Creative Subversions: Whiteness, Indigeneity, and the National Imaginary

Description

Creative Subversions explores how whiteness and Indigeneityare articulated through iconic images of Canadian identity — and thecontradictory and contested meanings they evoke. These benign| evenkitschy| images| she argues| are haunted by ideas about race| masculinity| and sexuality that circulated during the formative yearsof Anglo-Canadian nationhood. In this richly illustrated book| Margot Francis shows how nationalsymbols such as the beaver| the railway| the wilderness of BanffNational Park| and ideas about Indianness evoke nostalgicversions of a past that cannot be expelled or assimilated. AsCanadians consume versions of a past that does not nourish| the living themselves become ghostly. Juxtaposing historical imageswith material by contemporary artists| Francis shows how artists aregiving taken-for-granted symbols new and suggestive meanings. Fromdirector Richard Fung’s Dirty Laundry to the work ofIndigenous artists Jeff Thomas and Kent Monkman and to Shauna Dempseyand Lorri Milan’s performance work Lesbian Park Rangers| thisbook explores how banal objects can be re-imagined in ways that offerthe possibility of moving from an unproblematized possession by thepast to an imaginative reconsideration of it. Margot Francis is an associate professor ofwomen’s studies and sociology at Brock University.