July

Summer?  Is it summer really?  I’m being negative, the sun actually made an apparition today.  Let’s just hope it lasts…

First of all, I’d like to wish a happy Canada Day to all Canadians stumbling on this blog.  Canada day also marks the end of the fourth Canadian Book Challenge and the beginning of the fifth edition, in which I will again take part (you can check details on John’s blog The Book Mine Set).  Like last year, I will again begin with a novel by Carol Shields.  There must be something about this time of the year that draws me to her writings!  To celebrate Canada Day, I have been posting reviews on Canadian short stories and will keep doing so during the weekend (you can find the links to all the Canadian short stories I’ve reviewed here).

June has been a strange month for me and I’ve had ups and downs.  I usually like June.  The days are long and you can chill out in the garden in the evenings; however, the weather was not too helpful.  I spent most of my time studying, although very slowly, and… looking for a job, but nothing on that front yet.  The passing away of someone special did not help to lift up my spirits.  I went to Germany for a conference, though, and that was a nice experience; I will soon write a post on this trip.

Anyhow, this is a new month, a new beginning, right?  I have decided to be positive and to make the most of it with what I have.  Hopefully, the garden will start being more productive and I might spend more time in it if the weather permits.  I also still have the two foster kittens, Daz and Suds, under my care.  I think I might have found them a forever home, but I’m considering fostering more kittens when they leave.  At least, watching them always puts a smile on my face!

I wish you all a good summer!

Can you see?  The first green bean is out!

The broccoli is getting bigger (there is a second one, but it is much smaller):

Not a red hot chilli pepper, but soon, I hope:

Most of the flowers in my garden are spring flowers, but there are still some clematis:

And these little blue flowers have come out:

And the sunflowers should be blooming soon.  Now, that will cheer me up!

I don’t think I’ve ever shown you the view from my garden…  These cows are my alarm clock!

Unhomely States, edited by Cynthia Sugars

In my attempt to understand better postcolonialism in a Canadian context, I started reading the essays in Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism, a collection edited by Cynthia Sugars.  This book had been recommended to me as a good introduction to Canadian postcolonialism, which it indeed is.

In her introduction, Cynthia Sugars highlights the “impossibility . . . of settling on any one definition of postcolonialism in a Canadian context” (xiii).  She emphasises some of the form this postcolonialism can take, in particular as the result of American/English imperialism, but also from an indigenous perspectives.  This collection is an attempt at representing these various perspectives.

All essays have been previously published but are, here, regrouped according to their themes or perspectives: native perspective for instance, but also pedagogical ones.  It highlights how this contentious debate has evolved, with some essays being actual response to other essays, thus enabling the reader to create a more complete picture of the complex question of postcolonialism in Canada.

One will find essays by theorists, such as Northrop Frye, Linda Hutcheon and Diana Brydon, but also by writers, such as Robert Kroetsch, Thomas King or Lee Maracle.  Some of these essays might be more accessible than others, but I find that the way the collection is conceived helped for a better understanding of the difficult concepts.

Beginning with a consideration of postcolonialism in a Commonwealth context, the collection then moves to various attempts at defining postcolonialism in a Canadian context.  The essays thus highlight how postcolonialism in Canada might be the result of British imperialism, but also emphasise the question of Canada as a country in the periphery of the United States.  Indigenous questions are also examined in details and the essays offer an array of views on the topic.

I would highly recommend this book if you are interested in understanding better this controversial issue.  You might actually have already encountered some of these essays, but they act here as a dialogue.