ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Michael DeForge’s graphic novel Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero to challenge nature myths as they relate to a Canadian national identity, and presents DeForge’s alternative vision of personal and national identities found in nature. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first section identifies five Canadian nature myths that continually appear in Canadian popular discourse and demonstrates how DeForge’s graphic novel (de)forges, or challenges, the cultural assumptions about nature. Part 2 shows how DeForge’s graphic novel forges a new vision of nature, outside of the myths, where the wilderness is changing and future-oriented. Sticks Angelica resists national narratives that set up expectations for its citizens and posits the necessity of self-definition and identity—an identity that is not innate but performative and in a state of becoming.
