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COPYRIGHT 2005 Canadian Ethnic Studies Association
That [authenticity] has become part of the moral slang of out day points to the peculiar nature of out fallen condition, our anxiety over the credibility of existence, and of individual existences. (Trilling 1972, 93)
"I contradict myself: very well, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." Walt Whitman, "Songs of Myself," in Leaves of Grass.
ABSTRACT/RESUME
This paper is both theoretical and practical in nature. Theoretically, I illustrate some of the problems associated with the notion of cultural authenticity per se. On a more practical level, my interest in this concept lies in its centrality in a variety of public and academic discussions related to ethno-cultural festivals in Canada (and elsewhere). Many Canadians within the cultural and intellectual elite argue that these festivals perpetuate ethnic stereotypes and promote superficial, commercialized, and inauthentic versions of the cultures they are ostensibly intended to represent. I argue that while there is considerable merit in these criticisms, commentators often neglect some of the cote insights contained in a new approach to authenticity that emphasizes the discursive and social generation of authenticity claims. I use my recent fieldwork in Winnipeg's Folklorama and Toronto's Caravan to elucidate the shortcomings of what one might call the "traditional" discourse of authenticity, and to outline a new mode of thinking, writing, and speaking about both authenticity and public representations of ethnic identity in Canada.
Le present article est a la fois de nature theorique et pratique. Sur le plan theorique, j'illustrerai ici certains des problemes lies a la notion d'authenticite culturelle en soi. Sur un plan plus pratique, mon interet pour ce concept reside dans son role central dans un eventail de debats publiques et academiques lies aux festivals ethnoculturels se deroulant au Canada (et ailleurs). De nombreux Canadiens appartenant a l'elite culturelle et intellectuelle arguent que ces festivals font perdurer des stereotypes ethniques et encouragent des versions superficielles, commerciales et fabriquees des cultures qu'ils sont soi-disant censes representer. Je soutiens que bien que ces critiques recelent un merite considerable, leurs auteurs negligent souvent certaines perspectives fondamentales relatives a une nouvelle approche de l'authenticite qui met l'accent sur les facteurs discursifs et sociaux qui sont a la source des revendications a l'authenticite. Je mettrai a profit mes recentes recherches dans le cadre du Folklorama de Winnipeg et du festival de la Caravan de Toronto pour degager la faiblesse de ce que l'on pourrait nommer le discours "traditionnel" sur l'authenticite, mais aussi pour esquisser une nouvelle facon de penser, d'ecrire, et de parler sur l'authenticite et les representations publiques de l'identite culturelle au Canada.
INTRODUCTION
One of the easiest ways to assert one's membership in the intellectual and social elite is to disparage the forms of "lowbrow" entertainment and recreation pursued by "ordinary" people. Sometimes this disdain for mass, pop, or folk culture is blunt and sarcastic; sometimes it is subtle. Nonetheless, some sort of indication that one does not engage in some putatively debased, kitschy, or common form of social activity is, for many of us, a means of claiming to support more edifying and "authentic" forms of cultural expression. They like Las Vegas shows, we prefer opera; they like Disneyland, we prefer the Museum of Civilization; they like the Olive Garden, we prefer Italian bistros; they like ethnic festivals, we prefer to experience unfamiliar cultures by traveling, reading, or immersing ourselves in relationships with members of these communities.
Underlying these familiar binary oppositions is the seemingly self-evident notion that the second term or concept of each of these pairs is somehow more culturally "authentic" than the first. Authenticity is an ancient concept that continues to serve as a touchstone for a wide range of social scientific and philosophical debates in Canada and around the world (Bendix 1997; Handler 1986; Mufti 2000; Taylor 1992, 1994; Trilling 1972). Naturally, each discipline and each national or cultural setting in which the debate is taken up determines the nature and trajectory of the conversation. In Canada, the 1971 Multiculturalism Policy itself and the vast number of projects that were funded under its aegis have been very significant forces at work in the authenticity debate I explore in this article.
However, there are broader philosophical and historical tensions that have also influenced the discussion. A central part of the backdrop of intellectual discourse in North America is the notion that particular people are (perhaps uniquely) capable of discerning definitively between authentic and inauthentic expressions of a given culture. Many of the positions I discuss throughout this article grow out of the confidence that it is possible for such individuals to make unequivocal evaluations of the authenticity of cultural identity claims. Such positions are maintained even though it is increasingly difficult to deny that many of the ancient "traditions" in our world-and it is usually a nostalgically-framed, pristine cultural "tradition" to which authenticity advocates point--have been "invented" for imperial, ideological reasons in the modern era (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983). Nonetheless, according to those who continue to imagine the past in this romantic manner, once upon a time, boundaries were clear, identities were unified, and, to paraphrase Robert Browning, "God was in his heaven and all was right with the world." Of course, scholars know the next philosophical "chapter" in this story: now we are postmodern and postcolonial, and thus the concept of authenticity has been, to use a Foucauldian term, "problematized" to such an extent that some now feel compelled to use the term in a provisional, even ironic way to acknowledge the many contrivances that underlie its use.
It is still important to determine whether or not boundaries were, in fact, clearer, the world was less globalized, and identities were less fragmented before our current era, but these are not the tasks of this article. What is of interest here is the fact that the meta-narrative of a simpler, integrated past, juxtaposed as it is against a complex, globalized present, is a central part of the consciousness evident within both public and intellectual discourse (cf. McCutcheon 2001). In fact, outside of the small community of intellectuals with an interest in the ways accounts of authenticity are generated--that is, within the much broader contemporary intellectual discourse examined here--authenticity is most often deployed innocently, even uncritically. While few of us can or do define this pivotal modernist concept, we "know it when we see it;" especially the "we" of the first paragraph who are, of course, trained to discern the differences between the authentic and inauthentic.
The subject matter of this paper is both theoretical and practical in nature. Theoretically, I illustrate some of the problems associated with the notion of cultural authenticity per se. Since authenticity is used in so many ways (to denote and connote a claim's or a thing's factuality, reality, reliability, or what we might call "representativity," to list just a few of its definitions), my purpose here is not to define this term, but rather to observe its tremendous and problematic symbolic power as it is employed in particular conversations. On a more practical level, my interest in this concept lies in its centrality in a variety of public and academic discussions related to ethno-cultural festivals in Canada (and elsewhere). Many Canadians within the cultural and intellectual elite (the "we" above) argue that these festivals--usually established in the 1970s during the halcyon days of Canada's Multiculturalism Policy--perpetuate ethnic stereotypes and promote superficial, commercialized, and inauthentic versions of the cultures they are ostensibly intended to represent and promote. I argue that while there is considerable merit in these criticisms, commentators often neglect some of the core insights contained in a new approach to authenticity that emphasizes the discursive and social generation of the authenticity claims articulated by individuals and groups. Advocates of this approach do not reject all standards for discussing and determining the veracity of these claims, but they do both underline the conflictual social forces embedded in these communities and explore alternate accounts of a group's authentic identity.
My conclusions are based on several years of ethnographic fieldwork in the context of Winnipeg's Folklorama, arguably the largest ethno-cultural festival of its kind in North America, as well as the very similar Metro Toronto International Caravan festival. I use my recent fieldwork in Winnipeg (population: approximately 650,000) and Toronto (Greater Toronto Area population: approximately 4,700,000), both to elucidate the shortcomings of what one might call the "traditional" discourse of authenticity (especially manifested in critiques of Folklorama and Caravan), and to outline a new mode of thinking, writing, and speaking about both authenticity and public representations of ethnic identity in Canada.
THE DISNEYFICATION OF CULTURE
Before I provide a sketch of the general critique of ethno-cultural festivals that owes so much to the traditional discourse of authenticity, I need to introduce the ethnographic contexts I will discuss throughout this article.
Folklorama is a multicultural festival that has been held every summer since 1970. For two weeks of every summer, members of approximately forty-five of Winnipeg's ethnic communities represent their culture in the form of "pavilions," located in church basements, community halls, ethnic associations, schools, and theatre centers throughout the city. (1) As Greenhill and Thoroski observe (2001; Bramadat 2001b), pavilions...
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