Department of English Philology

Vilnius University | Faculty of Philology | Lietuviškai | Home

Why Study Canada?

Canadians? Aren't they just a bunch of igloo inhabiting, ice hockey playing, beer chugging, beaver worshipping, Celine Dion-loving, polite peacekeeping, unarmed Americans with health care?

Well yes, but that's only part of the story, or myth, actually. Do you want to know why Canadians love their hockey, or who if anyone actually lives in igloos, or how a beer advertisement rallied a nation around the flag?

Maybe you'd like to learn more.

How did the country come about? Who are Canada's First Nations people? How does Canada's Government work? How do all those people from different ethnic backgrounds get along with one another? Do they really? How do minorities, French or otherwise, construct their own identity in the midst of a white, Anglo Saxon majority? What is the Canadian identity? Who decides? What's it like living next to the greatest superpower in the history of the world? How can Native people retain their culture and modernize their economies at the same time? And why do all those Canadian backpackers sew their flags on their bags anyway?

If you want to know the answers to these questions, or any others, why not sign up for the course that brings Canada a little closer to Lithuania (it's a big ocean after all).

Course Description

Course Syllabus

CANADIAN STUDIES

Term 4 (2005)

September

1 week (1 class)

Introduction: Mapping Canada: the sense of land, general geography, provinces, climate, vegetation. The Native perspective on the land vs. the colonial map-making: Thomas King's "A Seat in the Garden". Aboriginal bands, caribou, buffalo. Prairie literature: demonizing the landscape in Canadian literature. Victimization of the Canadian immigrant. Atwood's "Survival": the notion of landscape as monster. Joyce Marshall: "The Old Woman". Mythologizing the landscape in Canadian painting: The Group of Seven, Emily Carr.

2 week (2 seminars)

Canada's historical overview: colonial beginnings (1497, 1534), the British North American Act, Canadian Confederation (1867).

Film showing: CBC "A People's History": introduction to Canadian history.

3 week (1 class)

The construction of national identity: Regionalism (western alienation, eastern depression), Canadian nationalism, French and English Canadian relationships; changes in Quebec culture: the Quiet Revolution (1960s), the Official Languages Act (1969), repatriation of the Canadian Constitution (1982), the Meech Lake Accord (1987); The Charter of Rights and Freedoms; Canadian society: sources of immigration, state multiculturalism (1971), Multiculturalism Act (1988), new immigration legislation after September 11, Canada's political system as compared to the US political framework.

4 week (2 seminars)

Reading assignments:

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

7) Do Canadian musicians/singers have to give up their Canadian identity to make it big in America? Compare the “Canadian content” between the popular Canadian musicians/singers vs. the lesser known ones. Music: Classical (Glenn Gould, Calixa Lavalee) and other (Leonard Cohen, Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Bruce Cockburn, Broken Social Scene, Rheostatics, Shania Twain, Neil Young, Jane Sibery etc.)

September-October

5 week (1class)

The controversies of multiculturalism as a state policy. Immigration, ethnic minorities vs. the social mainstream. Issues of racism, cultural displacement and cultural difference. New immigration laws, social security. Ethnic minority as a political term within the context of policies of multiculturalism: interview with Neil Bisoondath. Racial profiling: first-person narratives, Dudley George. Assimilation or cultural integration? US illusory melting pot: Blacks and Latin Americans. Canadian mosaic: Aboriginals in Saskatchewan, histories of Chinese, Japanese, Jewish communities, contemporary Muslims).

6 week (2 seminars) Students' presentations

7 week (1 class)

Contemporary issues in Canada: Health Care; foreign policy and military in a post 9/11 world; Canada-US relations; a historical perspective: the issue of sovereignty then and now (decriminalization of marijuana, the Kyoto protocol, the case of Maher Arar), Americanization, globalization. Economic issues: softwood lumber dispute, wheat export.

8 week (2 seminars)

9 week (1 class)

Canada's First Nations: a historical perspective. Indigenous tribes, cultures, history of colonization. Indian reservations, the Indian Act, residential schools. Duncan Campbell Scott: "Charcoal". Issues of Native identity, identity as a commodity, cultural alienation, dangers of cultural extinction. Images of Native community, cultural displacement, racism. A post-colonial perspective: Native claims to land, resistance to cultural imperialism and ethnocentrism, making amendments to the Indian Act. The preservation of Native languages, enhancement of economic development, First Nations advocacy groups (councils). Issues of alcoholism and drug abuse, disproportionate number of Natives in prison. Natives in Canada and USA. The politics of Native art: art or ethnography?

Aboriginal humour: Don Burnstick's "You Might Be a Redskin".

Aboriginal music: "Native to Canada".

November

10 week (2 seminars)

Presentations :

11 week (1 class)

The Inuit of Canada: a historical perspective. Land claims: the establishment of Nunavut (1999). The Inuit identity: what makes them distinct within the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. The importance of land, climate. The Inuit conception of life/death, mythology as compared to mythologies of other Aboriginals groups. Inuit folklore (oral storytelling) vs. written tradition (priority of the west). Inuit literature as a medium of culture.

Contemporary Nunavut: cultural myths and social realities. Inuit art: cultural produce as identity claims.

References:

www.huskydog.com

www.itk.ca

12 week (2 seminars) Movie

CBC "A People's History"/ "Kanehsatake" documentary"/ "The English Patient"

Welcome to Canada; An unusual encounter between two cultures

Bollywood Bound

13 week (1 class)

Canada's role in the world: Canada's military history; current engagements (e.g. Afghanistan); the emergence of Canada's political profile; civility as a foreign policy principle, Security issues: Star Wars programme (missiles) , border security, the Iraq war.

December

14 week (2 seminars)

15 week (1 class)

Canadian literature as a medium of cultural profiling. Multiculturalism in literature: colonial and postcolonial discourse, literature as a means of cultural appropriation, challenging the canon, mainstream and ethnic minority discourse, the notion of voice , subversion of practices of racialisation and exoticising, history as narrative.

Aspects of historiographic metafiction: Joy Kogawa's Obasan (history, memory, social and historical marginality, the internment experience, silence/ body/ colour/ visibility/ language, destruction of community, colonial subject and discourse of power);

Ironising the marketing of identities in Basil Johnston's "Cowboys and Indians" (parody as a medium that disrupts the practices of exoticising, stereotypes of Native Canadians, the metaphor of film industry in the construction of ethnicity, fictional aspects of culture);

16 week (2 seminars)

Student essay defence.

Course References

•  Atwood, Margaret. Survival . Toronto: Anansi, 1972.

•  The Canadian Studies Reader (available at the Department of English Philology)

•  Berry, J.W. and Laponce, J.A. (eds) Ethnicity and Culture in Canada: The Research Landscape . Toronto: University of Toronto, 1999.

•  Brown, C. (ed) The Illustrated History of Canada . Toronto: Lester and Orpen Dennys, 1987.

•  Elspeth, Cameron (ed) Canadian Culture . Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press, 1997.

•  Forsey, E. A. How Canadians Govern Themselves . 5 th ed. 2003.

•  Hutcheon, Linda and Richmond, Marion. (eds) Other Solitudes : Canadian Multicultural Fictions . Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990.

•  Kamboureli, Smaro. (ed) Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1996.

•  Kogawa, Joy. Obasan . Toronto: Penguin Books, 1988.

•  Pryke, K. G. and Soderlund, W. C. Profiles of Canada . Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman Ltd., 1992

Canadian Studies Links:

The Lithuanian Association for Canadian Studies – http://www.angelfire.com/oz/lacs

General

“About Canada” – http://canada.gc.ca/acanada/acPubHome.jsp?font=0&lang=eng

Canada's Digital Collections – http://collections.ic.gc.ca/E/index.php

The Canadian Encyclopedia – http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?Params=A1

“Oh Canada!” – http://www.ualberta.ca/~bleeck/canada/

Canadian Heritage Gallery – http://www.canadianheritage.org/

The National Atlas of Canada Online – http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/index.html

National Library and Archives of Canada – http://www.collectionscanada.ca/index-e.html

Images of Canada – http://www.imagescanada.ca/index-e.html

Books on Canada – http://www.aecb.org/books/catalog_2_e.asp?catid=2

Canadian Foundations – http://www.ola.bc.ca/online/cf/

Culture Canada – http://www.culturecanada.gc.ca/chdt/interface/interface2.nsf/engdocBasic/0.html

Canadian History

Canadian History Portal – http://www.canadianhistory.ca/en/index.html

Canadian History Resources – http://www.academicinfo.net/canhist.html

Canadian History on the Web – http://members.rogers.com/dneylan/

Canada: Confederation to Present – http://www.chinookmultimedia.com/poccd/history/index.html

Canadian Studies Programs

Association of Canadian Studies – http://www.acs-aec.ca/English/index.htm

Canadian Studies Program – http://www.pch.gc.ca/csp-pec/index_e.cfm

The International Council for Canadian Studies – http://www.iccs-ciec.ca

ICCS Programs – http://www.iccs-ciec.ca/pages/4_ICCSprogs/a_gradstu.html

Canadian Studies Funding Programs – http://www.stfx.ca/campus/service/academic_funding_and_research/specialized.htm#canadian%20studies%20funding%20programs

Studying in Canada

Canadian Universities – http://www.uwaterloo.ca/canu/univ3.html

Studying in Canada – http://www.studyincanada.com/english/index.asp

Multiculturalism

The Department of Canadian Heritage – http://www.pch.gc.ca/index_e.cfm

Canadian Race Relations Foundation – http://www.crr.ca/EN/default.htm

Quebec

Quebec History – http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/

Quebec Sovereignty and Canadian National Unity – http://www.nelson.com/nelson/polisci/quebec.html

Canadian Women

Women in Canadian History – http://www.niagara.com/~merrwill/

Canadian Women's Internet Directory – http://directory.womenspace.ca/directory.cgi

Native Links

Assembly of First Nations – http://www.afn.ca/Assembly_of_First_Nations.htm

Aboriginal Canada Portal - http://www.aboriginalcanada.gc.ca/abdt/interface/interface2.nsf/engdoc/0.html

Canada's First Nations - http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firstnations/

The Inuit of Canada – http://www.itk.ca/english/inuit_canada/index.htm

Aboriginal Links: Canada and the U.S. (many outdated) – http://www.bloorstreet.com/300block/aborcan.htm

Arts and Culture

The National Gallery of Canada – http://national.gallery.ca/

Canadian Museum of Civilization Online – http://www.civilization.ca/indexe.asp

The Encyclopedia of Canadian Theatre – http://www.canadiantheatre.com/

National Film Board of Canada – http://www.nfb.ca/e/index.html

Canadian Literature – http://www.canlit.ca/resources/

The Canadian Literature Archive – http://www.umanitoba.ca/canlit/

CANLIT-L (Canadian Literature Discussion Group) – listserv@infoserv.nlc-bnc.ca

Canadian Poetry Archive – http://www.magomania.com/

Canadian Music Periodical Index – http://www.collectionscanada.ca/cmpi-ipmc/index-e.html

Encyclopedia of Music in Canada – http://www.collectionscanada.ca/emc/index-e.html

Canadian Politics

Canadian Politics on the Web – http://polisci.nelson.com/canpol.html

Canadian Politics: A Net Station– http://www.library.ubc.ca/poli/cpweb.html

Media

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – http://www.cbc.ca/

Canadian Television – http://www.ctv.ca/

The Globe and Mail – http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The National Post – http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/index.html

Canadian Newspapers Online – http://www.journalismnet.com/papers/canada.htm

Canadian Magazines Online – http://www.magomania.com/

Canadian Studies Links:

CanLinks – http://www.lucking.net/canlinks/

Canada Resources – http://www.academicinfo.net/can.html

Universiteto 5,
LT – 01513 Vilnius
Tel./fax (+370 5) 268 7228