"We'd rather be 'red' than dead"-Embracing one's difference through selected native canadian fiction for children and young adults

Abstract

[ES] La ficción nativa canadiense para niños y adultos jóvenes puede ser vista como un importante medio de transmisión cultural y de socialización que contribuye, en gran medida, a una identidad colectiva de la comunidad. Aquí comienza el primer problema: tratar de definir el concepto de cultura y de examinar de qué manera o maneras el patrimonio oral forma parte de la misma. A continuación, surgen otras preguntas ya que en Canadá, refugio de múltiples culturas y etnias, los debates sobre la identidad nacional resurgen repetidamente y continúan frecuentando el imaginario colectivo del país. Conocer el lugar de los pueblos indígenas y su literatura presenta una mayor dificultad debido al legado del colonialismo. A pesar de las dificultades, nuevas voces están siendo presentadas como canadienses, y la diferencia se ha convertido en el rasgo distintivo de la literatura nacional. Jeannette Armstrong, una escritora de Okanagan, artista y educadora, es muy consciente de la fuerza que se deriva de esta variedad de culturas y, en sus obras, aboga por una pluralidad de voces dentro y fuera de su comunidad. Uso de Armstrong ficciónes para niños y adultos jóvenes, y examino brevemente algunas obras de Tomson Highway, George Littlechild, Thomas King y C.J. Taylor, esta tesis doctoral examina cómo la literatura puede ser interpretada como un lugar de resistencia y/o de intercambio cultural para conectar diversas personas de distintas nacionalidades, generaciones, lenguas, religiones, sexos y condiciones sociales.

[EN] Native Canadian fiction for children and young adults can be viewed as an important means of cultural transmission and socialisation that contributes, to a great extent, to a community‟s collective identity. Here begins the first problem posed to us: trying to define the concept of culture and to examine in what way(s) oral heritage forms a part of it. Then, some other questions arise because in Canada, the haven of multiple cultures and ethnicities, debates about national identity re-surface repeatedly and continue to haunt the collective imagiNation of the country. Finding out the place of Native peoples and their literatures is even a greater difficulty, due to the legacy of colonialism. Despite the difficulties, new voices are currently being authorised as Canadian, and difference has now turned into the distinctive feature of the national literature. Jeannette Armstrong, an Okanagan writer, artist and educator, is well aware of the strength that stems from this variety of cultures and, in her works, she advocates for a plurality of voices within and outside of her community. Using Armstrong‟s fiction for children and young adults, and looking briefly at some other works by Tomson Highway, George Littlechild, Thomas King and C. J. Taylor, this dissertation examines how literature can be read as a site of resistance and/or of cross-cultural exchange connecting diverse people of different nationalities, generations, languages, religions, genders and social conditions.