Surplus at the border : Mennonite minor literature in English in Canada

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dc.contributor.authorReimer, L. Douglasen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-12-08T18:54:45Z
dc.date.available2009-12-08T18:54:45Z
dc.date.issued1996en_US
dc.degree.disciplineEnglishen_US
dc.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)en_US
dc.description.abstractMajor literature commonly considers certain writing inferior or unsophisticated and so less valuable than certain other works of literature which it calls literature of quality. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari imagine and theorize an alternative model for evaluating literature which established literature names "minor" literature. Their theory claims that minor literature actually plays a significant role in the continued vitality of major literature. Minor literature, they say, has a strength and quality which major literature denies. Without minor literature, they contend, major literature would weaken and become ineffective. Such a reliance on the power of minor literature, however, major literature would never wish to acknowledge. This thesis defines minor literature as other than "minority" literature. Minor literature consists of those literatures which stem from groups which consider themselves marginalized by the large group which feels at home with all the conventions of English and English literature. All minor literature, I argue in this paper, automatically exemplifies three defining features: minor literature is necessarily political; it speaks for community values (in that the major English group is not a community, though the smaller ones are); and it affects a high degree of "deterritorialization" of the foreign tongue, English, in which it writes. I study the works of Mennonite writers Rudy Wiebe, Armin Wiebe, Patrick Friesen, Di Brandt, Sandra Birdsell and others to demonstrate these three defining features. Mennonite writing belongs to both the major and the minor. It cannot escape its intellectual, cultural heritage which is a major one grounded in western thought. Yet, it also writes English strangely and finds itself resisting the anti-community forces vehicular English imposes on it. There is, however, no successful, deliberate minor Mennonite writing in English in Canada. All the writers considered here attempt in one form or another to subvert English dominion and each succeeds and fails in distinctive ways.en_US
dc.format.extent257 leaves.en_US
dc.format.extent14686320 bytes
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier(Sirsi) AJQ-9069en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1993/3752
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsopen accessen_US
dc.rightsThe reproduction of this thesis has been made available by authority of the copyright owner solely for the purpose of private study and research, and may only be reproduced and copied as permitted by copyright laws or with express written authorization from the copyright owner.en_US
dc.titleSurplus at the border : Mennonite minor literature in English in Canadaen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
local.subject.manitobayesen_US
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