Recovering the Voice of the Japanese-Canadian Community: History and Private and Public Discourses in Joy Kogawa's Poetry and Prose

Abstract

The complex interweaving of the narrative of Kogawa's personal memory and the official logos as represented in the discourses of state policy making, representations in the media, and the public opinion not only raises questions about the mediation of historical truth and the value of individual experience in the context of collective traumatic events but also provides a commentary on the processes of individual and group identity formation. This dialogue of the private and public word - as well as the disruptive and subversive agency of the discourse of private memory in relation to the authoritative and officially sanctioned word - constitutes a persistent thread in Kogawa's oeuvre and serves as a reflection on the new histories in the making.