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"DECOLONIZING THE MIND": DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR'S PLAY WITH THE SEMANTICS OF IRONY IN ONLY DRUNKS AND CHILDREN TELL THE TRUTH
- University of Ottawa Press
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Nancy Grimm "DECOLONIZING THE MIND": DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR'S PLAY WITH THE SEMANTICS OF IRONY IN ONLY DRUNKS AND CHILDREN TELL THE TRUTH CHARTING THE TERRITORY A pproaches toward Native (Canadian) texts often ask the ones accessing these texts to become conscious of their own cultural background. Broadlyspeaking, as a European, or German for that matter, one is ultimately influenced by Western concepts of thinking. These concepts, often "hampered by the irrational and stifling legacies of colonialism and eurocentrism" (Lutz 2002, i), thus have an enormous impact on approaches to Native Canadian texts. While ones approaches, especially to fictional texts, are channelled by Western literary theory and criticism, one may also encounter a certain notion of diffidence when venturing to explore Native Canadiantexts asdiscourses from a culture that maycontemplate nonWestern , and therefore inherently unfamiliar, ideological and philosophical perspectives. This insecurity already starts on a terminological level. Is one to abide by the politically correct and government-consented term "Aboriginal Peoples of Canada" and thereby disregard the formerly endorsed term "First Nations," or should one speak of "Native Canadians" and thereby adapt usAmericanterminology ? 198 i\\< 1 OF EXC LUSION Whatever the decision may be, it soon becomes evident that all of these terms are inherently insufficient—as are our theoretical and often Eurocentric approaches to and analyses of texts written by Native Canadian authors. While the former terminology overrides the existences of different Aboriginal cultures subsumed under one single and, above all, generalizing term, the latter often fails to address and correctly understand the literary as well as the cultural merits of Native Canadian literatures: The more overt protest books of the 19705 often combined their sharp analyses of society with wit, humour, poetry, history, anthropology, and/or personal reflections. Authors turned to the facts of biography to humanize the much dehumanized "Indian." Instead of being read as newgenres, theywere attacked asbiased and parochial. Fewbookstores, libraries, or professors knewwhat to do with Native writing that crossed or integrated well-defined genres, styles, or schools. (LaRocque 1990, xviii) This being said, it is a structural and analytical prerequisite of this paper to approach the Native (Canadian) play analyzed therein in a self-reflexive manner, thereby always being aware of my own cultural background and inherent predispositions. However, knowing that any solution with regard to terminology—however self-reflexive—will turn out to be deficient, I have tried to refrain from using generalizing terms, instead addressing the respective Aboriginal culture(s) whenever possible and implied by the text discussed. As for information and statements made in a general manner and thus generally pertaining to allAboriginal cultures of North America, I have chosen to use the term "Native (Canadian)." As for the use of the term "Indian" (in apostrophes), it is exclusivelyused in passagesthat discussexisting stereotypes about "the Indian" as a creation of the Western imagination. Against the background ofthe aforementioned need for culturalawareness when approaching Native Canadian literary genres, this article will initially be concerned with a brief introduction to Native Canadian drama, thereby also contextualising the playwright Drew Hayden Taylor. Secondly, a section on the discussed play s capacityto "decolonize the mind" will considersalient 199 [52.90.181.205] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 05:19 GMT) NANCY GRIMM theoretical assumptions in the postcolonial debate about decolonization. With selected (con)textual information thus established; the paper will move on to demarcate the semantics and functions of ironyin Taylor s Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (1998) as this contributions central concern. Finally a conclusive passage will again delineate and summarize the main argument. (CON)TEXT: DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR AND NATIVE CANADIAN DRAMA Native (Canadian) authors are publishing in avariety of genres, ranging from the oral tradition and adaptations of allegedlyWestern genres such as poetry and autobiography to both short and long prose narratives. However, it is the dramatic genre that has brought Native Canadian authors to national recognition (Lutz 2002, 124-125) not only in Canada but also beyond Canadian borders. While with the production of texts of their own—whether fictional or non-fictional— "Native authors are speaking out against the misuses of their cultural heritage by non-Natives who claim varying degrees of authority and initiation" (Lutz 1991, 4), it is imperative to accentuate that "contemporary Native writing moves beyond the mere imitation or reproduction of a European, or mainstream North American literary style" (Schorcht 2003, 5). What is generally described as a process in which "Native authors translate the genre conventions ofNative oral tradition into written forms, developing Native perspectives on North American literature and history" (5) isalso true for the dramatic genre, which, with its inherent verbal qualities and structures of performance art, bears a resemblance to the characteristics of the oral tradition and maybe considered its continuation (Lutz 2002,125). Therefore it is the dramatic genre that, by its adaptation to the needs and desires of Native authors, carries on the oral tradition in dramatic texts that are both "substantially Native and substantially Western" (Ruppert 1995, 9). However, the objectives of an oral tradition that has been adapted to the dramatic genre always remain within a definition of the oral tradition that Hartmut Lutz, in an interview with Maria Campbell, has expressed as follows : "The wayI understand the oral tradition is that it tells people who they 200 Dt ( '^ON'JiN'i ' -