Approaching Anxiety: Reading Eden Robinson in an Era of Reconciliation
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Authors
Skrynsky, Hannah
Date
Type
thesis
Language
eng
Keyword
Indigenous Literature , Reconciliation , Settler Anxiety , Colonialism
Alternative Title
Abstract
This project seeks to account for the ways in which Anglo-settler anxiety has influenced the construction of the mythos of a benevolent Canadian national identity. I argue that settler anxiety toward Indigeneity is the underlying affective condition of Canadian Anglo-settler society, and continues to inform contemporary reconciliation politics. My thesis proceeds by questioning the role that this collective feeling of anxiety has played in the construction of Canada’s reconciliatory politics. To what extent has this anxiety motivated Canada’s reconciliation project? How does the current structure of the reconciliation process alleviate this anxiety rather than confront it? My thesis will wager that the provocation of settler anxieties by Indigenous artists — and the mobilization of those anxieties in popular discourse—has the potential to reveal the inadequacies of dominant understandings of a teleological reconciliation project in Canada and thereby re-politicize the reconciliation process. Specifically, I look to Haisla writer Eden Robinson’s fiction to examine how Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach and her short story “Terminal Avenue” exemplify an alternative approach to Canada’s reconciliation project through their provocation and textual representations of settler anxiety.
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CC0 1.0 Universal
Queen's University's Thesis/Dissertation Non-Exclusive License for Deposit to QSpace and Library and Archives Canada
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.
Queen's University's Thesis/Dissertation Non-Exclusive License for Deposit to QSpace and Library and Archives Canada
ProQuest PhD and Master's Theses International Dissemination Agreement
Intellectual Property Guidelines at Queen's University
Copying and Preserving Your Thesis
This publication is made available by the authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research and may not be copied or reproduced except as permitted by the copyright laws without written authority from the copyright owner.