Abstrakt

Zuzanna Szatanik

Woman’s Body/Space of Canada. Reflections on the Metaphor of “homeless body” in Selected Poems by Lorna Crozier, Jeni Couzyn and Joy Kogawa

 The general aim of the following article is to analyze images of the body in selected poems by Lorna Crozier, Jeni Couzyn, and Joy Kogawa, in relation to the elusive, theoretical concept of Canadianness. The paper is divided into two parts: theoretical and interpretative. In the theoretical section, the author discusses the notion of Canadian national identity, its affinity to the construct of “Woman,” as well as cultural meanings attributed to the female body. The interpretive section shows how the body images presented in the selected poems correspond to the ambivalence inscribed in theories of Canadianness and how, through these body representations, Canadianness is read and re-read. The author reads first a poem by Jeni Couzyn, titled “House of Changes,” and concentrates on the notions of identity and belonging. An analysis of two poems by Lorna Crozier (“Alice” and “Sometimes My Body Leaves Me”) follows, which points out that the woman’s body appears to be unfamiliar and estranged. The last section of the interpretive part of the essay focuses on Joy Kogawa’s “When Your Mirror Breaks,” which is discussed with reference to the hunger for unity and fear of fragmentation examined in the poem. Throughout the text, the idea of “home” is used in order to indicate a site within which the concepts of identity and belonging are forged. The common saying “I’m home,” after all, can be read not only as an indication of one’s location, but also as an ontological confession.