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Vanderhaeghe's The Englishman's Boy engages with contemporary critical debate on racial discourse in literature. The thread of allusions to H.L. Mencken, whose anti-Semitic views were not publicly known at the time the novel is set but had become infamous by the time of its publication, brings the question of critical influence and responsibility to the fore. The echoing of Mencken's rhetorical style and ideas through characters like Harry Vincent, Damon Chance, and Rachel Gold serves as a barometer of personal morality by exploring the relationship between morality and the use or abuse of language in the telling of history. Vanderhaeghe's use of faith-based allusions raises the postmodern question of whether truth exists beneath the constructed stories of history. However, while acknowledging the complexity of historical truth, the novel ultimately suggests that all narrative is connected to real life, and that writers like Mencken should be held accountable for their words, whether spoken or omitted.
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In The Incomparable Atuk, Mordecai Richler is just short of prophetic on the subject of Canadian cultural nationalism. Previous criticism underestimates the sophistication of The Incomparable Atuk's satire and trivializes its serious intent. An examination of Atuk reveals his composite nature as both the Trickster of Native culture and the fool figure of Western imperial culture. By transgressing social and geographical boundaries Atuk as Trickster undermines and reveals the authoritarian forces that have designated a marginal space for him and his people. However, as the fool accountable to his patron, Buck Twentyman, Atuk simultaneously invokes white, Western conventions. Atuk plays upon such stereotypes as Eskimo, Jew, "noble savage," and "lazy Native," finding them useful for public image and commercial enterprising. Richler uses Atuk to critique corruption, hypocrisy, and colonial mindedness. Both Twentyman and Atuk capitalize on the flaws of Canadian citizens, and thus are both representative of imperialists who colonize their subjects for personal worldly success. The serious subtext of The Incomparable Ark suggests that Canadians must move beyond insularity, beyond producing "junk," to creating authentic work.
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Zionism was part of A.M. Klein's heritage, and as early as 1928-30 Klein was writing poems about Jewish oppression, survival, and transcendence of historical fate. Unfortunately, Klein's preoccupation with Jewish suffering and the need for a sanctuary-homeland predisposed him to a narrowly Zionist view of the Palestinian conflict. For the Zionists, the Palestinians were either the Other -- a people with no legitimate claim to the land -- or an absence. Klein's Zionist poetry suggests the tension required between opposition and longed-for fellowship in Palestine would be resolved once Zion was secured for the Jews. Although this rationalization seems naive or self-serving now, from 1927-51, as demonstrated in Klein's Zionist poetry and journalism, it was A.M. Klein's only formula for hope.
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Mordecai Richler's literary intentions included such areas as "home," satirical impulse, and construction of human morals. Then extent to which he has been realized his declared intentions and the degree to which he has been able to make them compliment one another are appropriate gauges for a critical assessment of his principal novels.
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This chapter presents three personal stories about the experience of hearing stories of courage and moral choice within the context of family or work environments. These stories range from the retelling of experiences in Greece during the Nazi occupation to stories shared by senior citizens looking back at responses to discriminatory practices in Puerto Rico as they offered shelter and support to the author during Hurricane Katrina. In each case, the stories were either told repeatedly by relatives, or the stories echoed similar stories told in the past by family members. In each of these contexts, the listener describes the experience of learning about moral choices made in challenging situations that have helped to shape the choices that they continue to make long after hearing those stories.
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In the course of our study on listening to stories of courage and moral choice, we noticed many examples of the way in which the stories appeared to function as a cognitive bridge, providing a vision of possibilities for caring action. We also observed that in order for these stories to promote identification with altruistic action for listeners, facilitative conditions are needed. The two facilitative conditions identified repeatedly by students and teachers were the sharing of the stories in a nurturing environment, where students felt emotionally safe, as well as an opportunity to practice helping behaviors, either inside or outside of school. These stories of connection, courage, and gratitude often elicited the question of “What can I do when faced with destruction and despair?” That question frequently revealed a wish to be a part of the connection, courage, and action inherent in these stories.
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Floyd Flavel disputes the significance of cultural appropriation (which he calls a "non-issue") but says it is important to maintain one's culture by living through it: its strength, foresight, commitment, discipline and joy. He claims that aboriginal self-government would require a cultural and artistic mandate. The important issues for a playwright are "real" issues (wounds, obsessions, the past); these become the core of a play. The change in Native representation on the stage has come about because Native people are the ones putting Native characters on the stage, and he claims that the Native Earth Performing Arts is "the only place that is a nurturing ground for Native theatre."