Upsetting Fake Ideas: Jeannette Armstrong's Slash and Beatrice Culleton's April Raintree

UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Upsetting Fake Ideas: Jeannette Armstrong's Slash and Beatrice Culleton's April Raintree Fee, Margery

Abstract

Both novels expose the "fake idea" that Aboriginal people in Canada can freely choose their identities. The dominant discourse forces a choice on them: assimilate or vanish. Those who refuse the choice face harsh racism. In April Raintree, April assimilates and her sister commits suicide; both "choices" forced on them by racism. In Slash, the hero realizes that it is crucial to retain his identity as an Okanagan person rather than to exhaust himself as an activist. Both novels end with a baby who will be raised in the traditions of his culture. Activism is seen as a dangerous choice for those too young to understand their identity.

Item Metadata

Title	Upsetting Fake Ideas: Jeannette Armstrong's Slash and Beatrice Culleton's April Raintree
Creator	Fee, Margery
Publisher	Canadian Literature
Date Issued	1990
Description	Both novels expose the "fake idea" that Aboriginal people in Canada can freely choose their identities. The dominant discourse forces a choice on them: assimilate or vanish. Those who refuse the choice face harsh racism. In April Raintree, April assimilates and her sister commits suicide; both "choices" forced on them by racism. In Slash, the hero realizes that it is crucial to retain his identity as an Okanagan person rather than to exhaust himself as an activist. Both novels end with a baby who will be raised in the traditions of his culture. Activism is seen as a dangerous choice for those too young to understand their identity.
Extent	301752 bytes
Subject	Aboriginal literature; stereotypes of "the Indian"; activism; American Indian Movement; foster homes; "Sixties Scoop"
Genre	Article
Type	Text
File Format	application/pdf
Language	eng
Date Available	2009-08-05
Provider	Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI	10.14288/1.0074539
URI	http://hdl.handle.net/2429/11685
Affiliation	Arts, Faculty of; English, Department of
Citation	Margery Fee. "Upsetting Fake Ideas: Jeannette Armstrong's Slash and Beatrice Culleton's April Raintree." Canadian Literature 124-25 (1990): 168-80.
Peer Review Status	Reviewed
Scholarly Level	Faculty
Copyright Holder	Margery Fee
Rights URI	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository	DSpace

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