In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

ters with powerful figures and local celebrities, listing buildings named after the deceased, or chronicling his or her part in a public works project, writers emphasize moments in which the individual became part of local or national “history.” Bert Nonnweiler’s obituarist, for example, tells readers to “Think of my Dad when you travel the Fraser Canyon as he worked on the tunnels you travel through, plus the Hell’s Gate Tram System” (VS 27 Oct. 2001, b6), inscribing the deceased into the pioneering history of British Columbia.Obituarists therefore narrate the history not only of their beloved but also of the places in which they lived. Clearly connecting the deceased’s life to the “greater good,” such death notices indicate that the worth of the ordinary citizen can be justified through their inscription into public stories. Even in the cases where the deceased has been the victim of state-sponsored injustices, the death notice may mention this experience but will still maintain generic decorum by not commenting on it, protecting the official history and the collective identity produced by and invested in it. Imagining readers who will correctly interpret coded references,obituarists can hail particular communities who have shared the experiences of the deceased without disrupting the commemorative tone of the death notice. Thus the survivors of Takeyo Akizuki (1908–2001) remark that their mother immigrated from Japan to Steveston, bc, where she lived until 1942, “when the family went to Lethbridge, ab. She returned with her family in 1950” (VS 23 May 2001, c8). Similarly, Kenji Nishikihama’s obituarists note that their father was born in Vancouver but “spent the war years in Minto, bc” (VS 16 May 2001, d16). Through these elliptical references, both sets of survivors record their loved one’s involuntary participation in the ugly chapter of Canadian history during which Japanese Canadians were interned. Their decision to include this item, however obliquely, indicates the significance of this event in the deceased’s life and in the lives and identities of the survivors . However, their refusal to make this statement fully, concealing the deceased’s lack of choice and agency, suggests perhaps a lingering sense of shame, as well as a refusal to directly indict either the Canadian government or their fellow Canadians, many of whom would have been complicit in the internment scenario. Though both obituarists gesture to the deceased’s “contribution” to this particular historical moment, they do not adopt the public forum of the death notice to offer resistant narratives of that time and place. Using the death notice to assign blame or to voice political views may be seen as indecorous, disrespectful, and possibly “offensive.” Even after death, then, the subjects of Canadian death notices, and the survivors who represent them, must conform to “normative concepts of national subjectivity” (Smith and Watson 1996, 5). Laurie McNeill| 200 Based on the overwhelming number of citations in death notices, one of the most significant contributions to public life and history in the twentieth century has been military service in World War ii, an event and experience that defined a generation and a nation, and whose cultural currency has remained high almost sixty years after its conclusion. The wide-reaching and long-lasting effects of this conflict meant that it became for many individuals and their families the defining experience of their lifetimes. Consequently ,the death notices of people who were young menand women during World War ii typically mention contributions to or service in the war. For women, the announcements might cite factory work, nursing, or involvement with the wrens; less directly, a woman’s connections to the war may have been her role as a war bride, an experience that combines personal with public history. The death notices of former soldiers often give quite detailed information, including branch of service, regiment, rank, citations , and campaigns,and include photographs of the deceasedfrom the war years, dressed in their military uniforms, freezing and framing them in that era and identity. To their obituarists and their imagined readers, the lives of these “old soldiers” have merit—are even exemplary—because of their experiences in fighting for Canada or her allies. World War ii, as Canada’s first war as a sovereign nation free of Britain’s governance, played a central role in the country’s national history and identity . Consequently, service in any aspect of the Canadian war effort takes on additional value as service in the birth...

Share