Je Me Souviens – Re/Writings of History in Contemporary Canadian Drama

Abstract

For a nation as young as Canada, writings and rewritings of history become essential elements in the creation of a postcolonial and independent national literature. This process was initiated during the late 1960s and 1970s, and it is not until the 1980s that we see theoretical perspectives being developed. Linda Hutcheon’s reading of Canadian culture as driven by a sense of irony and obsessed with historiographic metafiction provides the context for William J. Keith’s attempt at a national canon (building on the work of Northrop Frye and Margaret Atwood), which orchestrates the emergence of contemporary Canadian drama. Following an exploration of the critics’ work, six contemporary Canadian plays are briefly introduced and discussed as to how they actively re/write histories, or even the conventions of narrative themselves: Kevin Loring’s Where the Blood Mixes (2009), David Yee’s lady in the red dress (2010), Lorena Gale’s Je Me Souviens (2001), Daniel MacIvor’s Cul-de-Sac (2005), Timothy Findley’s Elizabeth Rex (2000), and Guillermo Verdecchia’s bloom (2007). Fundamental questions about identification, discursive authority, and responsibility arise from this mosaic of Canadian voices.