EN 2220 Lecture Notes - Fall 2018 Lecture 3 - Hyperbole, Morality play, George Copway
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Lecture Three:
RECAP:
• What do we mean when we talk about first words and contact narratives? (Could be
exam question)
o First words as we studied them were primarily creation stories: looked at
contemporary writers that retold these stories. Contact narratives were
Europeans that explored North America and came into contact with those
who have already been there.
o Contact narratives: written texts in the Franklin expedition and the Wampum
belt. First words: were oral stories that have been passed down.
• Terminology: important when reading and defining. Why do we single out Inuit and
Metis?
o They were denied recognition as indigenous peoples. Because historically
they were viewed separately we see the indigenous as first nations, Inuit and
metis.
• When is Canada?
o We look at the first writings of Canada before the 1867 when the constitution
was signed.
o It was an attempt to recognize the long history of Canada before it was
established
o The dangers of calling this Canadian literature is that are we appropriating
the history by calling it Canadian. This is erasing the history before Canada.
o Important to acknowledge these histories but we have to do this with our
eyes open.
• What is literature?
o What is gained and lost when we take oral history and put it into texts?
➢ When we are talking, we have different ways of speaking, different
tones and different actions along with the discussion but when we
textualize them we risk controlling the texts. We are listening into a
text that was not intended to be told in that way to us.
➢ We need to do it carefully because then we lose the meaning of it.
Things are gain and things are lost.
➢ They are also not respected as accurate.
History and Context: From Exploration to Settlement
• French exploration and alliance with Indigenous groups (1500s-1600s). British
colonies 1600s (Hudson’s Bay Company)
o We are moving from exploration to settlement.
o It wasn’t until the 1600s there wasn’t a strong British presence and that was
established with the Hudson’s Bay Company
o This is around the time that Shakespeare is writing.
o Land claims are taking places in the “new world”
• Seven Years War (1754-63): New France (37) defeated by the British in the Plains
of Abraham
o This was like the first world war
o One of the fronts of where the battles was in Canada on the plains of
Abraham where the British defeated the French.
• American Revolution (1776), British loyalists
o Black Loyalists (slavery legal in British Empire Until 1833, and in US until
1865)
o It is important to remember that these British loyalists came flooding up to
Canada. They fought for the British during the British American war
(American Revolution).
o Former slaves (black loyalists) were fighting under the British and if the
British won then they would be freed. Roughly the same number of African
Americans came up to Canada as slaves. In early Canada, we still have
examples of slavery. There was the tensions in Canada between the free
African Americans and the continuing practices of slavery that happened in
the country.
Literary Context:
• Shift from exploration to emigration.
o The people who are coming are different. Franklin expedition were explorers
coming to map these areas but with settlement narratives you get families
and children. The people writing these stories have very different goals then
those who explored.
o There is a different sense of ownership: rather than saying this is a strange
place it is about settling the land. Stories change from danger and risk to the
possibility of life in the new land.
o In settlement literature, there is an attempt to create a new culture. It’s not
simply about building a house but re-establishing a new culture.
o It is aimed at a similar audience: exploration and emigration.
o We know why the explorers were coming but the question of why the
settlers were coming is a tougher one: they could have been fleeing hunger
and violence and looking for somewhere to live across the Atlantic.
o We can ask ourselves these questions: what is motivating these people to
leave where they live and migrate somewhere new? They don’t see any
pictures or how it looks, why risk it law?
o Immigration: Goes out and Emigration is coming in.
o Emphasis on these texts are about leaving something behind to end up in
Canada.
• It is a North American context and we are dealing with non-Canadian readers.
o They are not aimed at people that are already here.
o Gives us a suggestion about the tone with the hyperbole of some of the texts
o Side of Canada that was closest to Europe was the East and the West was
open territory that wasn’t really explored.
• “Literary Land Claims”
o Literature that is representing contested spaces (which is very much Canada
at that time) they are going to be making claims. Some of them are implicit
like this is my land or explicit by saying I have done so much.
o They will share with us about different texts saying who owns that land.
Document Summary
Lecture three: what do we mean when we talk about first words and contact narratives? (could be exam question, first words as we studied them were primarily creation stories: looked at contemporary writers that retold these stories. Europeans that explored north america and came into contact with those who have already been there: contact narratives: written texts in the franklin expedition and the wampum belt. First words: were oral stories that have been passed down: terminology: important when reading and defining. Metis: they were denied recognition as indigenous peoples. When we are talking, we have different ways of speaking, different tones and different actions along with the discussion but when we textualize them we risk controlling the texts. We are listening into a text that was not intended to be told in that way to us. We need to do it carefully because then we lose the meaning of it. They are also not respected as accurate.
