File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_1998/postcolonial.9804, message 1


Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 11:00:05 -0500 ()
From: Terry Goldie <tgoldie-AT-YorkU.CA>
Subject: Possible folding of Association of Canadian and Quebec Literatures


I suspect there are few on this list who are interested in the above.
There are periodic brief mentions of Australian things but most stick to
the South Asia/Africa/Caribbean axis. The end of ACQL has been attributed
to the failure of the nationalist paradigm among Canadian academics. I
find that while my students are willing to deal with things akin to
nationalism in SA/A/C they are repulsed by it in Canada, except for First
Nations sovereignty. Is this just the way it is? Canada looks too much
like Big White to be poco? Will the rapidly changing ethnicity of the
Canadian population change this? Is poco just less offensive word for
"third world?"
A related question. Among the countries which I would include in the
postcolonial paradigm *in english* Australia and Canada seem to be the
only places which have followed the American studies model of looking at
the national self through organizations run by/for/within that nation, no?
The other countries tend to have an emphasis on area studies (eg Africa)
in organizations with many international members and often a secretariat
outside the countries studied. Is this just economics? Or does it
also connect to the general anthropological tradition that the most
interesting "Natives" must be elsewhere. Is postcolonial studies just a
hegemonic plot by America and Britain, led by recent immigrants from the
poco world?
As a "white" Canadian whose family arrived from Ireland in the 1830s I
write in honest confusion at much of this. I am reminded of a statement by
a famous American, who I am probably misquoting: as Pogo said, "I have
seen the enemy and they is us." I intend all possible ironies.
And if I can't get flamed for that one people just aren't trying.
Terry

Terry Goldie
English Department
York University
North York, Ontario
Canada
M3J 1P3
voice: 416-604-3670
fax: 416-736-5412
email: tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca



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