Journal Article

Truth Unreconciled: Counter-Dreaming in Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls

Doyle, Caitlyn P.

2020

Overview

In Barnaby’s film, however, it is not only a matter of such a slippage between the categories of “the real and the imaginary, the physical and the mental, the objective and the subjective, description and narration, the actual and the virtual...,” but a very real conflict over which dream reality will become entangled with. In 2008, forced by the largest class-action lawsuit in Canadian history to address the legacy of the residential school system, the Canadian government established the TRC. The underlying assumption seems to be that respect is at last to be extended to Indigenous communities, while the respect owed to Euro-Christian Canadian society is both presupposed and reaffirmed in this persistent refrain of mutuality. The rational dialogue between mutually respectful actors, feels particularly perilous when, for example, among the voices of the survivors, appears the exculpatory language of good “intent” deployed by Reverend Doug Crosby: “Recognizing that within every sincere apology there is implicit the promise of conversion to a new way of acting, we, the Oblates of Canada, wish to pledge ourselves to a renewed relationship with Native peoples which, while very much in line with the sincerity and intent of our past relationship, seeks to move beyond past mistakes to a new level of respect and mutuality.”

• Publisher: Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan Library),Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library
• Subject: Apologies / Barnaby, Jeff (1976-2022) / Characters (Roles) / Deleuze, Gilles / Motion picture criticism / Motion pictures / Native North Americans / Reconciliation / School systems / Science fiction & fantasy