In the Skin of A Lion PI - Prof. Rob Winger PDF

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Prof. Rob Winger
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In the Skin of a Lion (Part 1) Space and Place Lecture 8 14 November These 3 novels (Green Grass Running Water, In the Skin of a Lion, Barney’s Version) are about having a split identity; between national senses of belonging. The subjectivity tends to be spoken about through racial identity, gender identity, cultural identity, etc. “Other” Voices Non-white, non-male, non-middle class, etc. - Legislated multiculturalism with Canadian Multiculturalism Act (1988) - Reflects arguments and protests against racism - Identity politics - This doesn’t mean that the law in place is followed by citizens in the country - Tolerance is different than acceptance “Other” Voices? - Traditional white vs. “Other” immigrant - Nations are imagined communities; you decide on a fictional commonality, but you will never know everyone o This is limited o Our communities always grow on the backbones of other community structures Imagining Community in Running in the Family - Nationalism and personal identity - On thinking of Sri Lanka in Canada, the past in the present - Ambrose Small is a real person; the author began writing about him as the main character, leaves for a new novel and when he comes back his views are different - The author’s question is what nation do I belong to, and what does it mean? Michael Ondaatje (born 1943) - Born in Sri Lanka, moved to England, age 11 - Bishop’s, U of T, Queen’s (MA on Leonard Cohen) - Western, York - First novel published at 24, wins Governor General’s Award for Billy the Kid at 26 - In the Skin of a Lion (1987), continues the development and life of characters in his other works (Hana, Caravaggio) - One of the few Canadian authors recognized internationally General Themes - History and Fiction: real characters from history mingle with fictional ones

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Intertextuality/Art: references to Gilgamesh, cubism, chiaroscuro, photographic history, socialist history in art; in-jokes - Frame of the book: the beginning and ending pages; the entire story is being told by Patrick to Hana in the car on their way to pick up Clara - Photographic elements: throughout - Lyrical/Mythical/Magic-realist elements - Language: how learned by immigrants, how Patrick enters community, song and theatre as language, lack of names in Patrick’s youth - Immigration: Temelcoff’s story - Unions and Workers: Patrick and others gaining identity as part of historical triumphs; Cato as fictionalized story of Finnish unionists Structure: Taking Turns - Patrick seems to be the main character, but each chapter seems to have its own lead - “Each person had their moment when they assumed the skins of wild animals, when they took responsibility for the story.” (157) - The chapters interrelate; flashbacks and flash-forwards; the building of suspense that appears scattered and strange - Characters and their previous lives (Nicholas, Alice) - “[…] he could see the faint interiors, their privacy and character revealed, each room a subplot.” (243) The Moment of Cubism - Taken from an essay by John Berger on Pablo Picasso o Once you realize there are many versions of the truth, you cannot go back o You understand/see things differently and can never go back to your previous understanding Patrick as History and Pre-History - Frame of Story: opening and closing pages - “Six stars and a moon” (1; 171) - Moths are pre-historic creatures; during his childhood Patrick was obsessed with them - His father gives him no base of theory, no legend on which to go; teaches him very little - Town unmapped; his experience is not documented - Patrick’s search echoes Ondaatje’s - The text challenges people like Harris as the bad guy Historiographic Metafiction - Metafiction: how a novel displays its own creation, so the reader participates - Historiography: the writing or re-writing of history from fragments, and the de-centering of the myth of narrative and knowledge traditional history promotes

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History: root of the word is Latin “historia” or “story”; thus, history is the telling of stories - Common techniques or tools: photography, fragments, intertextuality, self-reflexivity Social Photography of Work - By Lewis Hine in US - Pictures of child labour and working conditions of the working class - Latter collected in a book called Men at Work in 1932 - Photos cheat death and freeze time in a way that humans cannot; it should be impossible and allows us to keep things with us that we otherwise never would be able to The Bridge for What? - White officials oversee it, non-whites make it - Whiteness and darkness (race) - Rich and poor (class) - Known and unknown (faith, ideology, metanarratives) - East and West; the unification between groups (Toronto, globe) - Communities (global, local, individual, collective) - Past, present, future (of characters, of city, of ideas) - Fact and fiction (Ondaatje vs. archive, history vs. historiography) - Modern and postmodern “The bridge. The bridge.” - Bridge modern and postmodern sensibilities - Presents multiplicity and varied, simultaneous perspectives stressed by cubism - Viewing multiple views at once - THUS, subverts official record, photographs - Exposes dynamic of public vs. private histories - After knowing there are multiple stories and possibilities in history, you can’t go back to not know - Hence, Berger epigraph: “Never again will a single story be told as though it were the only one.” - Realizing the existence of multiple viewpoints is “the moment of cubism”...