Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature (Studies in Immigration and Culture, 8) (Volume 8)

Despite the fact that Russian Mennonites began arriving in Canada en masse in the 1870s, Mennonite Canadian literature has been marked by a compulsive retelling of the mass migration of some 20, 000 Russian Mennonites to Canada following the collapse of the "Mennonite Commonwealth" in the 1920s. This privileging of a seminal dispersal within the community's broader history reveals the ways in which the 1920s narrative has come to function as an origin story, or "break event, " for the Russian Mennonites in Canada, serving to affirm a communal identity across national and generational boundaries. Drawing on recent work in diaspora studies, Rewriting the Break Event offers a historicization of Mennonite literary studies in Canada, followed by close readings of five novels that rewrite the Mennonite break event through specific strains of emphasis, including a religious narrative, ethnic narrative, trauma narrative, and meta-narrative. The result is thoughtful and engaging exploration of the shifting contours of Mennonite collective identity, and an exciting new methodology that promises to resituate the discourse of migrant writing in Canada. Annotation Despite the fact that Russian Mennonites began arriving in Canada en masse in the 1870s, Mennonite Canadian literature has been marked by a compulsive retelling of the mass migration of some 20,000 Russian Mennonites to Canada following the collapse of the Mennonite Commonwealth in the 1920s. This privileging of a seminal dispersal within the communitys broader history reveals the ways in which the 1920s narrative has come to function as an origin story, or break event, for the Russian Mennonites in Canada, serving to affirm a communal identity across national and generational boundaries. Drawing on recent work in diaspora studies, Rewriting the Break Event offers a historicization of Mennonite literary studies in Canada, followed by close readings of five novels that rewrite the Mennonite break event through specific strains of emphasis, including a religious narrative, ethnic narrative, trauma narrative, and meta-narrative. The result is thoughtful and engaging exploration of the shifting contours of Mennonite collective identity, and an exciting new methodology that promises to resituate the discourse of migrant writing in Canada "Despite the fact that Russian Mennonites began arriving in Canada en masse in the 1870s, much Canadian Mennonite literature has been characterized by a compulsive telling and retelling of the fall of the Mennonite Commonwealth of the 1920s and its subsequent migration of 20,000 Russian Mennonites to Canada. This privileging of a seminal dispersal, or "break event," within the broader historic narrative has come to function as a mythological beginning or origin story for the Russian Mennonite community in Canada, and serves as a means of affirming a communal identity across national and generational boundaries Machine Generated Contents Note: Ch. 1 Mennonite History And/as Literature -- Ch. 2 Gelassenheit Or Exodus: My Harp Is Turned To Mourning And The Theo-pedagogical Narrative -- Ch. 3 Dreaming Das Volklein: Lost In The Steppe And The Ethnic Narrative -- Ch. 4 Individual In The Communal Story: The Russlander And The Trauma Narrative -- Ch. 5 Strain Of Diaspora: The Blue Mountains Of China And The Meta-narrative. Robert Zacharias. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Issued Also In Electronic Format.