English 470F, section 005: Canadian Studies

Public Domain: Literary Audience

Prof. Kevin McNeilly
Lectures MWF 12:00 in

In this course, we will examine a set of non-dramatic literary work that engages with the idea of a public or an audience. The emergence of Oprah’s Book Club or Canada Reads to help us read well affirms a general anxiety – perhaps best articulated by Harold Bloom in the United States and David Solway in Canada – over the estate of literature: a perception that literary readership, Canadian or otherwise, has been consistently imperiled, and is irrevocably and lamentably in decline by the end of the 20th century. Really, who still reads this stuff? And why should we? Popular conceptions of literary value – such as the sustained and continuing investment in poems like McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields,” still memorized by grade-schooler across the country – tend to deflect our attention away from assessing the intrinsic worth of a national literature toward interrogating our investment in its cultural performance, what its consumption does for us. In the face of shifting public appetites and changing tastes, why might literature continue to justify its demands for an audience? To whom does Can Lit now speak? The vestiges of a sedimentary nationalism in English Canada can no longer – if they ever could – account for the ideological, formal and material diversity of Canadian writing. By examining the dissemination, performance and consumption of selected instances of Anglo-Canadian popular and literary works, as well as by assessing how we fashion ourselves as an academic literary public in the classroom, we will try to think through the ways in which such writing can still matter.

Lecture Schedule
Lectures MWF 12:00 in
Wednesday September 7
Introductory: Can Lit, Pop Lit: Forms of Audience
Friday September 9
John McCrae, "In Flanders' Fields"; Edna Jaques, "In Flanders Now"
Click here for a copy of Lt. Col. John McCrae's poem at "Representative Poetry Online" (University of Toronto).
Click here for a copy of Edna Jaques's "response poem."
Click here for the text of several of McCrae's letters to his mother, from around the time of the composition of "In Flanders' Fields."
Click here for the web page for McCrae House in Guelph Ontario.
Click here for the page on Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae at the Veterans Affairs Canada site.
Click here for songs 4 peace from Songs4Teachers.com.
Click here for a television "Historica Minute" dramatizing the composition of McCrae's poem.
Monday September 12
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Click here for the homepage of the L. M. Montgomery Institute.
Click here for the "Green Gables House" page maintained by the provincial government of PEI.
Click here for an e-text of Anne of Green Gables from Project Gutenberg.
Click here for an e-text of "The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career" by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Wednesday September 14
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Friday September 16
Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
Monday September 19
Wayde Comption, Performance Bond
Click here for Wayde Compton's homepage.
Click here for e-texts of two of Wayde Compton's poems.
Click here for a bio of Wayde Compton from Arsenal Pulp Press.
Click here for an excerpt of a conversation between George Elliott Clarke, Wayde Compton and myself, published in Canadian Literature.
Click here for a video clip from the same interview.
Click here for a review of Wayde Compton's first poetry collection, 49th Parallel Psalm.
Click here for a review of Wayde Compton's anthology Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature.
Wednesday September 21
Wayde Comption, Performance Bond
Click here for the homepage of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church.
Click here for johncoltrane.com.
Click here for a page on Charley Pride from his management agency.
Click here for charleypride.com.
Click here for a page on Sidney Poitier.
Click here for a Paul Laurence Dunbar website.
Click here for the Paul Laurence Dunbar Digital Collection.
Click here for "Black Writers in Search of Place: A three-way conversation about history, role models, and inventing 'The Black Atlantis'" by Wayde Compton.
Click here for "The Past Names Nothing Anyplace: Wayde Compton, C.S. Giscombe, and the Poetics of Black British Columbia" by Peter Hudson.
Click here for "Invisible Literature: Wayde Compton Discovers the Unmapped Territory of Black British Columbia" BY BESS LOVEJOY.
Click here for a link to an mp3 version of "The speakers are feeding back..." from The Reinventing Wheel.
Click here for Wayde Compton's webpage on The Hogan's Alley Memorial Project.
Monday September 26
Douglas Coupland, Terry
Click here for Douglas Coupland's official website.
Click here for The Coupland File.
Click here for a 2003 interview with Douglas Coupland.
Click here for a CBC page on Douglas Coupland's Terry.
Click here for a feature on Coupland from a 2004 issue of The Georgia Straight.
Wednesday September 28
Douglas Coupland, Terry
Click here for the homepage of the Terry Fox Foundation.
Click here for the page on Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope from the CBC Archives.
Friday September 30
Douglas Coupland, Terry
Monday October 3
E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems
Click here for a page on E. J. Pratt from the University of Toronto Library site.
Click here for The Complete Poems and Letters of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition.
Click here for a hypertext edition of The Selected Poems of E. J. Pratt, our course text, with audio recordings and extensive background for the poems. (Click on each "Introductory Note.")
Click here for a bio, and bibliography of works on and about, E. J. Pratt.
Click here for a review of E.J. Pratt: The Master Years, 1927--1964.
Wednesday October 5
E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems
Please read "Newfoundland," "The Shark," "The Prize Cat," and "from Stone to Steel."
Click here for an electronic version of Leonard Cohen's poem, "For EJP."
Click here for a French translation by Jean Guiloineau of Leonard Cohen's poem, "For EJP."
Friday October 7
E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems
Monday October 10
THANKSGIVING -- UNIVERSITY CLOSED
Wednesday October 12
E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems
Friday October 14
E. J. Pratt, Selected Poems
Monday October 17
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Wednesday October 19
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Friday October 21
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Monday October 24
P. K. Page, Planet Earth
Click here for a good webpage (with links to poems and bibliographies) on P. K. Page.
Click here for a retrospective exhibition (with many reproductions on-line) of P. K. (Page) Irwin's painting and visual art, at the Winchester Galleries in Victoria (in 2002).
Click here for a biography and bibliography on Page.
Click here for the text of "The Stenographers," by Page.
Click here for a biography/chronology on Page, with contact information.
Click here for "Approaching P.K. Page’s 'Arras,'" an essay by Constance Rooke.
Click here for "'A Subtle Mourning': P.K. Page's 'The Permanent Tourists,'" a critical essay by D. M. R. Bentley.
Click here for a chronology of Page's publications.
Click here for "Selecting P.K. Page," a review by Cynthia Messenger of The Glass Air.
Click here for a page on P. K. Page from the Canadian Women Poets site.
Wednesday October 26
P. K. Page, Planet Earth
Friday October 28
P. K. Page, Planet Earth
Monday October 31
P. K. Page, Planet Earth
Short Essay due in class.
Click here for the topic sheet for the short paper.
Wednesday November 2
P. K. Page, Planet Earth
Friday November 4
Robert Bringhurst, A Story as Sharp as a Knife
Please read the Prologue and the first five chapters of the book.
Click here for information on Robert Bringhurst
Click here for a description of a recent panel on First Nations storytelling, that includes commentary by Robert Bringhurst.
Click here for a bibliography of Robert Bringhurst's works.
Click here for "Cutting Both Ways: Robert Bringhurst and Haida Literature" a review by Kevin McNeilly (yes, that's me) of A Story as Sharp as a Knife.
For an encyclopedia entry on John R. Swanton, click here.
For an example of some of Swanton's anthropological work, click here.
Click here to connect to a site on "North American Indian" history, with numerous useful links.
Click here to connect to a First Nations/ First Peoples site, principally containing links to other sites. (This site can be very useful for getting research started in the area of First Nations Studies.)
Click here for a brief description of Bringhurst's translation of Ghandl, Nine Visits to the Mythworld.
Monday November 7
Robert Bringhurst, A Story as Sharp as a Knife
Wednesday November 9
Robert Bringhurst, A Story as Sharp as a Knife
Friday November 11
REMEMBRANCE DAY -- UNIVERSITY CLOSED
Monday November 14
Robert Bringhurst, A Story as Sharp as a Knife
Wednesday November 16
Don McKay, Camber: Selected Poems
Click here for a biography of Don McKay.
Click here for "Animalia" by Susan Fisher, which mentions McKay's bird poems.
Click here for the Writers' Union profile of Don McKay.
Click here for a profile of McKay.
Click here for the Griffin Poetry Prize short-list citation for McKay's Another Gravity.
Click here for a brief bio of McKay.
Click here for the e-text of McKay's poem "Song for the Song of the White-throated Sparrow."
Click here for "QWERTY, qu'est-ce que c'est?", a brief editorial on the founding of the little magazine QWERTY.
Click here for an ad for McKay's new book of poetry, Camber, to appear in March 2004.
Click here for an ad for Aria, a chapbook by McKay with earlier versions of some of the poems inb Another Gravity.
Click here for "Messages from Don McKay and Stan Dragland, founding partners of Brick Books, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Brick Books in 1995."
Click here for an interview with poet Karen Connelly, who mentions McKay's work as an editor.
Click here for the text of McKay's poem "Softball," from CBC Radio's Poetry Plus.
Click here for a note (scroll down) mentioning the film of "Sometimes a Voice" -- McKay's poem -- by Kirsten Newlands.
Friday November 18
Class cancelled.
Monday November 21
Don McKay, Camber: Selected Poems
Please read "Setting the Table" (151), "Listen at the Edge" (34), "Glenn Gould, Humming" (115), "What Kind of Fool Am I?" (129), "Song for the Song of the Wood Thrush" (125), "Midnight Dip" (55), "Nocturnal Migrants" (178) (as well as "Fridge Nocturne" [10]), "Sometimes a Voice" 1 and 2 (161, 193), "Camber" (183) and "On Leaving" (201).
Click here for "Be-wildering: The Poetry of Don McKay," an essay by Stan Dragland that discusses many of the same issues we've raised in class.
Wednesday November 23
Don McKay, Camber: Selected Poems
Please read "Materiel" (131-142).
Friday November 25
Karen Solie, Short Haul Engine
Click here for a page on Short Haul Engine from the Griffin Poetry Prize site.
Click here for a page on Karen Solie from Brick Books.
Click here for a review by Heather Spears of Short Haul Engine.
Click here for a Bc Bookworld page on Karen Solie.
Click here for an excerpt from an interview with Solie, along with a poem.
Click here for a review by Karen Solie of Jan Zwicky's Thirty-Seven Small Songs & Thirteen Silences.
Click here for a review by rob mclennan of Short Haul Engine, from The Danforth Review.
Click here for a review by Zach Wells of Modern and Normal, Solie's second book.
Monday November 28
Karen Solie, Short Haul Engine
Wednesday November 30
Karen Solie, Short Haul Engine
Friday December 2
Review
Term Paper Due in Class
Click here for the topic sheet for the term paper.
Click here for the final take-home examination. Please note that the examination paper is due during the regularly scheduled exam period, 8:30-11:00 am on Wednesday December 21, but you may submit the paper to me (or to the English Department's main office, BuTo 397) any time before that.