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Canadian Identity Through Landscape in Post Colonial Literature


Introduction

In the _Empire Writes Back_ the authors write that a major feature of post-colonial literatures is the concern with place and displacement. It is here that the special post-colonial crisis of identity comes into being; the concern with place and displacement. It is here that the special post-colonial crisis of identity comes into being; the concern with the development or recovery of an effective identifying relationship between self and place. (1) In Canada's literature writers such as Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill describes the Canadian landscape according to English aesthetic and social values. However, their writing does attempt to find a sense of place within the wilderness of Canada's landscape. As writers they constantly search for a way to describe their relationship to the land. This trend is continued when critics and poets like Northrop Frye and Douglas Le Pan include the landscape as a force influencing and motivating Canadian writing.

Writing in the _Literary History of Canada_ Frye states, "I have long been impressed in Canadian poetry by a tone of deep terror in regard to nature."(2) Literature in Canada in this light is a response to the landscape. The landscape in literature becomes a defining factor in Canadian identity. Similarly, Le Pan's response to the landscape in his poetry shows a "growing desire...to define the way the Canadian experience shapes their sense of self and their perceptions...[The] landscape becomes an external emblem of man's internal development." (3)

The use of the landscape in Canadian literature contributes in building an identity that is separate from Europe. It serves to stabilize a sense of self and place for those writing in Canada. Yet even within the landscape literature or "langscape" literature the Native/Aboriginial voice has been relatively silenced. It has only been recently that Native/Aboriginal people have written about the landscape of Canada. White writers see the landscape as an entity that forces them to struggle whereas Native writers such as Willie Dunn believe that the individual and landscape are part of one identity. He writes in his poem "Son of the Sun":

Son of the sun
Son of the earth
The soul of life
Children of the world
Daughters of starlight
Daughters of mirth
Sisters of sunlight
Sisters of earth
Brothers of nature
Brothers of old (4)

Human and nature exist in harmony with each other in Native and aboriginal literature. In the literature by white writers the landscape is a harsh force to be reckoned with. Both modes of writing about literature can be seen as correct because these writers develop different relationships with nature according to their background. What is important is that they develop a sense of self and place in Canada through writing about landscape.

What You Will Find

About Us

_The Canadians_ A Theoretical Play: Act One

_The Canadians_ Act Two

Foot Notes

Review of Texts and Recommended Readings

Recommended Web Sites

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