Je Me Souviens – Re/Writings of History in Contemporary Canadian Drama
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René Schallegger
Abstract
For a nation as young as Canada, writings and rewritings of history become essential elements in the creation of a postcolonial and independent national literature. This process was initiated during the late 1960s and 1970s, and it is not until the 1980s that we see theoretical perspectives being developed. Linda Hutcheon’s reading of Canadian culture as driven by a sense of irony and obsessed with historiographic metafiction provides the context for William J. Keith’s attempt at a national canon (building on the work of Northrop Frye and Margaret Atwood), which orchestrates the emergence of contemporary Canadian drama. Following an exploration of the critics’ work, six contemporary Canadian plays are briefly introduced and discussed as to how they actively re/write histories, or even the conventions of narrative themselves: Kevin Loring’s Where the Blood Mixes (2009), David Yee’s lady in the red dress (2010), Lorena Gale’s Je Me Souviens (2001), Daniel MacIvor’s Cul-de-Sac (2005), Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex (2000), and Guillermo Verdecchia’s bloom (2007). Fundamental questions about identification, discursive authority, and responsibility arise from this mosaic of Canadian voices.
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© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theater and History – Cultural Transformations
- Articles
- Introduction: Theater and History – Cultural Transformations
- Anthropo-Scenes: Theater and Climate Change
- ‘Provincializing’ Post-Wall Europe: Transcultural Critique of Eurocentric Historicism in Pentecost, Europe and The Break of Day
- Utopian Histories: Transforming Past Ideals in Stoppard’s Plays
- A Historiography of Protest and the Politics of Commemoration in Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica
- Je Me Souviens – Re/Writings of History in Contemporary Canadian Drama
- David Greig’s The American Pilot and Earlier Dramatizations of Political Hostage Takings
- Time and Temporalities in Contemporary British War Plays – Roy Williams’s Days of Significance and Owen Sheers’s The Two Worlds of Charlie F.
- Women and Historical Agency in Contemporary British Plays
- From History to ‘Ourstories’ in Martin Crimp’s Metanarratives
- Locating History on the Contemporary Stage
- Reviews
- Vicky Angelaki. The Plays of Martin Crimp: Making Theatre Strange. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, x + 228 pp., $ 85.00 (hardback); available as eBook.Clara Escoda Agustí. Martin Crimp’s Theatre: Collapse as Resistance to Late Capitalist Society. CDE Studies Volume 24. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2013, xi + 336 pp., $ 140.00 (hardcover or eBook), $ 210.00 (hardcover and eBook).
- Sophie Bush. The Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013, viii + 337 pp., £ 16.99 (paperback and eBook).
- Peter Fifield and David Addyman (eds.). Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies: New Critical Essays. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, 244 pp., £ 58.50 (hardback), £ 19.99 (eBook).Katherine Weiss. The Plays of Samuel Beckett. Critical Companions. London: Methuen Drama, 2013, 286 pp., £ 50.00 (hardback), £ 16.99 (paperback).
- Anne Cremieux, Xavier Lemoine and Jean-Paul Rocchi (eds.). Understanding Blackness Through Performance: Contemporary Arts and the Representation of Identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 282 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback).
- Denise Varney, Peter Eckersall, Chris Hudson and Barbara Hatley. Theatre and Performance in the Asia-Pacific: Regional Modernities in the Global Era. Studies in International Performance. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xiii + 253 pp., $ 85.00 (hardback).
- Clare Wallace. The Theatre of David Greig. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013, ix + 259 pp., £ 50.00 (hardback), £ 15.29 (paperback).
- Gareth White. Audience Participation in Theatre: Aesthetics of the Invitation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, x + 224 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.00 (paperback).
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Special Issue: Theater and History – Cultural Transformations
- Articles
- Introduction: Theater and History – Cultural Transformations
- Anthropo-Scenes: Theater and Climate Change
- ‘Provincializing’ Post-Wall Europe: Transcultural Critique of Eurocentric Historicism in Pentecost, Europe and The Break of Day
- Utopian Histories: Transforming Past Ideals in Stoppard’s Plays
- A Historiography of Protest and the Politics of Commemoration in Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica
- Je Me Souviens – Re/Writings of History in Contemporary Canadian Drama
- David Greig’s The American Pilot and Earlier Dramatizations of Political Hostage Takings
- Time and Temporalities in Contemporary British War Plays – Roy Williams’s Days of Significance and Owen Sheers’s The Two Worlds of Charlie F.
- Women and Historical Agency in Contemporary British Plays
- From History to ‘Ourstories’ in Martin Crimp’s Metanarratives
- Locating History on the Contemporary Stage
- Reviews
- Vicky Angelaki. The Plays of Martin Crimp: Making Theatre Strange. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, x + 228 pp., $ 85.00 (hardback); available as eBook.Clara Escoda Agustí. Martin Crimp’s Theatre: Collapse as Resistance to Late Capitalist Society. CDE Studies Volume 24. Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2013, xi + 336 pp., $ 140.00 (hardcover or eBook), $ 210.00 (hardcover and eBook).
- Sophie Bush. The Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013, viii + 337 pp., £ 16.99 (paperback and eBook).
- Peter Fifield and David Addyman (eds.). Samuel Beckett: Debts and Legacies: New Critical Essays. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, 244 pp., £ 58.50 (hardback), £ 19.99 (eBook).Katherine Weiss. The Plays of Samuel Beckett. Critical Companions. London: Methuen Drama, 2013, 286 pp., £ 50.00 (hardback), £ 16.99 (paperback).
- Anne Cremieux, Xavier Lemoine and Jean-Paul Rocchi (eds.). Understanding Blackness Through Performance: Contemporary Arts and the Representation of Identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 282 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback).
- Denise Varney, Peter Eckersall, Chris Hudson and Barbara Hatley. Theatre and Performance in the Asia-Pacific: Regional Modernities in the Global Era. Studies in International Performance. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, xiii + 253 pp., $ 85.00 (hardback).
- Clare Wallace. The Theatre of David Greig. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2013, ix + 259 pp., £ 50.00 (hardback), £ 15.29 (paperback).
- Gareth White. Audience Participation in Theatre: Aesthetics of the Invitation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, x + 224 pp., $ 90.00 (hardback), $ 29.00 (paperback).
