen in Jo)!e :ieland's politi!al 1lm trilo")( Tr$e Patriot Lo*e( a title #hose e!ho o% > Canada immediatel) %ore"ro$nds the si"ni1!an!e o% her Canadianness to her e5ploration o% the interse!tion o% the aestheti! and the politi!al in these 1lms0 The 1rst( Bat Li%e and Diet in North Ameri!a( #as made #hen :ieland #as li*in" in Ne# Lor, in -FIG0 B$t it is also s$7tl) !on!erned #ith histori!al as #ell as !$rrent !olonialism( %or it is a lo*in" parod) o% Beatri5 Potter
-IG
LINDA HUTCHEON
narrati*es0 It is a7o$t the re7ellion o% a "ro$p o% rats +a!t$all) "er7ils in the 1lm/ a"ainst the oppression o% Ne# Lor, and the Jietnam :ar0 These politi!al prisoners es!ape to Canada #here the) li*e on an or"ani! !o2op %arm0 Some !riti!s ha*e ar"$ed that this idealisti! and nai*e *ie# o% Canada sho#s :ieland to 7e remo*ed %rom the politi!al mainstream +Ma"idson and :ri"ht HF/( 7$t perhaps it depends on #hose politi!al mainstream0 :hat s$!h a *ie# misses are the ironies that perhaps onl) Canadians #o$ld noti!e3 ironies o% dis<$n!tion 7et#een the real and the ideal Canada( and ironies res$ltin" %rom the *ie# that( %or a Canadian( e*en a less than ideal Canada mi"ht 7e pre%era7le to the United States 2 a point Ameri!an !riti!s mi"ht 7e %or"i*en %or missin"0 The se!ond 1lm( Beason o*er Passion +-FI82IF/ is an ironi!
re#or,in" o% the !on*entions o% the tra*el do!$mentar)0 At portra)s the Canadian lands!ape as re!orded 7) a hand2held !amera thro$"h the #indo#s o% trains and !ars0 There are also %ree;e%rame pi!t$res o% the %a!e o% Pierre Tr$dea$( the man #ho $ttered the rationalist statement that "i*es :ieland her title0 This material is rephoto"raphed %rom a mo*iola to "et a "rain) e@e!t that sel%re6e5i*el) ser*es to introd$!e an immediatel) noti!ea7le *isi7le mediation 7et#een the re!ordin" and the re!orded0 The ima"es are a!!ompanied 7) a *ariet) o% ma!hine noises( a %emale *oi!e( and 9H8 printed perm$tations o% the title's letters( as sele!ted 7) reason's instr$ment 2 a !omp$ter0 This reappropriation o% the lands!ape o% Canada as the s$7<e!t o% art is a politi!al and !$lt$ral statement o% the *al$e o% the lo!al and the parti!$lar o*er the $ni*ersal and the eternal0 At is not( as some !riti!s ha*e s$""ested( a nostal"i! mo*e( 7$t a postmodern and post2!olonial !hallen"in" that 7oth !ontests nostal"ia and postmodernl) mi5es ele") #ith e5altation in the *ie#in" o% the land0 And it is the ironi! <$5taposition o% the title( the Tr$dea$ shots( and the so$ndtra!, #ith the lands!ape( as #ell as the sel%2re6e5i*e mode o% re!ordin"( that ma,es this do$7le !ontestin" possi7le0 The third 1lm( Pierre Jallieres( is the most o*ertl) politi!al( as its title s$""ests( %or it is a parod) o% the do!$mentar) portrait0 Its three parts lin, K$e7e! !oloni;ation and sear!h %or li7eration #ith that o% #omen0 The 15ed !amera %rames the K$e7e! re*ol$tionar) Jallieres's mo$th %rom #hi!h !ome the #ords #e hear3
-IF
thirt)2three min$tes o% monolo"$e #ith s$7titles0 A%ter a #hile the mo$sta!hed mo$th #ith its !roo,ed( dis!olo$red teeth "oes 7e)ond s$""estin" the parado5i!al re*ol$tionar) %ol, hero and #or,in"!lass *i!tim ima"ed as one +see Ba7ino*it;( Dilms -IG2IF/ to
impl) almost a ,ind o% se52in*erted( ironi! *a"ina dentata( the terror o% #hi!h in%orms the messa"es o% #omen's li7eration as #ell as K$e7e! de!oloni;ation in the so$ndtra!,0 Man) o% these same national and "ender ironies are pi!,ed $p in her -F8 I National Aaller) retrospe!ti*e( also !alled Tr$e Patriot Lo$e%Jerita7le Amo$r Patrioti?$e0 The entire sho# #as set $p to %eel li,e a !o$ntr) %air( perhaps in itsel% si"nallin" a %eminist s$7*ersion o% the honori1! retrospe!ti*e %ormat0 She e*en sold 7ottles o% a per%$me she !reated( !alled S#eet Bea*er3 The Per%$me o% Canadian Li7eration0 The 7ea*er as s#eet here s$""ests more than a nostal"i! lon"in" %or a Canadian #ilderness past +Ba7ino*it;( Iss$es .>/0 As a s)m7ol o% Canada( the 7ea*er is s#eet 7e!a$se it is 7oth pleas$ra7le and inno!ent( 7$t also 7e!a$se it #as an appealin" l$re to E$ropean %$r2traders and !oloni;ers( 1rst( and then to Ameri!an !apital0 As medie*alists also ,no# #ell( the 7ea*er +!astor/ has traditionall) in the :est represented a "entle +male/ 7east and the se!retions o% its s!ent "lands #ere !onsidered important to medi!ine 2 #hile ser*in" the 7ea*er as a mode o% se5$al attra!tion0 In *ario$s *ersions o% m)th( #hen h$nted( the 7ea*er is said to 7ite o@ its o#n testi!les +mista,en %or s!ent "lands/ and th$s es!ape #ith its li%e0 :ieland's Canadian 7ea*er ma) also 7e sel%2m$tilatin" 7$t sa%e( attra!tin" 7$t medi!inal0 The lin, 7et#een !astration and !astor is also an e*ident one( o@erin" another %orm o% sa%et)( this time %rom se5$al *i!es and sins0 B$t( as a n$m7er o% !riti!s ha*e noted( toda) this ima"e also !annot help !onnotin" porno"raphi! red$!tions o% #omen as #ell3 Canada's histor) as a land raped and !oloni;ed 7) En"land and then 7) the United States parallels #omen's histor) o% oppression +Ba7ino*it;( Iss$es .>/ 0 Moreo*er( 7) ironi!all)( i% indire!tl)( pointin" to the !apitalist and patriar!hal
representations o% #omen +in 7oth porno"raph) and in ad*ertisin" 2 she did ma,e the per%$me a !ommer!ial o7<e!t/( :ieland adds another le*el o% iron)3 per%$me here is the *er) %emininel) !oded medi$m that deli*ers a messa"e #hi!h de1es the tri*iali;a-8>
LINDA HUTCHEON
tion it seems to in*ite0 Per%$me has traditionall) 7een $sed to enhan!e #omen's se5$al attra!tion to men( 7$t here the s#eet l$re is loadedP The %eminist( the en*ironmentalist and the Canadian nationalist ironies here are at one and the same time postmodern and post2!olonial0 S$!h is also the !ase in Dast#iirms' installation( Dather Bre7e$%'s D$"$e State0 A!!ordin" to medi!al ps)!holo")( a %$"$e state is a state #herein a#areness o% identit) seems to disappear0 This #or, politi!i;es and histori!i;es2 and there7) ironi;es2 this term in relation to the spirit$al !on?$est o% North Ameri!a( #hi!h #as the 1rst step in the Dren!h !oloni;ation o% Canada's a7ori"inal peoples and the destr$!tion o% their identit)0 Usin" ind$strial materials to !reate postmodern ironi! in!on"r$ities in the representation o% histori!al o7<e!ts( this #or, s$""ests the <$5taposition o% the Jes$it missionaries' !oloni;in" ?$est #ith the resistan!e o% the Nati*e peoples( in!l$din" their tort$re o% Dather Jean de Bre7e$% in -I.F0 Tarpaper #alls and 6$ores!ent li"hts impli!itl) si"nal the loss and indeed the total destr$!tion o% one !$lt$re( the one !lose to nat$reE a !harred #ooden !ross s$""ests the s$r*i*al( despite man) trials( o% the other0 As one !ommentator des!ri7es another part o% the installation3 Heaped onto a pile o% !ons$mer ,its!h and <$n, "oods o% :estern !$lt$re are a %e# !o7s o% Indian !orn and a !omplete deer s,eleton( the le" 7ones o% #hi!h prop $p a 7ar7e!$e "rill topped #ith a stea, 2 the sta,e o% !oloni;ation +Dis!her -C/0 B$t it is also( most ironi!all) and horri1!all)( the
sta,e at #hi!h Bre7e$% #as 7$rned 2 or 7ar7e!$ed0 Let the !ross remains( ho#e*er !harred( and all that is le%t o% the Nati*e !$lt$re is 7ones0 This is the loss o% identit) s$""ested 7) the title's %$"$e state3 Bre7e$%'s loss o% the memor) o% the a!t o% !oloni;ation and its s$7se?$ent destr$!tion o% the identit) o% others0 The art o% Aeo@ Miles( Jo)!e :ieland and Dast#lirms( ea!h in its o#n #a)( !on%ronts the amnesia o% !olonialism thro$"h the memor) o% post2!olonialism0 And all three $se the dis!$rsi*e strate") o% iron) to $nderline the politi!al dimension o% that !on%rontation0 B$t in ea!h !ase( the !ontestin" is done %rom #ithin the dominant dis!o$rse( as ma) 7e ine*ita7le "i*en the str$!t$re o% the trope o% iron)0 The post2!olonial is there%ore as impli!ated in that #hi!h it !hallen"es as is the postmodern0 Criti?$e ma) al#a)s 7e
-8-
!ompli!ito$s #hen iron) is its primar) *ehi!le0 Dor this reason( I #o$ld disa"ree #ith one important part o% Simon D$rin"'s parti!$lar de1nition o% post2!olonialism as the need( in nations or "ro$ps #hi!h ha*e 7een *i!tims o% imperialism( to a!hie*e an identit) $n!ontaminated 7) $ni*ersalist or E$ro!entri! !on!epts and ima"es +-FG8( HH/0 Most post2!olonial !riti!s #o$ld oppose this as an essentialist( not to sa) simpli%)in"( de1nition( and I #o$ld ha*e to a"ree #ith them that the entire post2!olonial pro<e!t $s$all) posits pre!isel) the impossi7ilit) o% that identit) e*er 7ein" $n!ontaminated 3 <$st as the #ord post2!olonialism holds #ithin it its o#n !ontamination 7) !olonialism( so too does the !$lt$re itsel% and its *ario$s artisti! mani%estations( in Canada as else#here0 Colonies mi"ht #ell spea, $nre6e!tin"l)( as Dennis Lee has s$""ested +-IH/( 7$t the post2!olonial has at its disposal *ario$s #a)s o% s$7*ertin" %rom #ithin the dominant !$lt$re 2 s$!h as iron)( alle"or)( and sel%2re6e5i*it) 2 that it shares #ith the
!ompli!ito$s !riti?$e o% postmodernism( e*en i% its politi!s di@er in important #a)s0 I ret$rn to this last point on!e a"ain to emphasi;e the di@eren!e that the $se o% iron) 7) 7oth $nderlines0 The post2!olonial( li,e the %eminist( is a dismantlin" 7$t also !onstr$!ti*e politi!al enterprise inso%ar as it implies a theor) o% a"en!) and so!ial !han"e that the postmodern de!onstr$!ti*e imp$lse la!,s0 :hile 7oth post2 s $se iron)( the post2!olonial !annot stop at iron)( as Iha7 Hassan's e5position o% the trope's postmodern %eat$res in the end s$""ests3
I ron)0 This !o$ld also 7e !alled( a%ter 4enneth B$r,e( perspe!ti*ism0 In the a7sen!e o% a !ardinal prin!iple or paradi"m( #e t$rn to pla)( interpla)( dialo"$e( pol)lo"$e( alle"or)( sel%2re6e!tion2in short( to iron)0 This iron) ass$mes indetermina!)( m$lti*alen!eE it aspires to !larit)( the !larit) o% dem)sti1!ation( the p$re li"ht o% a7sen!e0 :e meet *ariants o% it in Ba,htin( B$r,e( de Man( Ja!?$es Derrida( and Ha)den :hite0 And in Alan :ilde #e see an e@ort to dis!riminate its modes3 'mediate iron)(' 'dis<$n!ti*e iron)(' and 'postmodern' or 's$spensi*e iron)' '#ith its )et more ra!ial *ision o% m$ltipli!it)( randomness( !ontin"en!)( and e*en a7s$rdit)0' Iron)( perspe!ti*ism( re6e5i*eness3 these e5press the inel$!ta7le re!reations o% mind in sear!h o% a tr$th that !ontin$all) el$des it( lea*in" it #ith onl) an ironi! a!!ess or e5!ess o% sel%2!ons!io$sness0 (5>I/
-8C
LINDA HUTCHEON
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QQ2 20
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-8H
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J0
Canadian Literat$re in En"lish0 London and Ne# Lor,3 Lon"man(
4roets!h( Bo7ert0 A Canadian Iss$e0 7o$ndar) C H0- +-F8./3 -2C0 Mroller, E*a2Marie0 The Politi!s o% In6$en!e3 Canadian Postmodernism in an Ameri!an Conte5t0 InterAmeri!an Literar) Belations0 Ed0 M0 Jaldes0 Jol0 H0 Ne# Lor,3 Aarland( -FG90 --G2CH0 OOO Postmodernism( Colon)( Nation3 the Mel*illean Te5ts o% Bo#erin" and Bea$lie$0 Uni*ersit) o% Otta#a K$arterl) 9.0C +-FG./3 9H2I-0
J.
-8.
LINDA HUTCHEON
Larson( Charles B0 Heroi! Ethno!entrism3 The Idea o% Uni*ersalit) in Literat$re0 The Ameri!an S!holar .C +-F8H/3 .IH2890 La$ren!e( Mar"aret0 I*or) To#er or ArassrootsO3 The No*elist as So!ioPoliti!al Bein"0 A Politi!al Art3 Essa)s in Hono$r o% Aeor"e :ood!o!,0 Ed0 :illiam H0 Ne#0 Jan!o$*er3 U o% British Col$m7ia P( -F8>0 -92C90 Lee( Dennis0 Caden!e( Co$ntr)( Silen!e3 :ritin" in Colonial Spa!e0 7o$ndar) $ H0- +-F8./3 -9-2IG0
M!Donald( A*is A0 Ho# Histor) H$rts3 Common Patterns in A$stralian and :est Indian Di!tion0 K$een's K$arterl) FI0- +-FGF/3 8G2FH0 Ma"idson( De77ie and J$d) :ri"ht0 Tr$e Patriot Lo*e0 Art and Artists GR8 +-F8H/3 HG2.-0 Mannoni( O0 Prospero and Cali7an3 The Ps)!holo") o% Coloni;ation0 -F9>0 Ne# Lor,3 Prae"er( -FI.0 Mar!ha,( Patri!ia0 Ai*en a Certain Latit$de3 A +Hinterland/ So!iolo"ist's Jie# o% An"lo2Canadian Literat$re0 In O$r O#n Ho$se3 So!ial Perspe!ti*es on Canadian Literat$re0 Ed0 Pa$l Cappon0 Toronto3 M!Clelland
& Ste#art( -F8G0 -8G2C>90
Marlatt( Daphne0 Ho# H$" a Stone0 :innipe"3 T$rnstone P( -FGH0 Memmi( Al7ert0 The Coloni;er and the Coloni;ed0 -F980 Ne# Lor,3 Orion P( -FI90 Me)ers( Je@re)0 Di!tion and the Colonial E5perien!e0 Toto#a( N0'03 Bo#man and Little1eld( -F8H0 Miles( Aeo@0 Dorei"n Belations3 Be2:Nritin" a Narrati*e in Parts0 Catalo"$e( Aaller) ..0 Mon,( Philip0 Colon)( Commodit) and Cop)ri"ht3 Be%eren!e and Sel%Be%eren!e in Canadian Art0 Jan"$ard -C092I +-FGH/3 -.2-80 Morton( :0 L. The Canadian Identit)0 -FI-0 Toronto3 U o% Toronto P( -F8C0 M$,her<ee( Ar$n P0 So$th Asian Poetr) in Canada3 In Sear!h o% a Pla!e0 :orld Literat$re :ritten in En"lish CI0- +-FGI/3 G.2FG0 M$,her<ee Blaise( Bharati( Mimi!r) and Bein*ention0 The Common#ealth in Canada0 Ed0 Uma Parames#aran0 Cal!$tta3 :riters :or,shop Are)7ird( -FGH0 -.82980 M$l*e)( La$ra0 Ma"ni1!ent O7session0 Para!h$te .C +-FGI/3 I2-C0 Ne#( :illiam H0 Amon" :orlds3 An Introd$!tion to Modern Common#ealth and So$th A%ri!an Di!tion0 Erin( Ont03 Press Por!epi!( -F890
22Q0
Dreams o% Spee!h and Jiolen!e3 The Art o% the Short Stor) in Canada
and Ne# Mealand0 Toronto3 U o% Toronto P( -FG80 OOO Ne# Lan"$a"e( Ne# :orld0 A#a,ened Cons!ien!e3 St$dies in Common#ealth Literat$re0 Ed0 C0 D0 Narasimhaiah0 Ne# Delhi3 Sterlin"( -F8G0HI>2880 Pa!he( :alter0 'The Di!tion Ma,es Us Beal'3 Aspe!ts o% Postmodernism in
Canada0 Aainin" Aro$nd3 E$ropean Criti!s on Canadian Literat$re0 Ed0 Bo7ert 4roets!h and Bein"ard H0 Nis!hi,0 Edmonton3 Ne:est P( -FG90 I.28G0 Parames#aran( Uma( Amid the Alien Corn3 Bi!$lt$ralism and the Challen"e o% Common#ealth Literar) Criti!ism0 :orld Literat$re :ritten in En"lish C-0- +-FGC/3 C.>29H0 Pe!hter( Ed#ard0 O% Ants and Arasshoppers3 T#o :a)s +or More/ to Lin, Te5ts and Po#er0 Poeti!s Toda) F0C +-FGG/3 CF-2H>I0 Petersen( 4irsten Holst and Anna B$ther%ord( eds0 A Do$7le Coloni;ation3 Colonial and Post2Colonial :omen's :ritin"0 M$ndelstr$p( Denmar,3 Dan"aroo P( -FGI0
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Pi*ato( Joseph( ed0 Contrasts3 Comparati*e Essa)s on Italian Canadian :ritin"0 Montreal3 A$erni!a( )*G90 Ba7ino*it;( La$ren0 Iss$es o% Deminist Aestheti!s3 J$d) Chi!a"o and Jo)!e :ieland0 :omen's Art Jo$rnal -0C +I "G>2G-/3 HG2.-0 OOOOO. The Dilms o% Jo)!e :ieland0 Jo)!e :ieland0 Toronto3 AAOE 4e) Porter Boo,s( I"G80 --82C>( -I-28F0 Said( Ed#ard :0 Intelle!t$als in the Post2Colonial :orld0 Salma"$ndi 8>28 I +I "GI/3 ..2I.0 Sal$tin( Bi!,0 Mar"inal Notes3 Challen"es to the Mainstream0 Toronto3 Lester and Orpen Denn)s( I FG.0 Sal*atore( Dilippo0 The Italian :riter o% K$e7e!3 Lan"$a"e( C$lt$re and Politi!s0 Trans0 Da*id Homel0 Pi*ato -G"2C>I0 Sa$l( John Balston0 :e Are Not A$thors o% the Post2No*el No*el0 Bri!, +:inter I"GG/3 9C29.0 S!ott( D0 B0 and A0 J0 M0 Smith( eds0 The Blasted Pine3 An Antholo") o% Satire( In*e!ti*e and Disrespe!t%$l Jerse0 Be*0 ed0 Toronto3 Ma!millan( -FI8R SIemon( Stephen0 Ma"i! Bealism as Post2Colonial Dis!o$rse0 Canadian Literat$re --I +l"GG/3 F2CH0 OOOOO Mon$ments o% Empire3
AllQ"or)NCo$nter2Dis!o$rseNPost2Colonial
:ritin"0 4$napipi F0H +l"G8/3 -2-I0 OOOO Post2Colonial Alle"or) and the Trans%ormation o% Histor)0 Jo$rnal
o% 0Common#ealth Literat$re CH0 I +I "GG/3 -982IG0 Smith( A0
J. M0( ed0 The O5%ord Boo, o% Canadian Jerse in En"lish and
Dren!h0 Toronto3 O5%ord UP( I"I>0 Spi*a,( Aa)atri Cha,ra*ort)0 In Other :orlds3 Essa)s in C$lt$ral Politi!s0 Ne# Lor, and London3 Bo$tled"e( I"GG0 Starn( Bo7ert and Lo$ise Spen!e0 Colonialism( Ba!ism( and Bepresentation0 S!reen C.0C +I FGH/3 C2C>0 The7er"e( Pierre0 Are" C$rnoe0 Otta#a3 National Aaller) o% Canada( I"GC0 Ti=n( Helen0 Common#ealth Literat$re and Comparati*e Methodolo")0 :orld Literat$re :ritten in En"lish CH0 I +l"G./3 CI2H>0 OOOO Common#ealth Literat$re3 Comparison and J$d"ement0 The Histor) and Historio"raph) o% Common#ealth Literat$re0 Ed0 Dieter Biemens!hneider0 Tti7in"en 3 A$nter Nan( -FGH0 -F2H90 OOOO Post2Colonial Literat$res and Co$nter2Dis!o$rse0 4$napipi F0H +-FG8/3 -82H.0 OOOO00 Post2Colonialism( Post2Modernism and the Beha7ilitation o% PostColonial Histor)0 Jo$rnal o% Common#ealth Literat$re CH0- +l"GG/3 -IF2G -0 :addin"ton( Miriam0 Colle!ted Poems0 Toronto3 O5%ord UP( I"GI0 :eir( Lorraine0 To#ard a Deminist Hermene$ti!s3 Ja) Ma!pherson's :el!omin" Disaster0 A)no!riti!s3 Deminist Approa!hes to Canadian and K$e7e! :omen's :ritin"NA)no!riti?$es3 Demar!hes %eministes a l'e!rit$re des Canadiennes et K$e7e!oises0 Ed0 Bar7ara Aodard0 Toronto3 EC: P( -FG809F28T0 :ieland( Jo)!e( dir0 Bat Li%e and Diet in North Ameri!a0 -FIG0
OOOOdir( Beason O*er Passion0 -FI82IF0
OOOOdir0 Pierre Jallieres0 I "8C0 :illiams( Ba)mond0 Mar5ism and Literat$re0 O5%ord3 O5%ord UP( I"880
-$inpoint the most significant lin,s that Hutcheon establishes between postmodernism and feminism( /ntroduction
0o much of contemporary critical theory alienates the uninitiated and e/asperates even the most determined reader. Bnd postmodern commentaries, which promise to unloc the mysteries of the movement, oCen ma e be?er doorstops or co#ee-coasters than easy entries into the twisted and lugubrious passageways of postmodernist thought. (ontemporary feminist theory has not always been free from this tendency either. Linda .utcheon, one of the most respected and renown of (anada"s theorists, has long been nown to dismiss this proclivity with an easy shrug of the shoulders. .er e/tensive writings, both on postmodernity and feminism, provide lucid and succinct analyses of the most slippery of topics -- parody, irony, aesthetics -- and do not stop there. In each wor she adds her own valuable insights from her bac ground in literature, her interest in art and architecture, and her understanding of contemporary philosophy. 3ith such a diverse bac ground it is oCen diDcult to characteri9e her wor with a single title. 0he is nown by many to be a !cultural theorist! or !literary critic!, by others as a !feminist!= some thin of her as an !art critic!, while she is oCen seen to be !a specialist in (anadian literature!= others still, thin of her as a !philosopher! in her own right. Ef course, it is li ely true that she is all of these things, and more. 3hat is not disputed is that her writings are always engaging, dynamic, and above all else, proli4c. Linda .utcheon is Professor of 'nglish and (omparative Literature, at the Fniversity of 7oronto. .er theoretical wor s include A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction= The Politics of Postmodernism= Narcissistic Narrative: the eta!ctional Parado" = A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of T#entieth$%entury Art Forms= The %anadian Postmodern: A &tudy of %ontemporary 'nglish$%anadian Fiction= &pli(ng Images: %ontemporary %anadian Ironies= and most recently )pera: *esire, *isease, *eath with %ichael .utcheon.
+ou have recently co$authored a ,oo- #hich e"amines the aesthetic and erotic representation of disease in the heroines from various operas. /hat did your study uncover a,out the construction $$ or in your #ords 0mythifying0 $$ of gender, desire and illness1 +ou also note the relation ,et#een the 23th century scienti!c understanding of disease and its su,se4uent gendered representation in art. Have you noted similar contemporary parallels1 7he research I did with my *physician- husband on the cultural construction of women and disease in opera was a real eye-opener for me, I must confess. Li e everyone else, whenever anyone mentioned disease in the conte/t of opera, I thought of Puccini"s %imi in 5a 6oh7me or Gerdi"s Giole?a in 5a Traviata8 because of the strength of the stereotype, I imagined that there were all inds of other such consumptive operatic heroines. 3ell, there aren"t. 7here are only a few more. 7his is what prompted us to study the reasons for the power of this stereotype and, thereby, to e/amine the cultural meanings given to diseases and those who have them.
Bs you might imagine, our wor was also provo ed by the fact that we have all been watching the cultural construction of meaning of a new medical condition -- BIH0. 3e discovered that the representations in the media and in art of this syndrome have played out the history of many other illnesses -- from the plague *it was called the !gay plague! in the early @65Is- to syphilis *as a se/ually transmi?ed disease-. 3e have all watched the press and television ma e the di#erentiation between !innocent! and other victims --thereby passing a moral 2udgment, while apparently dealing with a medical issue. 7his slippage isn"t new, of course8 the history of disease and its representation in art *thin of leprosy in earlier periods- is a history of social and moral values as much as medical information. In )pera: *esire, *isease, *eath *@66J-, we loo ed at moments in medical history when ma2or scienti4c changes occurred in the understanding of a disease -- for instance, @55+, when &obert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus, and taught us that tuberculosis was not something you inherited as a ma?er of familial disposition, but was something you could catch from someone else. 3e then studied how this medical information made its way into the art forms of the day8 5a 6oh7me *@56J-, with its insistence on urban poverty and the hero"s fear of contagion *he leaves %imi aCer she has a bad night of coughing-, is a post-Koch opera, though its romantici9ing of the consumptive heroine -- in all her pale and feverish beauty and desirability -- is a continuation from the earlier construction of women with the disease. I noted #ith great interest that your de!nition of postmodernism *in 7he Politics of Postmodernism- states that this movement, particularly its a9ention to di:erence and marginality, has ,een signi!cantly shaped ,y feminism. ost commentators $$ those compiling the anthologies and encyclopedias $$ have stated the opposite: that feminism is the direct result of a ,urgeoning postmodernism. This may seem a trivial o,servation $$ the ,eginnings of a 0chic-en and egg0 argument $$ ,ut it may also ,e indicative of the proclivity of academic te"ts to consign feminist #riters to the sidelines, the happy cheerleaders of the postmodern movement. %y sense has always been that there were certain important social movements in the @6JIs *and before- that made the postmodern possible8 the women"s movement *though, of course, the movement e/isted much earlier, but this wave of it in the @6JIs was crucial- and, in Lorth Bmerica, the civil rights movement. 0uddenly gender and racial di#erences were on the table for discussion. Ence that happened, !di#erence! became the focus of much thin ing -- from newer issues of se/ual choice and postcolonial history to more familiar ones such as religion and class. I thin feminisms *in the plural- were important for articulating early on the variety of political positions possible within the umbrella term of gender -- from liberal humanist to cultural materialist. Feminist discussions !comple/-i4ed! 1uestions of identity and di#erence almost from the start, and raised those upseMng *but, of course, productive- issues of social and cultural marginality. /hy have so many feminist artists and theorists resisted the lure of postmodernism1
In part, it has been because the early constructions of the postmodern were resolutely male *and that"s one of the reasons I chose to write on the sub2ect-8 male writers, artists and theorists were for a long time in the foreground. 0ometimes this was a real blind-spot= sometimes it was what we might call a form of gender-caution8 people were afraid, because of that resistance of feminists, to label women writers or theorists as postmodern. 7his was, in part, because, women were indeed resisting such labeling, sometimes out of a worry that the political agenda of their feminisms would be subsumed under the !apolitical! aesthetici9ing label of postmodernism. But it depends on whose de4nition of the postmodern we are tal ing about. I happen to thin that postmodernism is political, but not in a way that is of much use, in the long run, to feminisms8 it does challenge dominant discourses *usually through selfconsciousness and parody-, but it also re-instates those very discourses in the act of challenging them. 7o put it another way, postmodernism does deconstruct, but doesn"t really reconstruct. Lo feminist is happy with that ind of potential 1uietism, even if she *or heapproves of the deconstructing impulse8 you simply can"t stop there. 7his important issue of agency has become central not only to feminism, of course, but to !1ueer theory! and to postcolonial theory. +ou have noted in your theoretical #or- ;and a,ove< that feminism has ta-en a variety of forms in di:erent cultures, and you prefer to spea- of 0feminisms0 in your te"ts rather than a single feminist movement. uch is no# ,eing #ri9en on the distinct forms of feminism emerging from countries li-e Italy, France, India, 6ritain and America. Is there a distinctly %anadian ;Anglo and French< feminism1 Bs a feminist who has been in>uenced by postmodern thin ing -- with its challenging of universals and its stress on the local and particular -- I can"t help believing that (anadian feminism is di#erent8 our social situation as women in (anada is di#erent even from that of women in Britain or the F.0. -- because of legal as well as cultural di#erences -- and our intellectual conte/t is, for historical reasons, perhaps more of a hybrid than most *though obviously related to that of post-colonial nations-. Framed geographically and historically between two ma2or anglophone empires *past and present-, (anada has e/perienced an odd amalgam of British and Bmerican in>uences and both have played their role in shaping our intellectual heritage. 3hen you add the Nu)bec conte/t, with its strong lin s to French feminism -- the hybridity increases. 7he mi/ of the Bnglo-Bmerican activist strain with the more theoretical 'uropean focus has been fruiOul, I thin , for (anadian feminists. uch of your #or- has focused on or included representations of 0the feminine0 in literature and other art forms. In an early #or- *7he (anadian Postmodern- you suggest a shared pa9ern of irony and parody in te"ts ,y #omen #riters generally and %anadian !ction. /hat motivates this similarity1
%arginali9ation -- in a word. Pust as women have traditionally been positioned on the fringes of male culture, so (anadians oCen feel as if they are watching the action *be it Bmerican or 'uropean- from the sidelines. Faced with a strong colonial heritage that conditions its response to Britain *and France, but in a di#erent way- and confronted with an even stronger cultural power to the south of us in the F0B, (anadians have oCen turned to irony to position themselves *self-deprecatingly- or to contest the strength of those dominant cultural forces of history or of the current situation. I wrote a boo called &pli(ng Images: %ontemporary %anadian Ironies to try to e/plain my sense of the pervasiveness of parody and irony as a (anadian response to marginali9ation *oCen self-marginali9ation, I should say-. +ou have placed parody at the centre of your descriptions of postmodern art, music, architecture and literature. Is this also, in your vie#, the de!ning feature of contemporary feminist #or-1 Qes, if you stress !a! *and not !the!- de4ning feature. It seems to me that, li e (anadians, women are oCen in the position of de4ning themselves BRBIL07 a dominant culture or discourse. Ene way to do that, a way with great subversive potential, is to spea the language of the dominant *which allows you to be heard-, but then to subvert it through ironic strategies of e/aggeration, understatement, or literali9ation. Parody is the mode that allows you to mimic that speech, but to do so through re-conte/tuali9ing it and therefore without subscribing to its implied ideals and values. 3omen writers *witness Pane Busten- have nown of this transgressive power of parody for a long time. %en too create parodies, of course, but interestingly the most cogent and forceful of these lately have oCen been produced from the point of view of marginali9ed men who position themselves by se/ual choice as gay *such as the (anadian photographer nown as 'vergon- or by "nationality" as postcolonial *such as 0alman &ushdie, to pic a controversial e/ample-. But women writers today -- from Peane?e 3interson and Bngela (arter to %argaret Btwood and Bnn-%arie %acHonald -- have certainly put parody to e/cellent political use. +our te"ts on irony and parody, and your #or- on postmodernism and feminism are all ,ursting #ith e"amples from a varied mi"ture of art forms: performance art, architecture, television, literature, movies, opera and pop music. It is not uncommon to encounter in your #riting e"amples from &ha-espeare, 5aurie Anderson and /ayne=s /orld interspersed to illustrate the same theoretical point. In addition to mi"ing 0high0 and 0lo#0 art forms, your theoretical assertions arise directly from concrete e"amples. Is this a conscious methodology on your part1 And does it arise from your position as a female academic, as a feminist, as a %anadian1 This is a rare treat #hen so much of the theoretical #or-s produced today o:er as proof for their conclusions #ise #ords from other critics or philosophers, producing a -ind of insular and incestuous argument.
I guess I"ve always believed that theory had to be theori9ing -- in the sense that you had to theori9e from something and that something should be as broad as possible in its de4nition. Bny theory of irony and parody that only wor ed for literature, for instance, was *for mean inade1uate theory not worthy of its name. 0o, I chose to wor from e/amples from visual art or music or 4lm and try to understand how irony, for instance, wor ed -- how it came to !happen! for people in viewing or hearing these te/ts. 7eaching has taught me that popular cultural e/amples can be very helpful in e/plaining comple/ theoretical ideas. But, when wor ing on the postmodern, it became crucial -- because of the postmodern blurring of the boundaries between art forms, between high and popular art -- to deal with that variety in theori9ing this cultural phenomenon. I tried to model it from the 4rst relatively uncontested usage of the term -- in architecture -- and then loo ed to other art forms, from the novel to photography and 4lm with similar manifestations. 7his strategy also allowed me to bring in the wor of women writers and artists who had LE7 been seen as postmodern *for some of the reasons outlined above-, but who clearly had used techni1ues similar to those used by male postmodern writers -- but with an added political, contestatory edge. I"m thin ing of people li e Bngela (arter or Barbara Kruger. 0o, I suppose, my feminist interests also condition why I theori9e in the way I do.
-)o you agree with Hutcheon*s ideas on the three main topics of her respective articles? -ubstantiate your answer with arguments ta,en from them( ) agree in that /3ew 0useology1 puts into play the postmodern discourse strategies of irony and refle,ivity in order to attempt to deconstruct the ideology of 5mpire that determined its particular collection of African ob-ects. ) don+t agree in that there is a difference between *anada and Africa, because ) see *anada+s case even worse than Africa+s ) don+t either agree between the missionary construct of a new culture, but a help to those who were there. ) agree that *anadians are in an ongoing process historically unfinisehd of finding an identity.
Text co$$enta!ie
0ead! analyse and comment on the following e"tracts( 1hey are! admittedly! conceptually difficult te"ts of an essayistic and philosophical ,ind! bringing about introductory ideas for our subse%uent literary study( 2ut please! don*t panic( 1ry to understand wholly the meaning of them! paying also attention to the form and the way in which arguments are e"posed( 1he 1eaching 1eam will not provide a model for the commentaries 3on the whole! there is not a model for a te"t commentary! as it is open to a multiplicity of readings! a notion that is! in itself! very postmodern456 a good e"ercise for you all would be to debate about these e"tracts in the forum of 7nit 8 in the virtual course( 9f course! we will be delighted to open new perspectives and offer other points of view on the te"ts and on your commentaries when re%uired(
Jean-Fran:ois Lyotard. /Answering the Auestion: >hat )s (osmodernismB1 )n Postmodernism. A Reader. 5d. 2homas &ocherty. emel empstead, ertfordshire: arvester >heatsheaf, :CC9, 9D-E< Foriginally published in ). assan and @. assan, eds. Innovation/ Renovation. 0adison, >isconsin: 4niversity of >isconsin (ress, :CD9, pp. ?:-D8G: >hat, then, is the postmodernB >hat place does it or does it not occupy in the vertiginous wor! of the 'uestions hurled at the rules of image and narrationB )t is undoubtedly a part of the modern. All that has been received, if only yesterday "modo, modo, (etronius used to say#, must be suspected. >hat space does *H$anne challengeB 2he )mpressionistsI. >hat ob-ect do (icasso and .ra'ue attac!B *H$anneIs. >hat presupposition does &uchamp brea! with in :C:8B 2hat which says one must ma!e a painting, be a cubist F...G. )n an ama$ing acceleration, the generations precipitate themselves. A wor! can become modern only if it is first postmodern. (ostmodernism thus understood is not modernism at its end but in the nascent state, and this state is constant. Jet ) would li!e not to remain with this slightly mechanistic meaning of the word. )f it is true that modernity ta!es place in the withdrawal of the real and according to the sublime relation between the presentable and the conceivable, it is possible, within this relation, to distinguish two modes "to use the musicianIs language#. 2he emphasis can be placed on the powerlessness of the faculty of presentation, on the nostalgia for presence felt by the human sub-ect, on the obscure and futile will which inhabits him in spite of everything. 2he emphasis can be placed, rather, on the power of the faculty to conceive, on its KinhumanityI, so to spea! "it was the 'uality Apollinaire demanded on modern artists#, since it is not the business of our understanding whether or not human sensibility or imagination can match what it conceives. 2he emphasis can also be placed on the increase of being and the -ubilation which result from the invention of new rules of the game, be it pictorial, artistic, or any other. F...G 2he postmodern would be that which, in the modern, puts forward the unrepresentable in presentation itself= that which denies itself the solace of good forms, the consensus of a taste which would ma!e it possible to share collectively the nostalgia for the unattainable= that which searches for new representations, not in order to en-oy them but in order to impart a stronger sense of the unpresentable. A postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the te,t he writes, the wor! he produces are not in principle governed by preestablished rules, and they cannot be -udged according to a determining -udgment, by applying familiar categories to the te,t or to the wor!. 2hose rules and categories are what the wor! of art itself is loo!ing for. 2he artist and the writer, then, are wor!ing without rules in order to formulate the rules of what will have been done. ence the fact that wor! and te,t have the characters of an event= hence also, they always come too late for reali$ation Fmise en oeuvreG, always begin too soon. Post modern would have to be understood according to the parado, of the future F postG anterior FmodoG "pp. EE-E<#.
TEXT C%&&ENT'R() 3ith the publication of his essay "Bnswering the Nuestion8 3hat is PostmodernismS" in @65+, Pean-FranTois Lyotard addresses the debate about the 'nlightenment and speci4cally PUrgen .abermas" ta e on the 'nlightenment pro2ect. Pean-FranTois Lyotard argues that all aspects of modern societies rely on "grand narratives", or a sort of meta-theory that see s to e/plain the belief system that e/ists. 7hese metanarratives represent totali9ing e/planations of things li e (hristianity or %ar/ism V dominant modes of thought. For Pean-FranTois Lyotard, the 'nlightenment pro2ect as promoted by PUrgen .abermas constitutes another a?empt at authoritative e/planation. 7hus, Pean-FranTois Lyotard bases his de4nition of Postmodernism on the idea that postmodernist thought 1uestions, criti1ues, and deconstructs metanarratives by observing that the move to create order or unity always creates disorder as well. Instead of "grand narratives", which see to e/plain all totali9ing thought, Pean-FranTois Lyotard calls for a series of mini-narratives that are "provisional, contingent, temporary, and relative". PeanFranTois Lyotard, then, provides us with an argument for the postmodern brea down or fragmentation of beliefs and values instead of PUrgen .abermas" proposal for a society uni4ed under a "grand narrative". In his wor , Pean-FranTois Lyotard has wri?en of speculative discourse as a language game V a game with speci4c rules that can be analy9ed in terms of the way statements could be lin ed to each other. 7he "di#erend" is the name Pean-FranTois Lyotard gives to the silencing of a player in a language game. It e/ists when there are no agreed procedures for what is di#erent *be it an idea, an aesthetic principle, or a grievance- to be presented in the current domain of discourse. 7he di#erend mar s the silence of an impossibility of phrasing an in2ustice. For Kant, the sublime feeling does not come from the ob2ect *e.g., nature-, but is an inde/ of a uni1ue state of mind which recogni9es its incapacity to 4nd an ob2ect ade1uate to the sublime feeling. 7he sublime, li e all sentiment, is a sign of this incapacity. Bs such the sublime becomes a sign of the di#erend understood as a pure sign. 7he philosopher"s tas now is to search out such signs of the di#erend. B true historical event cannot be given e/pression by any e/isting genre of discourse= it thus challenges e/isting genres to ma e way for it. In other words, the historical event is an instance of the di#erend. Fnli e the homogeni9ing drive of speculative discourse, 2udgment allows the necessary heterogeneity of genres to remain. Pudgment, then, is a way of recogni9ing the di#erend V .egelian speculation, a way of obscuring it. 7he force of Pean-FranTois Lyotard"s argument is in its capacity to highlight the impossibility of ma ing a general idea identical to a speci4c real instance *i.e. to the referent of a cognitive phrase-. Pean-FranTois Lyotard"s thought in 5e *i:rend *7he Hi#erend- *@65A- is a valuable antidote to the totalitarian delirium for reducing everything to a single genre, thus sti>ing the di#erend. 7o sti>e the di#erend is to sti>e new ways of thin ing and acting.
Pean-FranTois Lyotard is best nown to 'nglish spea ers for his analysis of the impact of postmodernity on the human condition. B ey 4gure in contemporary French philosophy, his interdisciplinary discourse covers a wide variety of topics including nowledge and communication= the human body= modern and postmodern art, literature, and music= 4lm= time and memory= space, the city, and landscape= the sublime= and the relation between aesthetics and politics. Pean-FranTois Lyotard maintained in The *i:erend that human discourses occur in any number of discrete and incommensurable realms, none of which is privileged to pass 2udgment on the success or value of any of the others. 7hus, in ?conomie li,idinale *Libidinal 'conomy- *@6,;-, 5a %ondition postmoderne: >apport sur le savoir *7he Postmodern (ondition8 B &eport on Knowledge- *@6,6-, and Au @uste: %onversations *Pust Raming- *@6,6-, Pean-FranTois Lyotard a?ac ed contemporary literary theories and encouraged e/perimental discourse unbounded by e/cessive concern for truth. "Let us wage a war on totality= let us be witness to the unrepresentable= let us activate the di#erences and save the honor of the name. Heconstruction is only the negation of the negation, it remains in the same sphere, it nourishes the same terrorist pretension to truth, that is to say the association of the sign V here in its decline, that"s the only di#erence V with intensity. It re1uires the same surgical tampering with words, the same split and the same e/clusions that the lover"s demand e/acts on s ins. "7he artist and the writer are wor ing without rules in order to formulate the rules of what will have been done. .ence the fact that wor and te/t have the character of an event= hence also, they always come too late for their author, or, what amounts to the same thing, their being put into wor , their reali9ation always begins too soon. Post modern would have to be understood according to the parado/ of the future *post- anterior *modo-. "7he sublime feeling is neither moral universality nor aesthetic universali9ation, but is, rather, the destruction of one by the other in the violence of their di#erend. 7his di#erend cannot demand, even sub2ectively, to be communicated to all thought." V *Pean-FranTois Lyotard-
From Fredrich Jameson. /(ostmodernism, or 2he *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism1. )n Postmodernism. A Reader. 5d. 2homas &ocherty. emel empstead, ertfordshire: arvester >heatsheaf, :CC9, <8-C8. F2he original eponymous boo! by Jameson was published in London: Lerso, and &urham, 3orth *arolina: &u!e 4niversity (ress, :CC:G. 2he conception of postmodernism outlined here is a historical rather than a merely stylistic one. ) cannot stress too greatly the radical distinction between a view for which the postmodern is one "optional# style among many others available, and one which see!s to grasp it as the cultural dominant of the logic of late capitalism: the two approaches in fact generate two very different ways of conceptuali$ing the phenomenon as a whole, on the one hand moral -udgments "about which it is indifferent whether they are positive or negative#, and on the other a genuinely dialectical attempt to thin! our present of time in istory. 6f some positive moral evaluation of postmodernism little needs to be said: the complacent "yet delirious# camp-following celebration of this aesthetic new world "including its social and economic dimension, greeted with e'ual enthusiasm under the slogan of Kpost-industrial societyI# is surely unacceptable M although it may be somewhat less obvious the degree to which current fantasies about the salvational nature of high technology, from chips to robots Mfantasies entertained not only by Left as well as %ight movements in distress, but also by many intellectualsM are essentially of a piece with more vulgar apologies for postmodernism. .ut in that case it is also logical to re-ect morali$ing condemnations of the postmodern and of its essential triviality, when -u,taposed against the 4topian Khigh seriousnessI of the great modernisms: these are also -udgements one finds both on the Left and on the radical %ight "pp. DE-D;#.
TEXT C%&&ENT'R() Fredric Jameson is considered to be one of the most important and influential literary and cultural critic and theoretician in the 0ar,ist tradition of the 5nglish spea!ing world. )n 7(ostmodernism or the *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism7 Jameson attempts to characteri$e the nature of cultural production in the second half of the 8Nth century, the era of late capitalism, and to distinguish it from other forms of cultural production of preceding capitalist eras. A substantial part of Jameson+s 7(ostmodernism or the *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism7 is dedicated to differential analysis of wor!s of art and architecture from what Jameson terms 7high modernism7 and postmodern wor!s. e characteri$es the postmodern mode of production as a 7cultural dominant7 in the wa!e of concepts li!e 7depthlessness7 or the suppression of depth, the waning of affect and pastiche, terms which according to Jameson relate to the postmodern form of production and e,perience.
2he problem of periodi$ation and the cultural dominant 2he concept of postmodernism immediately raises the issue of periodi$ation, entailed by the prefi, 7post-7 assigned to the time of modernism. >hen did modernism begin and when did it endB )s it possible to set clear temporal boundaries between modernism and postmodernismB Jameson believes that it is possible to spea! of cultural modes with in a defined timeline. 3evertheless, he restricts his periodi$ation of postmodernism to the unbinding notion of cultural dominant which has a degree of fle,ibility which still allows for other forms of cultural production to coe,ist alongside it. )n the notion of cultural dominant Jameson stays true to the 0ar,ist tradition of tying culture with the political and economical state of society. 2his stance holds that the socio-economical structure of a society is reflected in a society+s cultural forms. Jameson relies on the wor! of 5rnest 0andel that divided capitalism into three distinct periods which coincide with three stages of technological development: industriali$ed manufacturing of steam engines starting from the mid :Cth century, the production of electricity and internal combustion engines since the late CN+s of the :Cth century and the production of electronic and nuclear devices since the :CEN+s. these three technological developments match three stages in the evolution of capitalism: the mar!et economy stage which was limited to the boarders of the nation state, the monopoly or imperialism stage in which courtiers e,panded their mar!ets to other regions and the current phase of late capitalism in which borders are no longer relevant. Jameson proceeds to match these stages of capitalism with three stages of cultural production, the first stage with realism, the second with modernism and the current third one with our present day postmodernism.
(ostmodernism according to Jameson is therefore a cultural form which has developed in the wa!e of the socio-economical order of present day capitalism. Again, postmodernism in Jameson+s view is not an all-encompassing trend but rather a cultural dominant that affects all cultural productions. 2his approach accounts for the e,istence of other cultural modes of production "thus protecting Jameson from criticism# while still enabling to treatment of our time as postmodern. 6ther types of art, literature and architecture which are not wholly postmodern are still produced nowadays, but nevertheless postmodernism is the field force, the state of culture, through which cultural urges of very different types have to go. 3o one today is free from the influence, perhaps even rein, of postmodernism. 2he rest of Fredric Jameson+s 7(ostmodernism or the *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism7 is mostly devoted to the illustration of this initial claim by e,amining different e,amples of cultural products while continuing to develop some theoretical issues. 2he first characteristic of postmodernism defined by Fredric Jameson in 7(ostmodernism or the *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism7 is that of depthlessness. A modern painting, Jameson suggests, invites interpretation, a hermeneutic development and completion of the world which is beyond what is represented. )n a postmodern wor!, to put in simply, what you see is what you get, and no hermeneutic relations will be developed with the representation. 2his depthlessness is seen by Jameson as a new !ind of superficiality. Jameson illustrates his point of depthlessness by two thematically related wor!s: Lan Oogh+s 7A (air of @hoes7 which represents high modernism and Andy >arhol+s 7&iamond &ust @hoes7 which are obviously postmodern. Jameson 'uotes eidegger+s interpretation of Lan Oogh+s wor!s as one which invites the reconstruction of a whole peasant world and dire life and offers another possible interpretation of his own which follows the basic notion of addressing something which is beyond the actual shoes in the painting. )n contrast, 7&iamond dust shoes7 do not 7spea! to us7, as Jameson puts it. &ifferent associations are possible when loo!ing at a >arhol+s wor!, but they are not compelled by it nor are they necessarily re'uired by it. 3othing in the postmodern wor! allows a lead into a hermeneutic step. >arhol+s wor! is therefore an e,ample of postmodern depthlessness because we cannot find anything which stands behind the actual image. >arhol is of course famous for stressing the commerciali$ation of culture and the fetishism of commodities of late capitalism, but the stress in not positive or negative or anything at all, it -ust is. 2he depthlessness of cultural products raises the 'uestion of the possibility of critical or political art in late capitalism, especially when Jameson argues that aesthetic production today has turned into a part of the general production of commodities, an assertion which will be addressed later on.
Another deference between high or late modernism and postmodernism which Fredric Jameson locates in 7(ostmodernism or the *ultural Logic of Late *apitalism7 is what he calls 7the waning of affect7. >hen we loo! at modern painting with human figures we will most often find in them a human e,pression which reflects and inner e,perience, such as in 5dvard 0unch+s 72he @cream7 which epitomi$es the modern e,perience of alienation and an,iety. )n contrast, Jameson holds to that in postmodern art feelings wane "therefore 7the waning of affect7#. 2he concept of e,pression, Jameson notes, presupposes a model of inside and outside, a distinction between ones inner and outside world and the individual person as a single monad. .ut when we loo! at postmodern portrait such as >arhol+s 0arilyn we can hardly spea! of any e,pression, and that is because, Jameson holds, postmodernism re-ects traditional models of the depth "see depthlessness# such as the Freudian model of conscious and unconscious or the e,istential model of authentic and unauthentic. 2he idea of the sub-ect as a monad, of individualism, is a :Cth and early 8Nth century capitalistic bourgeois notion. >ith the rise of global economy this notion began to fade away with the sole trader, consumer and employee made insignificant, reduced to statistical numbers. (rivate human agency plays little part in the faceless era of corporate economy and Jameson notes how the crisis of alienation and an,iety gave way to the fragmentation of sub-ect or 7death of the sub-ect7. Jameson proceeds to describe the waning of affect through the process in which the sub-ect has lost his active ability to create a sense of continuity between past and future and to organi$e his temporal e,istence into one coherent e,perience. 2his reduces his cultural production abilities to nothing but random and eclectic 7piles of fragments7 (astiche is one of the main characteristics of cultural production in the age of postmodernism according to Fredric Jameson. 2he e,istence of an autonomous sub-ect was an essential part of artistic as cultural production in the modern times, Jameson argues. )t allowed for the artist as sub-ect to the address his consumer as sub-ect and thus to affect him. .ut with the waning of affect the artist+s uni'ue individuality, one a founding principle, has been reduced in the postmodern age to a neutral and ob-ectifying form of communication. >ith the fragmentation of sub-ectivity and sub-ectivity in a sense coming to a gloomy end, it is no longer clear what postmodern artists and authors are supposed to do beside appealing to the past, to the imitation of dead styles, an 7empty parody7 without any deep or hidden meanings, a parody that Jameson calls pastiche. (astiche, li!e parody, is the imitation of some uni'ue style, but it is an empty neutral practice which lac!s the intension and 7say7 of parody, not satirical impulse and no 7yin7 to be e,posed by the 7yang7. 2he postmodern artist is reduced to pastiche because he cannot create new aesthetic forms, he can only copy old ones without creating any new meanings.
(astiches leads to what is referred to in architectural history as 7historicism7 which is according to Jameson a random cannibalism of past styles. 2his cannibalism, pastiche, in now apparent in all spheres of cultural production but reaches its epitome in the global, American centered, television and ollywood culture. >hen the past is being represent through pastiche the result is a 7lost of historicalness7. 2he past is being represented as a glimmering mirage. Jameson calls this type of postmodern history 7pop history7 P a history founded on the pop images produces by commercial culture. 6ne of the manifestations of this pastiche pop history are nostalgic or retro films and boo!s which present the appearance of an historical account when in fact these are only our own superficial stereotypes applied to times which are no longer accessible to us. Jameson lengthily discusses the brilliant 7%agtime7 by 5.L.&octorow as a postmodern novel and notes Oeorge Lucas+s 7American Oraffiti7 as a movie which attempts to capture a lost reality in the history of the untied-states. (astiche, then, is the only mode of cultural production allowed by postmodernism according to Jameson. &epthlessness, pastiche, the fragmentation of the sub-ect and other characteristics of postmodern culture introduced by Fredric Jameson "see previous parts of the summary# strongly 'uestion the notion of 7high culture7 as opposed to popular culture. Jameson notes how boundaries between high and low culture have been transgressed in postmodern times with !itsch and popular culture integrating with forms of high culture to produce one big varied consumer culture. Jameson argues that not only is postmodernism a cultural dominant "i.e. the dominant form of cultural production# but that it has turned into a prime consumer product, with the aesthetic production being integrated into the general production of consumer goods. 2he growing need to produce ever newer products now allocates an essential structural position to aesthetic novelty. Jameson notes to the aesthetic field which has the strongest ties with the economical system is that of architecture which has strong ties with real-estate and development which give rise to a tide of postmodern architecture, epitomi$ed in the grandeur of shopping malls. Jameson famously analy$es the postmodern features of the L.A. >estin .onaventure hotel. is main argument concerning the .onaventure hotel is that this building, as other postmodern architecture, does not attempt to blend into its surroundings but to replace them. 2he .onaventure hotel attempts to be a total space, a whole world which introduces a new form of collective behavior. Jameson sees the total space of the .onaventure hotel as an allegory of the new hyper-space of global mar!et which is dominated by the corporations of late capitalism.
)t seems that in (ostmodernism Jameson often laments the shortcomings of postmodern culture, though there is also a sense of inevitability in his writing. (ostmodernism according to Jameson is an historical situation, and therefore it will be wrong to assess it in terms of moral -udgments. Jameson proposes to treat postmodernism in line with 0ar,+s thought which as!s us to 7do the impossible7 of seeing something as negative and positive at the same time, accepting something without surrendering -udgment and allowing ourselves to grasp this new historical form.
Re*ie+ Fredric Pameson"s premise in his widely acclaimed !Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism! is that the %ar/ist meta-narrative can sustain a reliable account of all cultural te/ts produced by a given society. .e therefore combines the theories of %ar/ist thin ers such as Lu!Qcs and Althusser with some post-structuralist thin ing in order to create a comple/ method of interpreting cultural te/ts such a literature and architecture. Bs previous +I th century modern thin ers such as the Fran furt 0chool he is also critical of the dogmatic and deterministic !crude! %ar/ist point of view which is re4ned in !!Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism!. Following Blthusser and his aDliation with Lacan he adopts dome psychoanalytic notions along with the hermeneutic principle of overdetermination in order to provide a rich and comple/ stance for diagnosing ideological symptoms in cultural products. Pameson"s pursuit of the 1uestion of postmodernism in !Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism! can be seen as a direct development on his views in !7he Political Fnconscious! and !Postmodernism and (onsumer society!. Pameson directly deals with the 1uestion of periodi9ation, which in the %ar/ist conte/t is directly related to the 1uestion of determinism. .e relies on 'rnest %andel"s wor which o#ered an historical periodi9ation on the basis of technological developments. .e o#ers three stages of development in capitalism and it is interesting to as whether the current !age of information!, not yet dominant at the time of !Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism!, is a new fourth phase or the continuation of the third stage, the !post-industrial! or !multi-national!, assigned by %andel and adopted by Pameson. 3ith everybody announcing the !postmodernism is dead! nowadays, it is also interesting to as what is the current !cultural dominant! which in Pameson"s time was postmodernism *perhaps neo-modernism, but who nowsS-. Pameson"s interpretative principles in !Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism! hold that one cannot interpret art of any cultural te/t by appealing to the artist himself and by assuming creative freedom, and that certain preconditions, historical, political and economical ones have to be identi4ed beforehand. In this he holds true to the %ar/ist tradition of !totality! *material and historical- as a principle source of e/planation for all individual phenomenon. B given cultural product is always the product of temporal conditions, which have their own !cultural dominant! that although, as Pameson notes, is not deterministic or allencompassing, it is still nevertheless unavoidable. 7his stance e/pressed in the concept of !cultural dominant! helps Pameson to soCen the crude .egelian and %ar/ist dialectics. 7he current *@66@- cultural dominant, Pameson says, is postmodernism. Pameson"s arguments such as the rise of pastiche, the waning of a#ect, depthlessness and others e/pressed in !Postmodernism! all have to do with the current mechanisms of representation and e/perience in culture, and they all interact with the historical, economical, political and aesthetical form of postmodernism. In this Pameson is of course true to the %ar/ist tradition such as the thin ing of Lu!Qcs in relating the historical totality with its di#erent manifestations. BCer all, for Pameson, postmodernism is still in accord with the %ar/ist historical narrative.
Pameson"s selection of e/amples, such as '.L.Hoctorow"s !&agtime!, 3arhol"s !Hiamond Hust 0hoes! or the 3estin Bonaventure hotel all come from the Bmerican culture which is for Pameson the source of postmodernism. It is hard to determine whether Pameson is a !fan! of postmodernism or not. 7here is of course of a tone of lamentation throughout !Postmodernism or the (ultural Logic of Late (apitalism! but Pameson does not call for a negative stance towards postmodernism not does he wishes to undo its cultural dominance. It seems that for Pameson postmodernism, as an historical imperative, a product of the material dialectical history, and we 2ust have to deal with it.

Unit 1 Exercises

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UNIT 1 EXERCISES Unit 1- Textbook Page 12

Linda Hutcheon' a!"c#e Incredulity

"Circling the Downspout of Empire": Post-&olonialism and Postmodernism

Marlatt's phrase !ir!lin" the do#nspo$t

-./0 Ir*in" La)ton on!e de1ned An"lo2Canadian in these

Do$7le Coloni;ation +Petersen and B$ther%ord/0 Deminisms ha*e

#hi!h( 7) de1nition( in*ol*es a re!o"nition o% histori!al(

CIBCLINA THE DO:NSPOUT OD EMPIBE

7$t there is a ma<or politi!al and histori!al di@eren!e3

pre!ise point at #hi!h interest and !on!ern 7e!ome im -9.

al#a)s %elt #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls a deep sense o% mar"inalit) 3

Canadians ha*e %elt

des!ription !an toda)

M$l*e) ar"$es that Aeo@ Miles's #or,( The rapperNs Pleas$re

o% the Te5t( de!onstr$!ts the Canadian identit) and red$!es it to

The Other K$estion

the Stereot)pe and Colonial Dis!o$rse0

S!reen C.0I +-FGH/3 -G2HI0

Bepresentation and the Colonial Te5t3 A Criti!al E5ploration o%

Si"ns Ta,en %or :onders3 K$estions o% Am7i*alen!e and A$thorit)

Brath#aite( Ed#ard 4ama$0 The De*elopment o% Creole So!iet) in Jamai!a

O5%ord3 O5%ord UP( -F8G0

Harris( :ilson0 The Phenomenal Le"a!)0 The Literar) Hal%2Learl) --0C

The E!onom) o% Mani!hean Alle"or)3 The D$n!tion

Canadian Literat$re in En"lish0 London and Ne# Lor,3 Lon"man(

o% 0Common#ealth Literat$re CH0 I +I "GG/3 -982IG0 Smith( A0

J. M0( ed0 The O5%ord Boo, o% Canadian Jerse in En"lish and

The Post Al#ays >ings T#ice

"Circling the Downspout of Empire": Post-&olonialism and Postmodernism

Marlatt's phrase !ir!lin" the do#nspo$t

-./0 Ir*in" La)ton on!e de1ned An"lo2Canadian in these

Do$7le Coloni;ation +Petersen and B$ther%ord/0 Deminisms ha*e

#hi!h( 7) de1nition( in*ol*es a re!o"nition o% histori!al(

CIBCLINA THE DO:NSPOUT OD EMPIBE

7$t there is a ma<or politi!al and histori!al di@eren!e3

pre!ise point at #hi!h interest and !on!ern 7e!ome im -9.

al#a)s %elt #hat Bharati M$,her<ee !alls a deep sense o% mar"inalit) 3

Canadians ha*e %elt

des!ription !an toda)

M$l*e) ar"$es that Aeo@ Miles's #or,( The rapperNs Pleas$re

o% the Te5t( de!onstr$!ts the Canadian identit) and red$!es it to

The Other K$estion

the Stereot)pe and Colonial Dis!o$rse0

S!reen C.0I +-FGH/3 -G2HI0

Bepresentation and the Colonial Te5t3 A Criti!al E5ploration o%

Si"ns Ta,en %or :onders3 K$estions o% Am7i*alen!e and A$thorit)

Brath#aite( Ed#ard 4ama$0 The De*elopment o% Creole So!iet) in Jamai!a

O5%ord3 O5%ord UP( -F8G0

Harris( :ilson0 The Phenomenal Le"a!)0 The Literar) Hal%2Learl) --0C

The E!onom) o% Mani!hean Alle"or)3 The D$n!tion

Canadian Literat$re in En"lish0 London and Ne# Lor,3 Lon"man(

o% 0Common#ealth Literat$re CH0 I +I "GG/3 -982IG0 Smith( A0

J. M0( ed0 The O5%ord Boo, o% Canadian Jerse in En"lish and

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