LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 11 : 3 March 2011
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.

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Beatrice Culleton and Her April Rain Tree -
Identity Crisis of the People of Mixed Races of Colonization

K. S. Thirunavukkarasu, Ph.D.

Beatrice

First Nations - The Natives

In human history, the first nations all over the world became the victims of colonizers. The first nations are geographically separated, and their identities are localized. However, their sufferings due to discriminations are globalized. It is possible to identify a common current of issues, agitations and movements across a variety of first nations, even as they are geographically separated.

As the natives are the victims of the whites, racism becomes a major theme in the writings of the first nations. Racism is a powerful system of oppression. In addition to giving voices to the predicament of the first nation, the first nation writers shoulder the responsibility of constructing the first nation's cultural identities. They have the responsibility to counter the abysmally low image about the natives created by the colonizers and set right the negative image by probing deep into the politics of colonization and racism.

Fight to Retain Identity

Besides, the first nations' writers have to fight for a prominent space in literature to express their voices to re-construct their history as their history is distorted by the white colonizers.

While discussing and describing the formations of cultural identity for indigenous peoples, Kateri Damm says that "Who we are has been constructed and defined by others to the extent that at times we no longer know who we are." (p.11)

Jenanette Armstrong in "Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations' Analysis of Literature" argues that "the questioning which shapes the initial pedagogical voice must be acknowledged" as these are "the indigenous voices coming forward in written English literature are cultural specific voices."

Canadian Native Women

The suffering and struggles of the Canadian native women are representative of the suffering and struggles of the first nations. The native Canadian women are the victims of triple colonization, the first being Canadian in the post-colonial period, the second being the natives and the third being women. Mixed parentage of European and First Nations further adds to the suffering and complexity.

Maria Campbell, Beatrice Culleton, Neamette C. Amstrong and Lee Maracle are recognized Canadian native women writers. They embark upon the task of reconstructing and re-defining the native cultural identities in their writings. Jeanette Armstrong, in her "The disempowerment of first North American Native peopled and Empowerment through their writing," expresses that "Our task is twofold. To examine the past and culturally affirm toward a new future." (P.210)

Beatrice Culleton and Her April Rain Tree

Beatrice Culleton, a Canadian native woman writer, tries to recreate the history of metis (people who trace their descent to mixed parentage of Europeans and First Nations tribes of Canada) by recounting the life history of two metis sisters April Rain Tree and Cheryl Rain Tree. April serves as a foil to Cheryl in their search for identities. April negates her metis identity by following the culture of whites whereas her sister Cheryl affirms her metis identity through her search for cultural roots.

cover page of April Rain Tree

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Balbir Madhopuri's Changiya Rukh - A Critique of Dalit Identity and Politics | Multiple Nested Triglossic Situation in Pakistan | Problems Encountered by Arab EFL Learners | Language and Nomenclature Imbroglio among the Kukis | Indigenous Language Abandonment in the Religious Domain in Murree - A Family Report Analysis | A Comparative Study of New Woman through the Female Protagonists of Kamala Markandaya and Shashi Deshpande | A Look into the Causes of Language Choice among Female Students in Academic Setting in Pakistan | Census and the Aspects of Growth and Development of Bangla vs. Bangla-Hindi Bilingualism -With Special Focus on West Bengal | Joshi's The Foreigner - Within and Without | To Investigate the Sense of Teacher Efficacy between Male and Female Teachers of Secondary Schools of Wah Cantt. | Comparative Study of Cost Effectiveness of Formal and Non-Formal System of Primary Teacher Certificate Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Pakistan) | Sudha Murty's Short Stories as a Motif of Values | Standard English as a 'Fiat Code' and the Dwindling Faith behind It | Effect of the Use of Motivational Techniques on the Academic Achievement of the Teachers at the Higher Education Level in Pakistan | A Critical Analysis of the Function of Mass Media Language as a Tool of Social Oppression | The Use of Films in the Teaching of English in India | A Comparative Study of Effectiveness of Concept Attainment Model and Advance Organizer Model in Teaching of English in Teacher Education Course | The Effect of Cooperative Learning on Academic Achievement of Low Achievers in English | Imagining a Borderless World: A Comparative Study of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda | Teaching English in Schools: Problems and Solutions - A Case Study from Rajasthan, India | Socio-cultural Patterns of the Tamil Brahmin Community in the Novels of R. K. Narayan | Effects of Multimedia Glosses on Aiding Vocabulary Acquisition in EFL Environment | English Language Teaching in Rural India - Issues and Suggestions | Teaching Paragraph Writing - "Bilingual" Newspapers as Tools | A Study of Teachers' Academic Qualification, Morale and Their Teaching Behaviour | Syllable Onset Clusters and Phonotactics in Pahari | Literary Criticism as a Shared Set of Measurement | Ted Hughes's Poetry - The Problem of the Evil of Self-Consciousness | Travelogue as a Literary Genre | Bim's Unfailing Strength in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day | Impact of Education on Development of Self-Concept in Adults | An Analysis of the Lack of Primary English Language Skills among the Technical Students of Hindi Speaking States | Emergent Literacy Experiences in the Classroom - A Sample Survey in Mysore City | ICT Enabled Language Learning Using Handphones - An Experimental Study | Creative Writing in Language Classes | Business Communication: Techniques and Methods by Om P. Juneja and Aarti Mujumdar (Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2010) | Word Formation in Surjapuri | Beatrice Culleton and Her April Rain Tree - Identity Crisis of the People of Mixed Races of Colonization | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF MARCH, 2011 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT. This document is better viewed if you open it online and then save it in your computer. After saving it in your computer, you can easily read all the pages from the saved document.

Call for Papers for a Language in India www.languageinindia.com Special Volume on Autobiography and Biography in Indian Writing in English | Call for Papers for a Special Volume on Indian Writing in English - Analysis of Select Novels of 2009-2010 | HOME PAGE of March 2011 Issue | HOME PAGE of Language in India | CONTACT EDITOR languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com

K. S. Thirunavukkarasu, Ph.D.
Department of English
GTJ Engineering College
Chittoor-Cuddalore Main Road, Kaniyambadi
Vellore-632102
Tamilnadu, India
ksthiru_37@yahoo.com

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