The Icelandic Canadian - 01.11.2006, Side 21

Vol. 60 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
107
Canadian Icelandic identity is keeping the
ctilture in the past: “Still a great source of
pride among Western Icelanders, this
experiment in autonomy, coupled with an
impressively adversity-laden history, is
probably what has encouraged the commu-
nity to remain as endearingly touchy and
vain as they are.” Maddin thus portrays the
Canadian Icelandic identity as a legacy to
which subsequent generations have
attached themselves without regard for its
applicability in an evolved environment.
The establishment of the Icelandic
people in the New World was encircled in
a shroud of hardship and isolation and a
specific New World mythology was creat-
ed as means of coping with these chal-
lenges. This mythology also served in
solidifying an Icelandic-Canadian pride
that has been passed on to succeeding
Canadian generations. However, it is the
resistance of this identity to evolving with
the needs of the culture that weakens its
accessibility to experiences outside those of
the immigrants. Charlie Thorson hints at
this criticism in his poem Liceland in which
he expresses frustration over the absence of
Icelander resilience during the Depression.
However, it is in Guy Maddin’s Tales from
the Gimli Hospital that the futility of an
empty Icelandic Canadian patriotism is
fully articulated. Ultimately, it remains to
be seen how the Icelandic-Canadian self-
image, developed out of the immigrant
experience, will itself persevere as an unal-
tered relic in an ever-changing environ-
ment.
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