Papers by Michael Barnholden
The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital co... more The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for US2 in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the "Institutional Repository" link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at. <http://irli~)sfJca/har.dle/1892/112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesis/project or extended essays, if technically possible. to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital vvork The aU1:ho r has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes mal(be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of tllis work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of thi~work, may have been granted by the author This information may be found on the separately catalogued multi mediCi material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence While licensing SFU to permit the above uses, the author retains copyright in the thesis, project or extended essays, including the right to change the work for subsequent purposes, including editing and publishing the work in whole or in part, and licensing other parties, a~the author may desire.
The Poetic Front, 2009
Perhaps the agenda of "our literature" is best explained by the above quote if we substitute the ... more Perhaps the agenda of "our literature" is best explained by the above quote if we substitute the phrase "a neo-liberalism of appeal", or "an appeal within a globalized, neo liberal market, because it does not contradict the program of neo-liberalism". It should be stated that Bruce is relaying "a message she has received from dozens of foreign publishers". Of course a closer examination of the context of Bruce"s comment is necessary. She was speaking at Simon Fraser University"s annual Symposium on the Novel, this year titled: "Elsewhere Literature: Canadian Fiction Goes International." Katherine Hamer, the author of the newspaper article entitled "Canadian Writing is blissfully Agenda-Free," describes Bruce as the "legendary Canadian publisher". Although it is not mentioned anywhere in the article, Bruce is publisher of Phyllis Bruce Books, an imprint of Harper Collins Canada where "Her authors have been published around the world in many languages." The "foreign publisher" comment is all the more interesting considering the position of Harper Collins Canada as a so-called "branch plant publisher". In summarizing the discussion about "what makes a novel Canadian" at the symposium Hamer states: "they covered themes of rootlessness, otherness and even whether we have a collective national identity. Some wondered whether we have arrived at a ""post-national"" literature, one made up more of our multi-ethnic backgrounds than the Canadian fiction of old, which spoke of hardship, extreme weather and shaggy wildlife." Apparently several authors mentioned Pico Ayer"s description of Canadians, represented in the article as, "a shape-shifter country, lacking the usual borders, at least on a mental level". In summary various others characterized their views ranging from Anar Ali"s excitement, "there"s room for all of the different stories", to Eden Robinson"s wish not "to be seen as an ambassador for a whole country"s worth of native peoples", but rather "first and foremost as a writer," Lewis DeSoto"s plea that "We should be careful about pushing novels forward as a nationalist enterprise or a community enterprise,." and J.B. McKinnon"s claim "that his identity as a Canadian writer falls far behind his self-image as a British Columbian". DeSoto is also quoted as saying "we"re interested in each other because we"re not quite sure who we are. So we read about each other in novels." In the article the last word is left to Bruce quoting the unnamed foreign publishers: "That, her colleagues agreed, is a truly Canadian characteristic". I have used a lot of space to summarize a recent article about what I would call the "New Canadian Novel" in order to make a simple point. That article could as easily have been written about something called "New Canadian Poetry,"; only the names would have to be changed to protect the innocent. Given that the goings-on at the symposium could easily have been misreported, I have followed the letters to the editor section since the article first appeared and have seen no demands for retraction, so I am going to assume that the reportage is at least accurate within the scruples of The Vancouver Sun (owned by CanWest Global Communications Corporation of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). What initially caught my eye and makes the above move from novel to poetry more plausible is the name Phyllis Bruce, who also happened to co-edit with poet Garry Geddes a formative anthology of "Canadian Poetry". (I am using quotation marks in this context to emphasize the contested nature of the construction). A survey of Canadian poetry anthologies, which I will undertake here, will demonstrate the complexities-and complicities-involved in proposing the problematic category "New Canadian Poetry." 15 Canadian Poets was published by Oxford University Press (Canadian Branch), their characterization, not mine, in 1970. The anthology has been expanded many times since then, Geddes and Bruce"s 15 Canadian Poets Plus Five (a 1978 revision of their 1970 collection) 15 Canadian Poets x 2 (the 1988 update), and finally minus Bruce, 15 Canadian Poets x 3 in 2001. With a very brief preface-1 full page-that begs off an introduction, ostensibly because the individual notes on the poets covers the same ground, Bruce and Geddes lay out the enduring tropes of many Canadian poetry anthologies, particularly those aimed at an academic audience: "Ultimately there are no prescriptive criteria to offer for choices that are highly subjective; it can only be hoped that the book reflects what is happening in the art itself". Elsewhere in the preface we are told that the editors hope to "suggest the unusual scope and variety of poetry written in English Canada since the Second World War. At the same time we wanted to provide a selection in depth from the work of each poet." They go on to explain that they have chosen 6 new writers, 5 mid career and 4 established writers. A quick review of the notes on the poets makes it clear from their mix of biographical and impressionistic critiques, that the anthology is aimed at an academic market, although this is not stated. Of course publication by a University Press such as Oxford is an inescapable identifier of both the market and potential readership. Oxford takes a somewhat proprietary interest in things Canadian with their publication of The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse edited by poet A.J. M. Smith in 1960, Margaret Atwood"s The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English in 1982. It should also be noted that in 1973 Oxford also published Garry Geddes" 20th Century Poetry and Poetics. Smith identifies two strains in both French and English Canadian poetry: "One group has made an effort to express whatever is unique or local in Canadian life while the other has concentrated on what it has in common with life everywhere". Either way, in both official languages, what makes Canadian poetry distinct according to Smith is "its eclectic detachment". Perhaps, in Bruce"s terms, its being "agenda free". Atwood drops the French in her later edition because of the "yeast like growth of poetry in French as well as in English" since 1960, she recognizes "regionalism", does not represent "the cutting edge", eschews feminism ("no poet is excluded because he is male"), suggests that something happened in the sixties (which of course in Canada lasted until 1975), that something was that poetry became the predominate literary form in Canada, "then there was "cultural nationalism"" and finally, Canadian poetry survives all this and "Finally, it is its own", neither French, English nor American. Perhaps it has taken on in Bruce"s terms "an internationalism of appeal." Of course these are not the only Canadian poetry anthologies attempting to represent something of "Canada" and "Poetry". It is interesting to note that with the exception of Bruce all of the editors so far are poets. In the early fifties both Bliss Carman and Earle Birney turned their hands to anthologizing: Carman with Lorne Pierce, and V.B. Rhodenizer, edited Canadian Poetry in English in 1954, published by The Ryerson Press. Curiously Ryerson had published Birney"s Twentieth Century Canadian Poetry only one year earlier. This collection is aimed at both "the general reader and the teacher and student of Canadian Literature, particularly at the matriculation and university level." Birney is careful to call attention to his avoidance of what he calls "faded "Victorian" versifying that historical collections feel bound to include." This early anthology makes a distinction between "poetry" and "verse" while neither Atwood nor Smith even comment on the distinction, if they make one. Must be Birney"s Trotskyite background. (See Louis Cabris on Birney"s Trotskyite Poetics). He also neglects "the fashionably obscure or highly experimental work," as if the two are one in the same. Personally I"d like to see some highly experimental Canadian poetry from between 1900 and 1950, but Birney sees it being only of interest to the "very sophisticated palate." He does however make a very tentative step toward a kind of postmodern statement when he proposes, "No book, however carefully made, can succeed without the cooperation of its readers." He goes on to undercut this statement by asserting that poetry is "created to be enjoyed," as if this is the only reason to write poetry. Strangely Atwood also includes a long panegyric to her own reading habits: she reads for entertainment. Of course neither tells us what they mean by enjoyment or entertainment. But Birney does say that authentic poetry is: "the communication of the imaginations of Canadians to their fellowmen in this twentieth century". While Birney"s general reader/canonical text is an historical survey, it is also restricted to a certain limited time period. There are temporal as well as spatial restrictions that are both stated and implied, as there are in the other anthologies above.
The Beaver Exploring Canada S History, Aug 1, 2007
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Papers by Michael Barnholden