Reimagining Canada: Sharon Pollock's The Komagata Maru Incident

Title: Reimagining Canada: Sharon Pollock's The Komagata Maru Incident
Variant title:
  • Réimaginer le Canada : The Komagata Maru Incident de Sharon Pollock
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2014, vol. 9, iss. [1], pp. 85-94
Extent
85-94
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Rights access
embargoed access
 

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Abstract(s)
The paper focuses on the way Sharon Pollock, a renowned Canadian playwright, reimagines and reconstructs Canadian history and national identity in her one-act historiographic docudrama The Komagata Maru Incident. Based on a real event – namely, the May 23, 1914, incident when a group of 376 East Indian immigrants who were British subjects arrived in the Vancouver harbour aboard the Komagata Maru, a Japanese freighter, and appealed to the Canadian government for refuge – the play represents Pollock's successful rewriting of a neglected story from history. It proves that her imagination does not "serve the ruling ideas of the time." Further, in this play Pollock expresses her critical view, primarily through her marginalized female characters – two prostitutes and a Sikh woman – of the white masculinist Canada shaped by racist and sexist attitudes. The play reminds us that the construction of Canada is an ongoing process and that past constructions should be re-examined and reinvented.
Ce travail traite la façon dont Sharon Pollock, célèbre auteur dramatique canadien, imagine à nouveau et reconstruit l'histoire canadienne et l'identité nationale dans son docu-drame historiographique Komagata Maru. L'action du drame est basée sur un événement réel, l'incident du 23 mai 1914 quand un groupe de 376 immigrants de l'Inde de l'Est, sujets britanniques, arrive au port de Vancouver sur le bateau japonais Komagata Maru et demande asile au gouvernement canadien. Ce drame représente une nouvelle écriture réussie de l'histoire et de cet événement oublié que Sharon Pollock réalise en prouvant que son imagination « ne sert pas des idées régnantes de l’époque ». Dans ce drame, S. Pollock exprime sa vision critique du Canada blanc fondé sur les préjugés raciaux et sexistes. Il le fait principalement à travers les personnages féminins marginalisés, deux prostituées et une immigrante sikhe. Le drame rappelle que la création du Canada est un processus en cours et que les constructions du passé doivent être révisées et réinventées.
References
[1] Bessai, Diane. "Sharon Pollock's Women: A Study in Dramatic Process." In Anne Nothof (ed.) Sharon Pollock: Essays on Her Works. Toronto: Guernica, 2000.

[2] Grace, Sherrill. Making Theatre: A Life of Sharon Pollock. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2008.

[3] Grace, Sherrill. (introduction). Sharon Pollock: Three Plays. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2003.

[4] Grace, Sherrill and Michelle La Flamme. Sharon Pollock. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2008.

[5] Grace Sherrill and Gabriele Helms. "Documenting Racism: Sharon Pollock's The Komagata Maru Incident." In Veronica Strong-Boag, Sherrill Grace et al. (eds.) Painting the Maple: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Construction of Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1998.

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[7] Kelly, Erica. "'This is not where we live': The Production of National Citizenship and Borderlines in Sharon Pollock's The Komagata Maru Incident." In SCL/ÉLC Volume 33, Number 1, 2008: 1-12. Retrieved at: http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/scl/article/view/11219/11966

[8] Neuman, Shirley and Smaro Kamboureli. A Mazing Space: Writing Canadian Women Writing. Edmonton: Longspoon/Newest, 1986.

[9] Nothof, Anne. "Crossing Borders: Sharon Pollock's Revisitation of Canadian Frontiers." In Anne Nothof (ed.) Sharon Pollock: Essays on Her Works. Toronto: Guernica, 2000.

[10] Nothof, Anne F. (ed.). Sharon Pollock: Essays on Her Works. Toronto: Guernica, 2000.

[11] Pollock, Sharon. The Komagata Maru Incident. In Ginny Ratsoy and James Hoffman (eds.) Playing the Pacific Province: An Anthology of British Columbia Plays, 1967-2000. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2001.

[12] Strong-Boag, Veronica, Sherrill Grace et al. (eds.). Painting the Maple: Essays on Race, Gender, and the Construction of Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 1998.

[13] Wallace, Robert and Cynthia Zimmerman. The Work: Conversations with English-Canadian Playwrights. Toronto: The Coach House Press, 1982.

[14] Zimmerman, Cynthia (ed.). Sharon Pollock: Collected Works, Volume Two. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2006.

[15] Zimmerman, Cynthia. Playwriting Women: Female Voices in English Canada. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, 1994.