LE3 .A278 2009

2009

Vincent, Kerry

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

English

English & Theatre Studies

This study explores Joy Kogawa‟ s Obasan and Daphne Marlatt‟ s Ana Historic as narrative spaces wherein the imperfections of a fixed narrative of security is exposed, revealing the paradoxes of contaminated discourses. Using postmodern, postcolonial and feminist theories, I examine how Naomi, in Obasan, who experienced internment in Canada during her childhood in the 1940s, and Annie, in Ana Historic, who lives with the legacy of a colonial and settler enterprise, journey towards understanding their identities as necessarily paradoxical due to varying historical conditions and social contradictions. I look first at the historical documents both authors include in their novels to explore the interactions between controlling discourses and the voices they attempt to efface, and second at the home as the space wherein historical and social paradoxes play out. Ultimately, I read both novels as concluding with purposely irreconcilable narratives that illustrate the importance of witnessing contaminations and contradictions.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:132