Journal Article

Postnational Coming of Age in Contemporary Anglo-Canadian Fiction

Mackey, Allison

2012

Overview

Because the \"unifying meaning of the story, can only be posed by the one who lives it, in the form of a question,\" it is only when the story is told by another that \"the meaning of what otherwise remain an intolerable sequence of events\" is revealed (2). According to Brydon, remaining open to the experience of critical intimacy when it comes to reading literature requires \"openness to others\" in \"imaginative co-presence\" (997). Perhaps the focus on the interrelationships between these youth, instead of centring on the development of one individual, as well as the belated nature of their independence, might better reflect the realities of growing up as a second-generation youth in the twenty-first century. 3 This trope can be extended to encompass a third sense as well: in terms of literary production, the relative success of \"multicultural literature\" in Canada is in large part due to the commitment of public funding agencies which have played an important role in ensuring heterogeneity in Canada's publishing industry in the name of official multiculturalism, even though the resistant potential of such literature continually runs the risk of being co-opted by neoliberal, or \"banal\" (Dobson), multicultural discourse. Perhaps the fact that Oku is poised to go back to school to complete his ma at the end of the novel points toward the promise of combining heterogeneous forms of education. 7 On his way home late one night, Oku's body is misread as a criminal black body by police officers: that this encounter feels painfully intimate, an \"accustomed embrace\" or \"perverse fondling\" (165), offers him a glimpse into what may await him if he does not forge his own alternative to the models of black masculinity that are available to him. 8 The novel seems to warn against reading Jackie's relationship with \"the German boyfriend\" as some kind of pathology, however, by offering a complex rendering of her interiority: the description of her tumultuous feelings for Oku are fraught with conflicted feelings for her parents, while Reiner is described as predictable, safe, and separate, which suggests that her desire to be with him stems from more than just an idealization of whiteness.

• Publisher: Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English,ESC: English Studies in Canada
• Subject: 1900-1999 / 2000-2099 / Adolescent Characters / Authors / Bildungsromans, Canadian / Brand, Chariandy, Dionne, --, David John / Brand, Dionne / Brand, Dionne (1953- ) / Canada / Canadian fiction / Canadian literature / Chariandy, David / Chariandy, David John (1969- ) / Children of immigrants in literature / Childrens novels / Coming of age / Criticism and interpretation / cultural identity / English Literature / Fiction / History and criticism / Immigrant children / Immigrant Identity / immigrants / Intergenerational relationships / Literary criticism / Multiculturalism & pluralism / Nationalism and literature / novel / Novelists / Portrayals / Social Relations / Soucouyant / Toronto / Transnationalism / Trinidad and Tobago literature / Twentieth Century / Twenty-First Century / What We All Long For / young adults