Abstract
Space has been an important problem for Native people in Canada. When analyzing Native space, Cole Harris has pointed out, “for them [Native people], life became a matter of working out the spatial strategies that would allow them to survive” (Harris 274). This sentence reveals the devastating impact of spatial domination by colonialism and imperialism toward Native people, culture, and place. Applying Michel Foucault’s analysis of the modalities of disciplinary power to his argument, Harris analyzes the spatial confinement of Native people by examining restrictions of economic activities, education and missions, which fix people in small reserves, regulate movements, erase differences, and attempt to normalize “savages” into “civilized people.” These colonizing strategies of space, however, profoundly expose conflicts and paradoxes between two different cultures and societies, put Native people into an unrecoverable dilemma, and almost extinguish Native custom and tradition. Implicitly but tremendously, the disciplinary power of space, within its patriarchal and masculinist ideology, produces problems of gender in Native land. As Alison Blunt and Gillison Rose contend, “the construction of a ‘sexual space’ paralleled the construction of space to be colonized, and the desire for colonial control was often expressed in terms of sexual control” (10). That is, Native women aren’t simply confined in economy and mobility, but they are controlled and even harmed by the patriarchal system within this “sexual space.” Native women should be disciplined as “normal women,” but at the same time, rape and violence from White and Native men make them suffer more than ever. In other words, the problem of space indicates the complicated relation between space and social practices, and intricate issues of space, place, race, and gender in Native land. This thesis will investigate the problem of space in the plays of Tomson Highway. Born in a Cree family in northern Manitoba but sent away to a residential school, Highway suffered the separation from his own culture and witnessed White abuse to Native people. But in the meanwhile, he benefited from Western education, especially in music and English, which were used to communicate with others and which were eventually fused into his plays. Besides winning many awards (such as the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Chalmers Award, etc.) and being celebrated for his plays, he dedicates himself to promote Native drama and theatre and to serve Native people. He is concerned not just about theatrical performance but also about Native culture and social problems which are all connected within his plays. His plays, on the one hand, drop the realism often found in Canadian theatre and blend in Native mythology which is the core of Native culture. Native mythology plays an important role that expresses the close connection between ancient spirits and Native people, the reality and the dream world in his works. On the other hand, Highway focuses on the contemporary life of Native people and events on the reserve in his plays. Though the plots and characters are often hilarious, funny and touching, the great impact of the spatial confinement, differences and conflicts between two systems are presented by means of Highway’s delicately dramatic strategies of space. Beyond those problems, Highway deals with gender issues throughout his plays. Native women’s suffering, rape, violence—those issues are repeatedly mentioned and are still tremendous on the reserve. Highway doesn’t simply express his ideas about Native culture and people; he also emphasizes radical issues of race and gender that are produced from this confining space, i.e. the reserve. Highway’s concerns about life and issues on Native space and his representation of space motivate me to investigate his plays. Chapter One of this thesis discusses the colonizing history of Native space, colonial and postcolonial geographies from feminist perspectives, and the theory of space in human geography, especially Doreen Massey’s provocative suggestion that “space necessarily entails plurality and multiplicity” (in other words, that “space is not a coherent system of discriminations and interconnections”) (Gregory 772). This discussion has two purposes: one is to reveal the influence of colonialism, the problem of space, and social problems on Native space in Canada, and the other is, by applying Massey’s theory of space, to destabilize the fixed and regulated space constructed and dominated by the colonial power. Chapter Two to Four introduce and analyze Highway’s plays and investigate space throughout them individually and chronologically, from The Rez Sisters (1988), Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (1989), to the latest play Rose (2003). In addition to talking about Highway’s dramatic strategies of space (with characters, plots, lighting, and stage properties), it is important to show how Highway represents issues of gender and race. In these chapters, I will ask how he breaks the fixed space and creates unstable, flexible, and multiple spaces which penetrate the real and the dream world and offer new possibilities for Native people. Chapter Five concludes the discussion of these three plays and, within the journey of investigating Highway’s plays, meditates upon the significance of his representation of space and the direction he opens for Native performance and Native people. This thesis attempts to articulate the complex structure of space in Highway’s plays and investigate problems from the perspective of Native people and societies. Most importantly, it will open another perspective, through the analysis of literary representation, to understand Native people and culture in Canada.