Page 37 - Potocco, Marcello, ed. 2018. Literatura v preseku družbe, družba v preseku literature. The Crossroads of Literature and Social Praxis. Zbornik povzetkov. Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem
P. 37
cello Potocco the crossroads of literature and social praxis, ljubljana, 2018 35
University of Primorska
The USA as ‘the Other’ in Canadian Nationalism
In my paper, I will present two examples of national ideology at
work in the Canadian literary system. They both exhibit the ten
sion present in Canadian literature in relation to the literature and
culture of the United States. Canadian literary criticism detected
this problematic relationship quite early on, when what was usu
ally analyzed was the triangle of the relations between the Unit
ed Kingdom, Canada and the USA. I will focus on mechanisms of
accepting and rejecting the influences of the dominant US litera
ture in relation to Canadian poetry. My first example is the poetry
of Archibald Lampman. Lampman’s poetry shows some influenc
es of American transcendentalism, but what is unique is the speak
er’s distance towards and fear of nature, which is not common for
original transcendentalism. Lampman’s poetry is thus a typical ex
ample of the American-Canadian binome present in Canadian na
tional identification. Possibly it was due to the evidentness of this bi
narism that the proponents of Canadian literary nationalism in the
1960s (Frye, Atwood) considerably neglected Lampman’s poetry.
The second example presented in the paper epitomizes the Amer
ican-Canadian binome not merely at the level of the literary form,
but also in the meta-literary sphere, in the struggle between the
advocates of the so called American postmodern poetics and the
defenders of the Canadian nationalist mythopoetic school. Milton
Acorn was one of the central figures of the Ontario-based nation
alist circle. In my contribution I argue that the famous »People’s Po
et Award« conflict between Acorn and George Bowering was on
ly an external display of the American-Canadian tension which was
also internal, since Acorn’s poetry incorporated some postmod
ern features under the influence from the US. Both examples re
veal the strong presence of the American-Canadian tension, but
the latter also shows that at the peak of Canadian literary national
ism there existed a clear tendency to conceal any possible elements
of »Americanism«.
University of Primorska
The USA as ‘the Other’ in Canadian Nationalism
In my paper, I will present two examples of national ideology at
work in the Canadian literary system. They both exhibit the ten
sion present in Canadian literature in relation to the literature and
culture of the United States. Canadian literary criticism detected
this problematic relationship quite early on, when what was usu
ally analyzed was the triangle of the relations between the Unit
ed Kingdom, Canada and the USA. I will focus on mechanisms of
accepting and rejecting the influences of the dominant US litera
ture in relation to Canadian poetry. My first example is the poetry
of Archibald Lampman. Lampman’s poetry shows some influenc
es of American transcendentalism, but what is unique is the speak
er’s distance towards and fear of nature, which is not common for
original transcendentalism. Lampman’s poetry is thus a typical ex
ample of the American-Canadian binome present in Canadian na
tional identification. Possibly it was due to the evidentness of this bi
narism that the proponents of Canadian literary nationalism in the
1960s (Frye, Atwood) considerably neglected Lampman’s poetry.
The second example presented in the paper epitomizes the Amer
ican-Canadian binome not merely at the level of the literary form,
but also in the meta-literary sphere, in the struggle between the
advocates of the so called American postmodern poetics and the
defenders of the Canadian nationalist mythopoetic school. Milton
Acorn was one of the central figures of the Ontario-based nation
alist circle. In my contribution I argue that the famous »People’s Po
et Award« conflict between Acorn and George Bowering was on
ly an external display of the American-Canadian tension which was
also internal, since Acorn’s poetry incorporated some postmod
ern features under the influence from the US. Both examples re
veal the strong presence of the American-Canadian tension, but
the latter also shows that at the peak of Canadian literary national
ism there existed a clear tendency to conceal any possible elements
of »Americanism«.
