LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Whitehall, Geoffrey

Acadia University

Master of Arts

Masters

Political Science

Politics

n this thesis, I examine how the narrative structure and language of the novel form reproduces state authority and nationalistic discourse. In order to explore the novel’s state-reproducing potential, I examine two years of the Canada Reads competition: the 2011 competition to choose “the ssential Canadian novel of the 2000s” and the 2014 competition to choose “the novel to change Canada now.” Although these two years present two different ways to understand Canada and, in turn, invite each panel to champion different stories, both panels engage with similar discourses on what it means to be Canadian. While the CBC, the host radio network of Canada Reads, frames itself as an arbiter of Canadian culture and media, I am interested in how the novels are read by the panel to reproduce nationalistic discourses. Using the work of Benedict Anderson, Edward Said, and Walter Mignolo, I will map how the novel creates national community and is used to reinforce hegemonic state structure. Then, I draw from the work of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson to discuss how different forms of storytelling can create different kinds of community. The current Canadian literary imaginary exists through the marginalization of Indigenous and racialized communities, as such, it is vital to imagine different kinds of literary communities.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3536