Multiple Time &

Dialogic Space

in a Global City

Dionne Brand

Postmodern City &

Trauma 2015 Spring

Page 2

Outline

Introduction

Modern, Postmodern & Global

City (Rosenthal)

Immigrants in Toronto &

Canadian Multiculturalism in

Brief

Dionne Brand

What We All Long For

chaps 1-8

From the Postmodern to Global City

(Rosenthal p. 1-)

Modern city fiction: “urban space was

the modernization process turned flesh”

–city as a synecdoche for human

experience/condition

Postmodern city fiction: city no longer as

a real realm of experience but as a text.

–city as text

Global city fiction: corporeality, specific

urban conditions and spaces; city as a

contact zone among various forces

beyond the nation

Page 3

From the Postmodern to Global City

P. 3: Postmodern urban fiction: a free

play of signifiers, deferral of meanings,

repudiation of making sense

P. 4: Discussions on identity, on sex,

gender, sexuality and on race and

ethnicity have become strangely

disembodied or decorporealized ìn

postmodernist discourses

Page 4

Toronto City and its Other Traumas

Texts Races

The Five Senses White Torontonians

+ French & Italian

Fugitive Pieces Holocaust (Jewish +

Greek)

Ararat Armenian Genocide

English & French +

Armenian + Turkish

What We All Long

For

Black, Italian,

Vietnamese

Page 5

Others’ Traumas: World Wars,

genocide, Civil war, migration

racial boundaries and sexism

Immigration Trends in Toronto

Toronto the Good and the Grey in

the first half of the 20th century

Immigration Trends:

British, Irish, (French)

Italian, Jewish, East Europeans,

East Asians,

South Asians, the Caribbean, etc.

since 1970’s

History: http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublicati

ons/2009-20-e.pdf

Trends: http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/gta_immigra

tion_history.html Page 6

Multiculturalism in Canada

(Exclusion or Assimilation as

government policy)

Formative Stage: 1971-1981

more in cultural and linguistic

senses, without removing

social/cultural barriers

vertical mosaic

Institutionalization: 1981 –

present

1988 Multiculturalism Act Page 7

Evolution of Multiculturalism in Canada

Ethnicity

Multiculturalism

(1970s)*

Equity

Multiculturalism

(1980s)*

Civic

Multiculturalism

(1990s)*

Integrative

Multiculturalism

(2000s)

Focus Celebrating

differences

Managing

diversity

Constructive

engagement

Inclusive

citizenship

Reference

Point Culture Structure Society

building

Rights and

responsibilities

Mandate Ethnicity Race relations Citizenship Identity

Problem

Source Prejudice Systemic

discrimination

Exclusion Globalization,

security

Solution Cultural

sensitivity

Employment

equity

Inclusiveness ???

Key

Metaphor Vertical

‘Mosaic'

‘Level playing

field'

‘Belonging' ‘Two-way

street'

Page 8•Source: •Fleras, Augie and Jean L. Kunz. 2001. Media and Minorities: Representing Diversity in a Multicultural Canada. Thompson Education Publishing.

Another Kind of City Map

Dave Troy

Does the

racial map

still matter?

Multiculturalism: Questions

Cultural Distinctness,

Assimilation or Social Integration

Immigration Policy: How many is

too many?

Identity: Babel Tower or

Pluralism (Unity in Disunity)

Two Examples

Meeting Place (1990)

Let's All Hate Toronto (2007) (41:00; 52:00; 57:00)

Page 10

Dionne Brand

Biographical Sketch --fyi

1953 Born in Trinidad

1970 immigrated to Canada at the age of 17

1970s-80s community worker in Toronto

1983 Information Officer for the Caribbean People’s Development Agencies and the Agency for Rural Transformation in Grenada

1997 won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry and the Trillium Award for Land to Light On

A communist who believes in equal distribution of wealth and ending exploitation

Founded and edited Our Lives, Canada’s first black women’s newspaper

2009-2012: Toronto's third Poet Laureate.

Brand—a thinker, writer and filmmaker

BA in English and Philosophy and an MA in the Philosophy of Education –in University of Toronto.

Writer and Filmmaker -- A few examples: “Blossom” Sans Souci and other Stories (1988)

9 collections of poems, including No Language is Neutral (1990), thirsty

4 documentary films, including Sisters in Struggle (1991), Long Time Comin' (1993),

Listening for Something (1996)—(Adrienne Rich)

Novels In Another Place, Not Here (1997)--novel

Land To Light On (1997)

At the Full and Change of the Moon—novel

What We All Long For (2006) Toronto Book Award

Dionne BrandA novelist, poet and essayist.

A Marxist, Lesbian and Non-Elite

• Not here, nor there: I find myself in the middle of black writing. I’m in

the centre of black writing, and those are the

sensibilities that I check to figure out something

that’s truthful. (Silvera 273)

… Here I was being able to make connections

with African-Americans. I saw great hope in that.

I didn't long for home at all. I longed for a past,

a kind of validation of my history, which I

thought I could find in a past that was

beyond my grandparents. …It was located

somewhere in the consciousness of a people

that had to do with slavery, that other exile.

(Birbalsingh 122)

Winter Epigrams (1984)

I give you these epigrams, Toronto,

these winter fragments

these stark white papers

because you mothered me

because you held me with a distance that I

expected,

here, my mittens,

here, my frozen body,

because you gave me nothing more

and i took nothing less,

i give you winter epigrams

because you are a liar,

there is no other season herePage 15

Toronto's Poet Laureate

: Dionne Brand, 2009

Page 16

photo by:

jasonchowphotography.com

Her Reading:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07LVxo3

1hI8

Intro to Toronto & the novel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J72T6vi

Ue8M

What We All Long For: Characters

Page 17

Tuan & Cam

Lam

Binh

Quy

Ali

Tuyen

Derrick & Angie/Nadine

Carla

Jamal

Fitz & Mother

Oku

Mother & father

Jackie

Vietnamese Italian-Black Caribbean from Nova

Scotia

artist Courier/flaneur poet fashion store

owner

heterosexual

homosexual

What We All Long For: Discussion Questions

1. Description of the city: how it is

described and personified? What

function does the first chapter serve?

2. Omniscient narrator and Quy: how

are they related to the reader “you”?

3. 2nd-Generation characters & their

parents: how do they each relate to

their parents?

4. 2nd-Generation characters & their

desires: what do they long for?

Jamal: what is his problem?

5. Quy: will he belong? (Guess!) Page 18

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

1 An overview of the city in early Spring, on subway train –3 of the

four characters & Quy

Quy --leaving Vietnam; at Pulau Bidong [you 8-9]

2 Tuyen – her brother visiting; about Carla, her parents, her art [the

four re. education & their parents 18-]

3 Carla –remembering her visit to Mimico; Carla facing the streets at

night [37-] [Jamal 30-; 32]

4 Tuyen – calling her friends to help, discussing Jamal and being

black 46 [the four and their parents]

Oku Jackie 48; Tuyen Carla 50

5 City overview—Tuyen’s family in Richmond Hill 55; against her

father 58; Lam 58; about Quy 60; Cam 63

6 Jackie and Oku “Hook a brother up”

Quy At the camp [the boy at a rotten boat] [work, the woman, the monk]

7 Oku – about his father Fitz

8 Jackie -- on the streetcar, about her family [Paramount, Elephant

Walk], Ab und Zu 99Page 19

Toronto City – Can you relate to it?

Anonymity is the big lie of a city. You

aren’t anonymous at all. You’re common,

really, common like so many pebbles, so

many specks of dirt, so many atoms of

materiality. (3)

What floats in the air on a subway train

like this is chance. People stand or sit

with the thin magnetic film of their life

wrapped around them. They think

they’re safe, but they know they’re not.

Any minute you can crash into

someone else’s life, and if you’re lucky,

it’s good, it’s like walking on light.” (2) Page 20

Toronto The people, aware of their ground

shifting; permutations of existence at

any crossroad; their lives doubled,

tripled, conjugated; people in

sensational lies

They think they’re safe, but they know

they’re not.

Page 21

Descriptions of the city:

Can you relate to it?

City (commercial center) on

Mondays pp. 41, 53-55

A shalwa kamese and a

Muslim cap

Page 22

Salwar Kameez

2nd Generation Characters

Their high school life pp. 18-19

shared everything except family details;

Felt as if they inhabited two countries

20

think their own families boring 19

their parents’ expectation of their living

“regular Canadian life” (47)

debating about Jamal again (48)

being black Note: List of killings by law enforcement officers in

Canada (119 cases, 25 in Toronto, 8 in Vancouver and 13

in Montreal).

Fact Sheet on Police Violence against the African

Community in Canada (Updated in July 2013) Page 23

2nd Generation Characters

What do they long for? [related to family]

Tuyen: an artist, sending messages to the city and

presenting city dwellers’ longing;

Tuyen (their sexual intimacy and C’s space of leave-taking)

50-51 –their talk about C’s having no desire (a week before

the lawyer called) 52

Carla (Italian-Black) Carla: loyalty to her dead mother

Carla’s experience: pp. 28-30 bike riding (the city has

muscles and selves); watching 39 (the streets)

Oku: aspiring writer; walking in the city; Jackie

Jackie: [upward mobility] away from poverty, going down

“the paths of flowers and trees”

Page 24

Tuyen and her Parents

Hates her Vietnamese background: About

the Viet. Restaurant p. 21

Parents

(65) father: From civil engineer to restaurant

owner

Mother: a doctor a manicurist

Her family: lack security, possessive family in Richmond Hill – antiseptic and rootless and

desolate 55; Cam – laminates proofs

Binh and Tuyen –serve as translators for their

parents (67), becoming smarter

Page 25

Tuyen and her Parents (2)

Tuyen: loving and rebellious:

To her mother: Going home for money, but also to find out if

her mother knows what Binh is up to 57

Her father: “How you think a family works? Same house,

same money, same life.” (57) –

-- “Tuyen knew this was her father’s way of welcoming her and

saying that he loved her. Love for him meant a kind of gruff

duty and care.”

-- escapes the “familiarity” 61

-- amused and frustrated by her parents’ eccentricities 63

Tuyen –going to Carla, T. has wanted to “be more than

them.” (69)

Against Quy 60 resentment, see him as an “impediment”

Page 26

Tuyen’s Love & Art works

Loves Carla -- 17 reminds her of a

painting by Remedios Varo*.

50 – 52 waiting for her to come around

She wanted sensuality, not duty. (61)

Her Art

Expresses her love for Carla

Expresses her sense of identity

Traveller 64

Her lubaio (14-17) “Messages to the

city” (17)

Page 27

Quy

What do you think about him?(After) chap 1 – [about his leaving Vietnam]

(After) chap 6 --[about Pulau Bidong]

Communicating to “you”

Avoid being sentimental or fault-finding;

seeing through media superficiality

about their leaving Vietnam;

One parent let go of his hand. “I won’t

say who.” (7)

Re. journalist

Feel “a lightness, a nonexistence” Other tragedies have overshadowed his. (74)

Page 28

Quy

Note: Pulau Bidong (source)

Video report at CBS

Page 29

Quy: The Fittest Survive

Top Concern: Survival

on the boat (7): mistreated

at the camp: a mixture of

goodness and brutality

--One rule—eat; you “Don’t be

sentimental. Don’t ascribe good

intentions.” (9)

-- ran up to be photographed

each time (9)

Page 30

Quy: The Fittest Survive (2)

Quy and the “wicked” boy:

-- metal toy and a boy “the last

sign of [his] innocence” (10)

no mercy for the old playmate,

only fighting back in order to

survive pp. 74-75

I would have maybe said sorry

myself; I did not miss him. (75)

Page 31

Carla

Her action in and observation of the city—

relating to the city through action and

gazing riding from the prison to Etobicoke – High

Park – the “muscle of highway and streets”

(31) – flies when she rides the bike, embraced

by the prison when she stops. (32)

Monday- -walks against the current.

Pre-occupied by Jamal’s problems Jamal – his phone calls & his stories (33-34)

(past: tried to get Derek to help without

success)

Distant from Nadine and Derrick.(37)

A wall between her and Tuyen (40)Page 32

PERSONAJE ASTRAL

Madness of the Cat

By REMEDIOS VARO

http://davidjure.wordpress.com/category/fig

uration-feminine-women-painting-women/

Jackie & Oku (chap 6) Oku – finds himself losing ground,

losing Jackie (72)

His poems: J: “You love innocence,”

(73)

Jackie and Oku in traffic:

People moving, stopping, and the

streetcar moving again, with her beautiful

back disappearing”

Jackie held him in a kind of glimmer (72)

“men are so innocent” (72-73)

Oku Jackie: finds himself sounding

foolish saying “hook a brother up” (81),

hoping that “the cards and posters”

contain “a map to her” (81); Page 34

Oku: A Failure?

-- Oku –dropping out of school;

doubts about a lit master’s

degree (87)

-- finds it hard talking to Fitz, who

has to be certain about

everything, or pretends to be.

developing his perspective on

his father (chap 7) and on

society (more later).

Page 35

Oku (obedient rebelliousafraid) Fitz He hasn’t done anyone any harm, ever. (80)

– the idea of moving out (freedom) given up

(82-83);

Oku & --Fitz

– asked him to work;

obedient--made him feel guilty about

moving out, that “Oku was betraying not

only his mother but also the race.” (82).

Fitz -- “small” man for Oku (47); gives the

same lesson every morning 83;

Oku does not share anything with him

except their love of music (84-85)

Fitz -- Felt held back (86)

Rebellious -- Oku’s question “you happy

Pop?” (86-87)

Page 36

Oku Fitz Afraid: Oku Father: feels himself

arriving “at the same conclusion” like

his father (87);

“When he examined this fear, he

realized that it wasn’t simply a fear of

Fitz. It was he himself who was

afraid.” (88)

looked at his own image (88): “The

image would catch him by surprise

and not a little disappointment that

that self-containment, that pig-

headedness, could not be his.

Remembering wondering about the

father’s dick, complying with the latterPage 37

Jackie (chap 8) about her work & future

“got to make money” (49)

in the world of fashion,

writing to InStyle (use of different

languages) 90-91

Ab und Zu –advertised itself as

selling post-bourgeois clothing (99);

Oku vs. Reiner: despised people who don’t know what

was happening to them (91); hate

innocence

different feelings about Reiner (apart and

in control) and Oku (on the train, liquid

and jittery) Page 38

Jackie (chap 8): about her Past

about her past with “the same mix of desire and revulsion”

(91);

Alexandra Park (92)

Paramount, —a time of glory; the father into

the crap games (gambling), and the mother,

fighting like men. (West Indian girls vs.

Scotian girls) Paramount, like church (95)

Elephant Walk: the father is there

because he is reckless, his leg broken

(98);

the community tight and self-protective

Page 39

Jackie: “men are so innocent” (73)

Works Cited Birbalsingh, Frank, ed. Frontiers of

Caribbean Literature in

English. London: Macmillan, 1996.

Silvera, Makeda. “An interview with

Dionne Brand: In the company of my

work.” The Other Woman: Women of

Colour in Contemporary Canadian

Literature. Ed. Makeda

Silvera. Toronto: Black Women and

Women of Colour P, 1995: 356-81.

Rosenthal, Caroline. New York and

Toronto Novels after Postmodernism:

Explorations of the Urban. Woodbridge:

Boydell & Brewer, 2011.Page 40