Contemporary Canadian Literature and Colonial Education : Case Studies of Sri Lankan, Malay, and Caribbean Immigrant Writers
| Project/Area Number |
16520191
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
FUJIMOTO Yoko Waseda University, Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Professor (00238619)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2006
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2006)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
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| Keywords | Postcolonialism / colonialism / Canada / Canadian literature / education / immigrant / South Asia / Caribbean / ナショナリズム |
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| Research Abstract |
This study discusses immigrant writers in contemporary Canada, with a special focus on the representation of education , modes of knowledge and knowledge production in their fictional works. It inquires how the historical past and personal experiences are portrayed in fictions by the writers, who inevitably inherit legacies of colonial education practiced in their countries of origin, but have acquired, mostly after reaching adulthood, new identities as Canadian citizens. The main concern of the study is how the issue of power/knowledge is raised and problematized by means of revisiting personal and collective experiences of colonial education.
To investigate the topic, I used ideas and concepts of postcolonial studies as a framework, while at the same time collecting factual information and historical documents on educational policies, ideologies and practices. These materials, when read alongside with the fictional representations and renderings, shed new lights on the process of the formation of(post)colonial mentality and the dissemination of knowledge as ideology.
A major conclusion I have reached so far can be summarized as this : Many of the immigrant writers in Canada make their attempts, by way of writing, to denounce Eurocentric humanist traditions, deeply rooted in the ideal of the Enlightenment. Interestingly, they then turn their attention to the shift in educational policies many of the colonies saw around the time of dependence. However, the new emphasis on vocational or pragmatic education and scientific epistemology do not appeal to them as a means to liberate people from colonization of their mind. Instead, the writers seem to pursue possibilities of their own humanistic approaches, taking pains to attach social values to their own acts of writing. It is also worth noting that such values are often predicated on the Canadian multiculturalism as a social goal which largely informed Canadian cultural situation in the 1970s and 80s.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(9 results)
