| dc.description.abstract | Although my family immigrated to Canada from the
Netherlands when I was one year of age, I have always
been aware of the fact that I have no birthright to
this country which is my home. I have always been
aware of two points of view in my life and have spent
much emotional energy balancing this tension.
This dissertation provided me with an avenue to
examine the visions of artists of Dutch Canadian
heritage who, like myself, experienced this dualism.
Their literary expressions of this dualism permitted me
to explore the inherent tensions and determine what
unique resolutions they may have discovered along the
way.
The Canadian attitude to the ethnic and cultural
diversity in our society is a changing one. Our
federal government takes pride in Canada's
multicultural mosaic, recognizing it as a rich resource
in which all Canadians share. The ethnic dimension of
Canadian society, past and present, is one that needs examination if we are to understand fully the contours
and nature of Canadian society and identity. Studies
of Canadian history and literature have been largely
controlled by the people of British or French origin.
Due perhaps to fewer numbers, difference in keenness of
sense of origin and identity, the immigrant experience
itself, and the sheer force of Canadianism, other
groups have been relatively silent until quite
recently. Groups such as the Dutch, who have
established themselves in Canada within the last
hundred years or so, have traditions, values and
visions they cherish, and particular members of this
group have begun to express those in imaginative works. | |
