Unsettling the West: Nation and Genre in Guy Vanderhaeghe's "The Englishman's Boy"

Later in the novel Rachel accuses [Harry Vincent] of hiding behind an "English facade." He corrects her, insisting that he is "not English." It is Rachel who supplies the national descriptor: "All right, Canadian" (178). Indeed, Harry sees "Canadian" as a descriptor empty of meaningful content because, in his view, Canada lacks the kind of poetic, mythic coherence that [Damon Ira Chance] wants to create for America in his film. Later in their conversation, Harry tells Rachel that "Canada isn't a country at all, it's simply geography... Half the English Canadians wish they were really English, and the other half wish they were Americans. If you're going to be anything, you have to choose." And, as he tells Rachel, "I chose this place" (181). Harry thus describes the erasure of any Canadian space: if there is a Canada, it is only a kind of absence, existing as a vacuum between English and American. To be Canadian is to desire to be other. In the face of this perceived vacuum, Harry constructs himself as an American, a choice that allows him to work with Chance and to pursue Shorty's story on Chance's behalf. He becomes "Canadian" again, I suggest, only when it becomes convenient to do so, only when he wishes to withdraw from Chance's project. But such a withdrawal is impossible: Harry is implicated in Chance's movie, and though he may try to take the moral, "Canadian" high ground, he remains complicit with Chance's corrupt vision. Ironically, Chance, whose vision is seriously flawed throughout the book, is the character who most clearly sees Harry's role. When Harry finally demands that Chance remove his name from the film credits, Chance refuses: In its depictions of Harry's struggles in Hollywood, the novel exposes some of the underpinnings of both national and personal identity. Harry exploits the invisibility of his Canadianness: unlike the Indians, whose race is immediately apparent, or even Rachel Gold, whose name signifies her Jewish identity, Harry can choose whether or not to reveal himself as a Canadian. [Guy Vanderhaeghe] constructs Harry's national identity as performance, as a role that Harry can very consciously put on or take off. Thus, his Canadian-ness endows him with some power, albeit in a very restricted scope. Though he is vulnerable to exploitation by Chance, he can also exploit Chance by concealing his identity and performing Americanness. Chance invites Harry to work with him to make "pictures rooted in American history and American e