Reading in an anthology designed to establish a workable Canadian cultural literacy, we'll investigate the ways in which a national cultural imaginary has been invoked and produced in recent decades in English-speaking Canada. How does shared memory shape, define and revise various claims in these parts of the country to identity, place and culture? In 1965, Northrop Frye famously argued that Canadians are more perplexed by the question of "Where is here?" than "Who am I?" Reading a selection of fiction, essay, poetry and graphic works, as well as electronic and audio-visual media, we'll interrogate depictions of history and place, and at the forms of belonging and of displacement that many writers articulate, and also challenge. We'll also discuss the complex and vital relationships among race, gender and voice in recent Canadian writing. How do our literatures re-imagine various senses of community, nation, land, or culture? How exactly does this writing even profess to be "ours"?
Primary Texts
Laura Moss and Cynthia Sugars, eds., Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts Volume 2 (Pearson/ Penguin Academics)
Chester Brown, Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography (Drawn and Quarterly)
Course Requirements
Response Blog (10%)
Click here for instructions and requirements for blog entries.
Please note that the external links are for supplemental purposes -- to provide background information and additional resources -- and that I cannot vouch for their accuracy or thoroughness. They are only brief starting-points for research.
Wednesday September 9
Introductory: No Other Where, Anywhere from Here
Please read Quodlibets poem 1.117 by Robert Hayman; the text can be found here (scroll down).
Please read Northrop Frye, "Conclusion to a Literary History of Canada" (252).
Please listen to "Highway 1 West" by John K. Samson; a streaming version of the song can be found on the CBC Music site, here.
Here is video of John K. Samson performing "Highway 1 West" in 2012:
"All cultures are, to some extent, retrospective: we see where we are and where we're going partly because of where we've been." -- Margaret Atwood, in her introduction to The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English (1982).
Click here for The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Northrop Frye.
Click here for "Frye's Anatomy" by Alec Scott, from U of T Magazine, Spring 2012.
Click here for a brief introduction to Robert Hayman (1575-1629). The text of the poem we're reading is cited below the prose text.
Click here for a series of video interviews, from CV2, with John K. Samson.
Here is my video response to this class:
Friday September 11
Please listen to Glenn Gould's radio documentary, "The Idea of North." An electronic version can be accessed through the CBC here.
You can also play it using this sound stream (which is embedded here from the CBC site):
Please read "The Corn Husker" by E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), which can be found here.
Click here to read "'The Most Canadian of all Canadian Poets': Pauline Johnson and the Construction of a National Literature" by Carole Gerson.
Click here for Northern soliloquy: Glenn Gould translates the landscape of the North in his experimental radio documentary" by Jordan Timm (in Canadian Geographic).
Click here for a brief essay on Gould's Solitude Trilogy.
Click here for "Ideas of North: Glenn Gould and the Aesthetic of the Sublime" by Anyssa Neumann.
Click here for "The Metaphysical Compass," some reflections on the idea of north by the poet David Solway.
Here is the NFB documentary Glenn Gould: Off the Record:
Here is the Patrick Watson-hosted documentary The Canadians: The Pauline Johnson Story:
I played some Tanya Tagaq music at the beginning of class to provide a contrast to Gould's use of Sibelius in his documentary and to suggest what "Northern" music might also sound like.
Monday September 14
Please read "Samuel Hearne in Wintertime" by John Newlove (428) and "Audobon" by Anne Carson (609).
Click here for a page on John Newlove from Canadian Poetry Online.
Click here for the Canadian Encyclopedia entry on Newlove.
Click here for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Samuel Hearne.
Click here for the Project Gutenberg version of A JOURNEY FROM PRINCE OF WALES'S FORT IN HUDSON'S BAY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN by Samuel Hearne.
Click here for a Wikipedia article on The Birds of America (1827) by John James Audobon.
Click here for a page on Anne Carson at the Poetry Foundation website.
Click here for an interview with Anne Carson from The Paris Review.
Click here for "The Inscrutable Brilliance of Anne Carson."
Click here for "Magical Thinking," an article on Anne Carson by Emma Brockes.
Click here for an interview with Anne Carson published in Brick magazine.
Click here for an interview I conducted with Anne Carson, published in the Spring 2003 issue of Canadian Literature.
Click here for a discussion of Carson's Men in the Off Hours, from which "Audobon" is taken.
Here is video of a 2010 lecture by Anne Carson:
Wednesday September 16
CLASS CANCELLED -- I am away at a conference.
Please read "The Raven Steals the Light" by Bill Reid, with Robert Bringhurst. The story can be found on-line here.
Friday September 18
CLASS CANCELLED -- I am away at a conference.
Monday September 21
Please read "Newfoundland" by E. J. Pratt (53) and "What's Lost" by Michael Crummey (668).
Click here for the Canadian Poetry Online page on E. J. Pratt.
Click here for the Newfoundland Heritage page on Pratt.
Click here for an electronic, hypertext edition of Pratt's Selected Poems; have a look at the annotations to "Newfoundland."
Click here for "E.J. Pratt as Lyricist" by Edna Froese.
Click here for a Newfoundland Heritage page on Michael Crummey.
Click here for a YouTube video of Michael Crummey talking about writing.
Wednesday September 23
Please read "For E. J. P." and read/listen to "Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen (377, 378).
Here is a version by Nina Simone:
Here is a version by Meshell Ndegeocello, a tribute to Nina Simone:
Click here for a description of the exhibit "A Terrible Beauty: Edward Burtynsky" at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Click here for a 2013 interview with Edward Burtynsky.
Click here for Lawrence Paul Yuxwelupton's homepage.
Click here for a page on Yuxwelupton from the National Gallery of Canada.
Click here for "On a Good Day: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun stands his ground" by Christina Ritchie.
Click here for a biography of bpNichol from Coach House Books.
Click here for a missing link to the bpNichol Archive. (Check the other links at the base of the page.)
Click here for a page on bpNichol at the Poetry Foundation.
Click here for the bpNichol audio archive at PennSound.
A YouTube video of bpNichol performing "Pome Poem":
Friday October 2
Please read both versions of "The Lonely Land" by A. J. M. Smith (96, 97) and look at The West Wind by Tom Thomson (29).
Click here for an image of Tom Thomson's painting The West Wind.
Click here for the website West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson. An electronic version of The West Wind can be found under the "Art Gallery of Ontario" link, on the "Paintings" tab.
Click here for the Canadian Encyclopedia entry on A. J. M. Smith.
Click here for the Poetry in Voice webpage on Smith's poem.
Click here for "A.J.M. Smith: A Personal Memoir" by Frank Scott [F. R. Scott].
Click here for a brief reading of Smith's "The Lonely Land," by Jessica Langlois.
Here is a YouTube version of the documentary West Wind: The Vision of Tom Thomson:
Monday October 5
ESSAY 1 DUE IN CLASS.
Click here for the topic sheet for the first essay.
Please read "The Age of Lead" and "This is a Photograph of Me" by Margaret Atwood (436, 450).
Click here for the Poetry Foundation page on Margaret Atwood.
Click here for a page on Margaret Atwood at Canadian Poetry Online.
Click here for the NFB film Margaret Atwood: Once in August.
Click here for a 1973 CBC tv interview, "Margaret Atwood on Canadian literature,"
Wednesday October 7
Please read the poems from The Journals of Susanna Moodie and the excerpts from Survival by Margaret Atwood (247, 441-446).
Click here for the entry on Susanna Moodie from the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Click here for a reading of Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie by R. P. Bilan (from Canadian Poetry vol. 2, Spring/Summer 1978).
Click here for a page on Moodie from the Poetry Foundation.
Click here for "Margaret Atwood on her new book and a 99-year cliffhanger."
Friday October 9
PLease note that the lecture schedule has been re-arranged now to accommodate a little catch-up. The Atwood and Maria Campbell texts have been moved to next week.
Monday October 12
THANKSGIVING -- UNIVERSITY CLOSED
Wednesday October 14
Please read "The Age of Lead"(436) and the poems from The Journals of Susanna Moodie (247) and the excerpts from Survival by Margaret Atwood (241-246). (We will concentrate for this class on a reading of the short story.)
Click here for the entry on Susanna Moodie from the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Click here for a reading of Atwood's The Journals of Susanna Moodie by R. P. Bilan (from Canadian Poetry vol. 2, Spring/Summer 1978).
Click here for a page on Moodie from the Poetry Foundation.
Click here for an Author Profile of Austin Clarke from Quill & Quire.
Click here for the entry on Austin Clarke from The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Click here for a 2002 interview with Austin Clarke from January magazine.
Click here for "We Want a Black Poem," some memoir (published in 2007) by Austin Clarke.
Click here for a review of Austin Clarke's 'Membering from The Globe and Mail.
Click here for a 2003 interview with Austin Clarke.
Wednesday October 28
Please read Rohinton Mistry, "Squatter" (611).
Click here for an interview with Rohinton Mistry from January magazine in 2003.
Click here for a short article on Mistry from The Guardian.
Click here for an entry on Rohinton Mistry from The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Click here for a portrait of Rohinton Mistry from Quill & Quire.
Click here for an article from The Globe and Mail in 2011 on Mistry being shortlisted for the Man Booker prize.
Click here for "Deregulating the Evacuated Body: Rohinton MistryÕs 'Squatter'" by John Eustace.
Friday October 30
Please read all of the poetry by P. K. Page (192).
Monday November 2
ESSAY 2 DUE IN CLASS
Click here for the essay topic sheet for the second essay.
Please read Louis Riel by Chester Brown.
Here is audio of a 2005 Eleanor Wachtel interview with Chester Brown about Louis Riel:
Click here for the CBC webpage containing the interview.
Click here for a portrait of Chester Brown at the Drawn & Quarterly webpage.
Click here for a 2011 interview with Chester Brown.
Click here for some electronic versions of pages from Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography.
Click here for a page on Chester Brown at the Joe Shuster Awards site.
Click here for "Cartoonist Chester Brown drawn to Louis Riel's story."
Wednesday November 4
Louis Riel, continued.
Click here for a brief description of the exhibit "Chester Brown and Louis Riel" at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2013-14.
Click here for a 2011 interview with Chester Brown.
Click here for a 2013 interview with Chester Brown.
Click here for another 2011 interview with Chester Brown.
Click here for some discussion of the AGO exhibit.
Friday November 6
Louis Riel, continued.
Click here for a description of "An Evening with Chester Brown" in Winnipeg in 2013, around the 10th anniversary of the publication of Louis Riel.
Click here for a description of Chester Brown: Conversations (2013).
Click here for Scott McCloud's homepage. Have a look at his seminal book, Understanding Comics. (I borrowed his idea of "closure" in today's class.)
Here is a more careful and rigorous definition of "interpellation," the term I used in class today to describe Riel being "hailed" at the beginning of the book.
Monday November 9
Please read Dionne Brand, "Blues Spiritual for Mammy Prater" and the excerpts from Inventory (632, 634).
Click here for the page at CBC Digital Archives that features Dionne Brand talking in 2011 with Eleanor Wachtel about Inventory.
Click here for what is probably the photograph on which Brand's poem focuses, "Mammy Prater, a 115-year-old ex-slave who is still hale and hearty" from the American Library of Congress (circa 1920).
Click here for another image of Mammy Prater, writing.
Click here for another image from the Library of Congress.
Click here for a page on Dionne Brand from Canadian Poetry Online.
Click here an entry on Brand from the Canadian Encyclopedia.
Click here for a review of Dionne Brand's Thirsty.
Click here for a brief article on Brand by the poet Lisa Robertson.
Click here for "Language to Light On: Dionne Brand and the Rebellious Word" by Kaya Fraser.
Click here for a review of Brand's Inventory, from which two of the readings are excerpted.
Wednesday November 11
REMEMBRANCE DAY -- UNIVERSITY CLOSED
Friday November 13
Please read the poems by by George Elliott Clarke (660).
Click here for ""Your bass sounds like a typewriter": A Reading and Interview with George Elliott Clarke. Accompanied by bassist, David Lee."
Click here for Clarke's faculty page at the University of Toronto site.
Click here for Clarke's page at Canadian Poetry Online.
Click here for an interview with George Elliott Clarke from September 2000.
Click here for an interview with George Elliott Clarke conducted by me and by Wayde Compton.
Click here for "An Unimpoverished Style: the Poetry of George Elliott Clarke" by M. Travis Lane.
Monday, November 16
Please read "Song for the Song of the Wood Thrush," "Apres Chainsaw," "Sometimes a Voice (1)" and the excerpts from "Baler Twine" by Don McKay (569).