JSalter PhD Final Thesis Submission.pdf - University of Guelph

another time” (8). This chapter examines ‘inherent latency’ as a literary device of
narratives of ageing, trauma, and diasporic dislocation. Readers will note how the
narrativization of the past begins to impose both a chronological and linguistic ordering
onto the memories of incomprehensible experiences of personal and collective trauma.
Some narrators discover storytelling enables a working through of psychic dislocations,
facilitating the construction of a newly configured, coherent, narrative identity. However,
for other characters in these novels—particularly old women (as I will show in Chapters
4 and 5), storytelling does not always afford such emancipatory potential. Chapter 1
concludes by raising a series of questions for the reader who is, in turn, now also
positioned as witness to the incomprehensibility of trauma. Considering that certain
literary techniques create innumerable challenges for both listening to and telling trauma,
how does a reader ethically ‘bear witness’ to fictional representations of another person’s
traumatic past?
OLD WOMEN IN CANADIAN LITERATURE
I note an emergent trend in recent Canadian fiction towards an increase in both
the number and complexity of literary representations of old women living in Canada.
This literary shift from earlier representations better reflects the current demographic
situation with old women constituting the fastest increasing population in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2006 census, “Canada’s elderly population (aged 80 and
over) surpassed the one million mark, with women comprising 64.6% of this group as
their average life expectancy now stands at 82.5 years. The same report claims 13.7% of
Canadians are 65 years or older, with studies indicating this population will double within
41