ENGL 314 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Canadian Indian Residential School System, Rita Joe, Counterpoint

• School: McGill University
• Department: English
• Course: ENGL 314
• Professor: Sean Carney

Document Summary

This play provides us with a good opportunity to talk about why stylistic decisions matter and carry a significance of their own. The whole play is deeply steeped in an expressionistic style i. e. right from the start we see memories of her past, the play is very much about an inner mental landscape we"re being asked to explore. This is the strongest use of expressionism in a play we have or will study in this class. In the play, we are presented with the idea of retrospective character study framed within a public trial. Part of what"s unusual is the magistrate, he doesn"t behave like a magistrate normally would. The opening of the play suggests the whole play is about the legal and social context of the canadian society and the ironic counterpoint that. What"s implicitly being discussed in this play is the residential school system of the time that removed the children from their cultural and spiritual heritage.