Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed
Richard Van Camp's 1996 novel The Lesser Blessed contributes to a literature that testifies to the effects of Canadian residential schools on First Nations people. The narrator, Larry Sole, is the son of two residential school survivors. Sexually abused by his father, Larry relives his (and his...
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University of New Brunswick
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ftuninewbrunojs:oai:ojs.journals.lib.unb.ca:article/22061 2023-05-15T16:15:15+02:00 Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed Vedal, Lauren 2013-06-01 text/html application/pdf https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061 eng eng University of New Brunswick https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061/25614 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061/25615 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061 Copyright (c) 2015 Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne Studies in Canadian Literature; Volume 38, Number 2 (2013) Études en littérature canadienne; Volume 38, Number 2 (2013) 1718-7850 0380-6995 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion research-article 2013 ftuninewbrunojs 2022-07-11T11:44:59Z Richard Van Camp's 1996 novel The Lesser Blessed contributes to a literature that testifies to the effects of Canadian residential schools on First Nations people. The narrator, Larry Sole, is the son of two residential school survivors. Sexually abused by his father, Larry relives his (and his parents') traumatic past in classically psychoanalytic terms: through a fragmented narrative, the return of the repressed, and acting out. From the perspective of individual recovery, Van Camp details Larry's psychological process of becoming whole. However, there is a broader, systemic rupture that remains unresolved — that of Canada's historical violence toward as well as continuing unjust treatment of First Nations peoples. The novel portrays a tension between individual recovery and national healing that can be understood in terms of dominant and Indigenous views of reconciliation. Reading The Lesser Blessed through the lens of reconciliation reveals a dynamic and double-edged vision of healing, through which we can understand Canada-First Nations relations as ongoing, ambiguous negotiations. The double-edged story relies on an enduring relationship between past injury and the present as well as a relationship between parties whose identities and attitudes are inherently tied to that past. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals Canada |
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University of New Brunswick: Centre for Digital Scholarship Journals |
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Richard Van Camp's 1996 novel The Lesser Blessed contributes to a literature that testifies to the effects of Canadian residential schools on First Nations people. The narrator, Larry Sole, is the son of two residential school survivors. Sexually abused by his father, Larry relives his (and his parents') traumatic past in classically psychoanalytic terms: through a fragmented narrative, the return of the repressed, and acting out. From the perspective of individual recovery, Van Camp details Larry's psychological process of becoming whole. However, there is a broader, systemic rupture that remains unresolved — that of Canada's historical violence toward as well as continuing unjust treatment of First Nations peoples. The novel portrays a tension between individual recovery and national healing that can be understood in terms of dominant and Indigenous views of reconciliation. Reading The Lesser Blessed through the lens of reconciliation reveals a dynamic and double-edged vision of healing, through which we can understand Canada-First Nations relations as ongoing, ambiguous negotiations. The double-edged story relies on an enduring relationship between past injury and the present as well as a relationship between parties whose identities and attitudes are inherently tied to that past. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Vedal, Lauren |
spellingShingle |
Vedal, Lauren Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
author_facet |
Vedal, Lauren |
author_sort |
Vedal, Lauren |
title |
Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
title_short |
Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
title_full |
Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
title_fullStr |
Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
title_full_unstemmed |
Closure or Connection? Healing from Trauma in Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed |
title_sort |
closure or connection? healing from trauma in richard van camp’s the lesser blessed |
publisher |
University of New Brunswick |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
Studies in Canadian Literature; Volume 38, Number 2 (2013) Études en littérature canadienne; Volume 38, Number 2 (2013) 1718-7850 0380-6995 |
op_relation |
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061/25614 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061/25615 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/22061 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2015 Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne |
_version_ |
1766000976599187456 |