Symptoms of Canada: An Essay on the Canadian Identity

In This Provocative Essay On The Canadian Identity, Kieran Keohane Gives Us his outsider's take on Canada's most debated issue. Keohane argues that conflicting objectives have caused the impasse in our search for collective identity. These objectives are marked by Official Multiculturalism, a proliferation of interest groups, and resurgent xenophobia. Integrating social and political theory with witty examples, he explores how a strong Canadian identity might be constructed.Keohane steers us away from the pitfalls of universalism or postmodern fragmentation into particularisms. The Canadian identity, he observes, lies in our unique commitment to remaining open to difference. Canadians maintain this commitment with a certain jouissance: for us, difference is both painful and pleasurable, conflicting and conciliatory. 'Symptoms' of our relationship to difference appear in everyday phenomena -- in our recreation, patterns of interaction, ordinary language, poetry, politics, sexuality, and sense of humour. Keohane draws on two currents of discourse: the discourse on identity derived from Hegelian dialectics and Lacanian psychoanalysis, and the discourse on politics as hegemonic articulation, after Laclau and Mouffe.Symptoms of Canada breaks the stalemate in our search for the Canadian identity. A refreshing read for Canadians who are tired of the polemics surrounding this issue, it offers valuable insight to all countries where the question of identity is a national concern.