Contemporary Canadian Literature and Film: Nation, Race and Gender Unit 2 Gender, Race and Surviving Trauma or Apocalypse

Contemporary Canadian Literature and Film: Nation, Race and Gender Unit 1  Gender, Nation and Global Culture 1. Power, Memory and Gender in Media 2. Internal and External Boundaries 3. Two Types of Globalization 4. Boundary-Breaking and Boundary Setting 5. Trauma and Healing 6. Identity Crisis in Teenage and Old Age 7. Body, Gender Identity and Consumer Society 8. Body, Race and Gender Identity

Contemporary Canadian Literature and Film: Nation, Race and Gender Unit 2  Gender, Race and Surviving Trauma or Apocalypse 1. Caribbean Canadian in Toronto Caribbean Canadian 2. Survival in the Postmodern & Apocalyptic City 3. East-Asian Canadian -- Racial Prejudice: Past and Present 4. Memory and Fragmentary Identity 5. Rituals of Reconciliation and Reconstruction 6. Language, Race and Identity: Chinese Canadian

The Caribbean Diaspora in Toronto Rude and “The Canadian Experience”

Outline  History of Immigration and Multiculturalism History of Immigration and Multiculturalism  The Caribbean community at Toronto. The Caribbean community at Toronto  Rude Rude  Canadian Experience Canadian Experience

Multiculturalism  Mosaic as Canadian national identity  The 1981 census was...the first to allow respondents to declare their maternal as well as their paternal heritage, which provides a limited opportunity to reveal more than one ethnic background.  Multiculturalism Act (1988)   controversies 1) aborigines included or not; 2) ghettoization? (clips 1, 2 from Toronto: the Meeting Place)12

The Caribbean immigration to Canada: Reasons  Reasons: 1960 ’ s -- Canadian immigration laws were reformed in order to base criteria for admission on individual qualifications rather than on countries of origin.  Great Britain was closing its doors to massive migration from the non-white Commonwealth; consequently, many West Indians who would normally have migrated from the Caribbean to Britain have been taking advantage of Canada ’ s liberalized policies.

The Caribbean immigration to Canada: Early Immigrants  Students  e.g. Austin Clarke  maids; Jobs for women as domestics and babysitters are almost always available despite downtrends in the general economy. Access to employment for men is somewhat more difficult.   inequality in males ’ and females ’ financial abilities  (e.g. Rude)

The Caribbean immigrants in Toronto: Racism  Examples of Racism  institutional racism -- the policies and practices of an organization are not attuned to their needs and interests, with the result that the migrants do not derive benefits equal to that of other Canadians.  e.g. 1. Disregard for their African and Caribbean heritage in the curriculum of schoool and postsecondary institutions; 2. “ Canadian Experience ”  subtle messages and cues signal the dislike or lack of welcome to a migrant of colour.  Brutal examples: police brutality. Clip 3: the Caribbeansthe Caribbeans

Clement Virgo: Director  From Jamaica; went to Toronto as a teenager--at the age of 11. He honed his visual sensibility during his five years working in the fashion industry as a window display artis.  Sex: “ I like making films that have sex and bodies and all those very human things in them. I think we are so hung up on sex that we don ’ t know how to enjoy it. ”  Race: Virgo sees racial issues as symptoms of the larger human condition....Things spiral inwards in Virgo films... (Monk 207)

Starting Questions  What are the problems Luke, Maxine and Jordan face respectively, and how do they solve them? (e.g. Maxine; Maxine and Jordan)MaxineMaxine and Jordan  What are the functions of Rude, the pirate radio DJ? (clip 1, 2 )12  What is the style of this film and how are symbols used?

Rude: Setting 1. Time frame: From Good Friday to Easter Sunday. 2. Space: in Toronto  Three main stories:  Luke – apartment house, drug den, a wall,  Maxine – apartment room, camera  Jordan – boxing ring, locker room and shower room.  Rude –dark radio space from Zulu nation to Mohawke nation  There seems to be no walls in each zone and the previous scene will skillfully change to the next.

General Luke’s Family A.The Power Relationship between Luke and Jessie 1. Luke: a drug dealer just released from jail, has nothing at all. 2. Jessica: a female cop, has power, money, and a home.

Eg. : Husband and Wife’s Relationship a. Jessica is the one who decides whether Luke stays or leaves b. When Luke tells Jessica that he can’t afford buying ice cream to his son, Jessica says that she could give him money as long as he asks. c. Jessica saves Luke when Yankee threatens to kill him at the end.

Luke and Johnny  B. Father-son Relationship: Luke tries to rebuild his relationship with his son and be a good father, but he seems can’t satisfy his child’s needs 1. Luke doesn’t know how to take care of his son. (The cooking scene)

Luke and Johnny  2. Luke can do nothing with Johnny’s education and inferiority complex. 3. Luke can’t even provide the basic material needs for Johnny.

Luke  social problems — drug dealing  Yankee: “ You like to suck my dick? ”

Luke, Reese and Drug Business  Yankee: asks Luke to be in charge; says Reece cannot be trusted, cannot even live till the thirty.  destroys Reece

Maxine  A. Love relationship  1. The symbolic meaning of the camera.  2. The objectification of female body.

Maxine: camera objectification

Maxine (2)  B. Cultural Identity  1. The myth of metropolis.  2. The symbolic meaning of the image of the little girl.

Boxer Jordan A. Homosexuality and boxing  1. The boxing community as an all-male community.  2. The masculinity of boxers shown in the shower and locker-room scene. E.g. “The faggot grabbed my dick.” in the Regent Park.  (e.g. next slide)

Boxer Jordan

Boxer Jordan (2) B. Jordon’s state  1. His difficult situation among gay bashers.  2. His expression of guilt through punch bag and boxing with his friend  3. His break-through by kissing his friend and allowing the man in the park to beat him.

Boxer Jordan (2)

Rude ’ s Function and Role A. Dah Poet/Prophet 1.rhythmic intonation & monologue 2.calling forth the lost identities of Caribbean immigrants/black diaspora 3.foreseeing the future & mentioning about Armageddon “ Fifty thousand is the number of boys and girls, dogs and bitches. Fifty zero zero zero thousand puppies will be conceived on this beautiful Friday night ”

Boys and girls, the lion is loose tonight. If you ’ ve seen his Majesty, give him a call.

If you lost the song of your disenfranchised diasporic voice, give me a call.Maybe I have it.

No one wants to hear your voice, bitch, why don ’ t you give it back. Cause there ’ s nobody want any love, too.

Rude ’ s call for awakening Don't recognize my voice; can't see my face? Many faces, isolation, isolated by a fragile infantile fantasy.Many sleep with eyes open, coping with the pain that stays in the brain. Don't recognize my voice; can't see my face?Rock the light pace, feel the blood waves.Treading motor, a tragic existence is a coexistence.Fight with spiritual persistence. Don't recognize my voice; can't see my face?A kiss of dysfunctional illusion, fusion of silence plus night confusion, sweet and sour delusion.Laws of survival: resist the self-rival, self-righteous primal desire to see, to feel, to buy, to find the bland center of identity.Reality.Reality? Two-dimensional sensuality.To touch you is not to know you.

Rude ’ s call for awakening Don't recognize my voice; can't see my face?The past is set for me destructive destiny.Self-fulfilling prophecy.Oh, the tragedy.Another ocean swallows the island, treading water, a tragic existence fight with spiritual persistence. Don't recognize my voice; can't see my face?A kiss of mental intrusion, physical exclusion, inaccessible solution, seeking spiritual evolution.Voided eyes, embraced by a lie, coated in self-despise. physical exclusion, inaccessible solution, seeking spiritual evolution.Voided eyes, embraced by a lie, coated in self- despise. I wonder, I ponder, I imagine -- if I shall rise from my sublime demise? Don't recognize my voice?" ***********

Rude ’ s call for awakening *Oh, ya, shouts from the mother ship have just been heard.... Keep yourself on the prize and you ’ ll live to see the dawn. “ Is this mother-fucker what you really want? ”

Foretelling the end of Western civ.  Tonight we worship the golden calf.Eat the sacred codes and speak in recognized tones.  Tonight the uncircumcised participate in the intercourse.A music is for the youth, for they shall inherit the earth.  Tonight it ’ s gonna be like the last night of the world.Propaganda and mind bombs rule. Armageddon has begun.

Self-destruct  Luke confronts Yankee, who kidnaps Johnny,  Jordon goes and get beaten up by the gay man who his group beat up before;  Maxine

Rude: Final Call for rebirth  It ’ s Easter Sunday morning.The sun is rising, the sun has risen.And the mother ship is leaving.Our majesty has forgiven us, and our senile sins are washed away.You just heard the trumpets disguised as gunshots singing us home.So all aboard on our mother ship for those who want a chance of rebirth.  I ’ m sending out an SOS to the boys and girls that were taken from the mainland brought to the land of Mohawke and...I ’ m sending out an SOS.If you want to reach my voice, give me a call.You know my number.

Rude’s Function and Role (2) B. Rebellious voice from the immigrants towards the colonizers --criticizing the fall of "the Babylon"/"the land of the Morak"(sex, violence,isolation) C. The struggling of hunger/desire inside Caribbean immigrants' hearts --feeling it everywhere through the airwaves (studio--nowhere--dinning room) D. Announces the possibility of salvation on Easter Sunday. (next slide)

Rude’s Function and Role (2)

Symbols Virgo: “I created my own 'hood, the sort of 'hood where a lion could roam, where mystical aboriginal spirits could dance among urban, transported Africans." A. The religious imageries are mixed up with Caribbean folk belief.  1. Lion as Hail Salosea  2. Easter and Black Jesus  3. The wall with pictures (examples) B. The redemption appearing in the end fits the theme.  1. Sun and rebirth  2. Music

Symbols: the mural

Foretelling the end of Western civ. – the spirit dancer 

Canadian Experience: Structure  1. Preparing for the interview (dress and pyschological preparation; his past and present situations in Toronto revealed.)  P. 55 : going out finally: 1) subway car; 2) elevator in the building;  Back to his apartment, talks to the actress ’  Back to his room, thinks of the past and a way out  Pp. 62 On a platform

Canadian Experience: Starting Questions  Why cannot the protagonist gets his job? What are his problems?  How does he finally solve his problems?