A Postcolonial Reading of Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing

Name of Author : Subhash Chander & Laila Nargis

Abstract: This paper presents a Postcolonial reading of Tomson Highways play, Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing. While previous criticism has focused on the plays mythological significance for native cultural identity, this paper places the issues of the play within the cultural contradictions present in Canada. The paper argues that the occasional use of Cree language and native mythology in the play reflects the dialectical interaction of the colonizer and the colonized in Canada. Literature is viewed as a social product emerging from historical consciousness and social reality. The paper aims to explore these facets of Highways play and its relevance to socio-political and national issues in Canada.

Keywords : culture, mythology, dialectical interactions, historical consciousness, and postcolonial

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