Issue archives

#189 (Summer 2006)
The Literature of Atlantic Canada

Issue PDF available

Add to Cart ($19.00)

Editorial

Marta Dvorak and Coral Ann Howell

• The Literature of Atlantic Canada (p. 6 - 30)
• Subjects: Atlantic Canada
• PDF available

Articles

Gwendolyn Davies

• Revisiting Rockbound: The Evolution of a Novel (p. 15 - 30)
• Subjects: Atlantic Canada
• PDF available

George Elliott Clarke

• Anna Minerva Henderson: An Afro-New Brunswick Response to Canadian (Modernist) Poetry (p. 32 - 48)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  Anna Minerva Henderson (1887-1987) was born and raised in New Brunswick in an era that marked the height of white supremacy and the nadir of black subjection. Later, as an educated black woman, Ottawa civil servant, and poet, she learned to mask her racial identity. Thus, her only chapbook of poems, Citadel (1967), the first collection by an African-Canadian woman to be published in Canada, is curiously raceless. Read closely, however, one finds that Henderson strives to be a “black” poet with universal content and a “modern English-Canadian” poet with a black subtext. A quiet subversive, Henderson requires resurrection.
  
  Anna Minerva Henderson (1887-1987) naquit et grandit au Nouveau Brunswick à une époque marquée par l’apogée de la suprématie de la race blanche et par le point le plus bas de l’assujettissement des Noirs. Plus tard, comme femme éduquée, fonctionnaire à Ottawa, et poète, elle apprit à masquer son identité raciale. Ainsi, son seul livre de poésie, Citadel (1967), le premier recueil d’une femme canadienne d’origine africaine à être publié au Canada, parle relativement peu de race. Cependant, en lisant attentivement, on trouve que Henderson s’efforce d’être une poète noire avec un message universel aussi bien qu’une poète « anglo- canadienne moderne » avec un sous-texte noir. Subversive, discrète, Henderson réclame une résurrection.

• Subjects: Afro-Canadian, Atlantic Canada, Modernism, Poetry
• PDF available

Claire Omhovère

• Roots and Routes in a Selection of Stories by Alistair MacLeod (p. 50 - 67)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  This essay analyses the relations between land and language in a selection of stories by MacLeod. Because returning and iteration, as well as crossing and analogy, combine spatial and linguistic displacements, both motifs confer a distinct cohesion on Macleod’s representation of Cape Breton. They also allow local place to enter in resonance with a national sense of space beyond the specificity of these stories’ regional setting. It will then be argued that the alleged universal value of MacLeod’s writing rests upon its contribution to the “imagined geographies” in which the nation, fragmented and diverse as it is, grounds its own existence.

• Subjects: Landscape/Space, Language/Linguistics, Short Fiction
• PDF available

Alexander MacLeod

• History versus Geography in Wayne Johnston’s The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (p. 69 - 83)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  Wayne Johnston’s The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is a novel which illustrates the dominant historical and geographical epistemologies of Canadian postmodern fiction. In this text two seemingly opposite strategies of reading and interpreting time and space are employed. Although numerous critics have recognized the sophistication of Johnston’s fictional re-appropriation of Newfoundland’s historical record, few have noted that Colony’s playfully postmodern historical narrative is actually linked to a far more traditional, nearly naturalistic and even environmentally deterministic reading of Newfoundland’s cultural geography. In Johnston’s novel, while history is understood as a flexible cultural construct, a text that can be re-written and re-read in countless ways, geography is interpreted differently as an impersonal objective terrain, a natural force which remains resolutely real, permanent and all-powerful. Rather than challenging each other, in Colony a postmodern version of historiographic metafiction and a nineteenth-century model of literary regionalism seem almost interdependent. Even while Joey Smallwood is self-consciously ‘making history’ he remains convinced that his actions are the natural result or outcome of what he calls the “the landscape’s permanent imminence.”
  
  The Colony of Unrequited Dreams de Wayne Johnston est un roman qui illustre bien les épistémologies historiques et géographiques qui sont dominantes dans la fiction canadienne postmoderne. Ce texte emploie deux stratégies apparemment opposées en abordant la lecture et l’interprétation du temps et de l’espace. Alors que plusieurs critiques ont reconnu la sophistication de cette réappropriation fictive de l’histoire de Terre-Neuve, peu ont noté que le récit historique ludiquement postmoderne de la colonie, par son ton taquin, est en effet lié à une lecture beaucoup plus traditionnelle, presque naturaliste, et même écologiquement déterministe, de la géographie culturelle de Terre-Neuve. Dans le roman de Johnston, alors que l’histoire est comprise comme une construction culturelle flexible, un texte qui peut être réécrit et relu indéfiniment, on constate une géographie qui est interprétée différemment comme un terrain objectif et impersonnel, une force naturelle qui reste absolument réelle, permanente et toute-puissante. En témoigne la coexistence d’une version postmoderne de métafiction historiographique et d’un modèle de régionalisme littéraire du dix-neuvième siècle ; chaque paradigme semble exister indépendamment, sans menacer l’autre. Même si Joey Smallwood la conscience de « faire l’histoire », il reste convaincu que ses actions sont le résultat naturel de ce qu’il appelle « l’imminence permanente du paysage ».

• Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Biography, Historiography, Novel
• PDF available

Herb Wyile

• As For Me and Me Arse: Strategic Regionalism and the Home Place in Lynn Coady’s Strange Heaven (p. 85 - 101)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  Lynn Coady’s novel Strange Heaven is a significant addition to a prominent Canadian genre: narratives about sensitive souls struggling to survive in a dysfunctional family in a small town. Whereas typically the critique of the small town invites the critical gaze of the outsider, however, Coady’s comic novel about a Cape Breton teenager turns that gaze back on the observer, highlighting the cultural politics between centre and periphery. In the process, the novel provides a good example of Atlantic-Canadian literature’s increasing and subversive self-consciousness, foregrounding and deconstructing the way in which Canada’s eastern edge tends to be framed from outside.
  
  Le roman Strange Heaven de Lynn Coady apporte un enrichissement majeur à un genre important dans la littérature canadienne : récits d’âmes sensibles qui essaient de survivre à une vie de famille dysfonctionnelle dans un village rural. Alors que (typiquement) la critique du village invite le regard critique de l’étranger, ce roman comique d’un adolescent du Cap-Breton retourne ce regard sur l’observateur lui-même d’une manière qui démontre la politique culturelle entre ce qui est central et ce qui est périphérique. En même temps, le roman est un bon exemple de ce que la littérature du Canada atlantique devient de plus en plus subversivement consciente d’elle-même, mettant en relief et déconstruisant la façon dont la côte est du Canada est souvent envisagée de l’extérieur.

• Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Home & Family, Regionalism
• PDF available

Katherine Larson

• Resistance from the Margins in George Elliott Clarke’s Beatrice Chancy (p. 103 - 118)
• Abstract: Show/hide

  The peritext that surrounds and permeates George Elliott Clarke’s Beatrice Chancy (1999) strategically positions the events of the verse drama within a frame evoking political and poetic resistance. Drawing on the work of Gérard Genette, this article examines the function of the peritext in Beatrice Chancy through close analysis of two of its most pervasive elements: the epigraph and the stage direction. These peritexts reveal a preoccupation with discourses of resistance even as they themselves resist generic and linguistic categorization and containment. As such, they play a key role in the intertextual strategies informing Clarke’s work, shaping reader interpretation and mirroring the themes and events explored in Beatrice Chancy.
  
  Le péritexte qui entoure et imprègne Beatrice Chancy (1999) de George Elliott Clarke encadre stratégiquement les événements du drame versifié d’une manière qui évoque la résistance politique et poétique. En faisant référence au travail de Gérard Genette, cet article examine la fonction du péritexte de Beatrice Chancy par une analyse détaillée de deux de ses éléments les plus insinuants : l’épigraphe et la didascalie. Ces péritextes démontrent une préoccupation par rapport aux discours de résistance alors même qu’ils s’opposent à la limitation et à la catégorisation générique et linguistique. Ainsi, les péritextes jouent un rôle clé dans les stratégies intertextuelles qui informent l’écriture de Clarke, en façonnant l’interprétation du lecteur et en reflétant les thèmes et les événements explorés dans Beatrice Chancy.

• Subjects: Drama, Literary Theory, Poetry
• PDF available

Danielle Fuller

• Riding a Rolling Wave: A Conversation with Joan Clark (p. 121 - 133)
• Subjects: Atlantic Canada
• PDF available

Poems

George Elliott Clarke

• Annapolis Valley Sanskrit (p. 14)

Eleonore Schonmaier

• Journey (p. 31)

Christopher Levenson

• Bequest: for Douwe Eisenga * (p. 49)

Bill Howell

• An Absence of Cenotaphs (p. 68)

George Elliott Clarke

• Halifax (p. 84)

Lorna Crozier

• The Dead Twin (p. 102)

J. A. Wainwright

• Elegy in White: for Irving Layton (p. 119 - 120)

Book Reviews

Reviews section PDF available

Stories of English (p. 134 - 137)

by Janet Giltrow

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Cambridge History of the English Language, Volume VI: English in North America by John Algeo

Subjects: Language/Linguistics

Travels and Social Impact (p. 138 - 139)

by Bryan N. S. Gooch

Book(s) reviewed:

1. James McGill of Montreal: Citizen of the Atlantic World by James Woycke and John Xiros Cooper
2. Sojourning Sisters: The Lives and Letters of Jessie and Annie McQueen by Jean Barman

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Biography, Correspondence

Recollections (p. 139 - 142)

by Iain Higgins

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Heresies: The Complete Poems of Anne Wilkinson 1924-61 by Anne Wilkinson and Dean J. Irvine
2. Mountain Tea by Peter Van Toorn
3. The Centre: Poems 1970-2000 by Barry McKinnon

Subjects: Poetry

Writing About Others (p. 142 - 145)

by Anthony Wall

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Figures de l'autre dans le roman québécois by Janet M. Paterson
2. La distance habitée by François Paré

Subjects: Francophone, Novel, Quebec

Tragedy of Everyday Life (p. 145 - 146)

by Laura Robinson

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Marian Engel: Life in Letters by Christl Verduyn and Kathleen Garay
2. The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery.Volume V: 1935-1942 by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterson

Subjects: Biography, Correspondence

Recovering Voices (p. 147)

by Rocío G. Davis

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Where Are the Voices Coming From?: Canadian Culture and the Legacies of History by Coral Ann Howell

Subjects: Culture, History

History in the Novel (p. 148 - 149)

by Gregory Betts

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Aldershot 1945: The Novel by Bruce Allen Powe
2. Playing Sarah Bernhardt: A Novel by Joan Givner

Subjects: Biography, Novel, World War II

Reclamation, Exploration (p. 149 - 150)

by Laurie Kruk

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Thanks for Listening: Stories and Short Fiction by Ernest Buckler by Ernest Buckler and Marta Dvorak
2. Transient Questions: New Essays on Mavis Gallant by Kristjana Gunnars

Subjects: Essays, Short Fiction

Muslim Women (p. 151 - 152)

by Heiko Henkel

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Majalis al-ilm: Sessions of Knowledge. Reclaiming and Representing the Lives of Muslim Women by Salima Bhimani
2. The Muslim Veil in North America: Issues and Debates by Sajida S. Alvi, H. Hoodfar, and S. McDonough

Subjects: Religion, Women's Studies

Writing the Eighteenth Century (p. 152 - 153)

by Christina Lupton

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Bedlam by Greg Hollingshead

Subjects: Novel

Lieu de mémoire (p. 153 - 155)

by Lauren Butters

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Jakob, fils de Jakob by Alain Gagnon
2. Un vendredi du mois d'âout by Antonio D'Alfonso

Subjects: Autobiography, Francophone, Italo-Canadian , Jewish-Canadian , World War II

Un dragon qui fait tomber la pluie (p. 155)

by Jacqueline Viswanathan

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Fuego by Stephan Cloutier

Subjects: Children's Literature

Problematic Relations (p. 155 - 157)

by Joan Clark

Book(s) reviewed:

1. From a High Thin Wire by
2. Last Notes and Other Stories by
3. Translating Women by Bill Stenson

Problematic Relations (p. 155 - 157)

by J. Russell Perkin

Book(s) reviewed:

1. From a High Thin Wire by Joan Clark
2. Last Notes and Other Stories by Tamas Dobozy
3. Translating Women by Bill Stenson

Subjects: Eastern European, Short Fiction, Trauma

Hard Lives, Hard Reads (p. 157 - 158)

by Jennifer Bowering Delisle

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Bishop'€™s Road by Catherine Safer
2. Shack: The Cutland Junction Stories by Kenneth J. Harvey

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Novel, Short Fiction

L.M. Montgomery Studies (p. 158 - 160)

by Benjamin Lefebvre

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery and Cecily Devereux
2. The Intimate Life of L.M. Montgomery by Irene Gammel
3. Windows and Words: A Look at Canadian Children'€™s Literature in English by Aïda Hudson and Susan-Ann Cooper

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Children's Literature

Beyond the Burning Rock (p. 160 - 161)

by Sean Conway

Book(s) reviewed:

1. So Beautiful by Ramona Dearing
2. The Sandblasting Hall of Fame by Lawrence Mathews

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Short Fiction

Random Acts (p. 162 - 163)

by Kristen Warder

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Alligator by Lisa Moore
2. The Girls by Kristen Warder and Lori Lansens

Subjects: Animal Studies, Body & Health, Novel

Skinny Dipping with Seals (p. 163 - 164)

by Rebecca Raglon

Book(s) reviewed:

1. The Sea'€™s Voice by Harry Thurston

Subjects: Anthologies, Atlantic Canada, Nature Writing

Innocence and Experience (p. 164 - 165)

by Gisèle M. Baxter

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Mean Boy by Lynn Coady

Subjects: Atlantic Canada, Novel

Taking Refuge (p. 165 - 166)

by Amy Leask

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb

Subjects: Afro-Canadian, Novel, Religion

Narrating and Reading (p. 166 - 167)

by Estelle Dansereau

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Narratology and Text: Subjectivity and Identity in New France and Québécois Literature by Paul Perron

Subjects: Historiography, Quebec

Rereading Frye (p. 168 - 169)

by Waldemar Zacharasiewicz

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Northrop Frye on Canada: Collected Works of Northrop Frye, Volume 12 by David Staines and Jean O'Grady

Subjects: Culture

La trilogie sud-américaine de Pierre Samson aux Herbes rouges (p. 169 - 170)

by Guy Poirier

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Il était une fois une ville by Pierre Samson
2. Le Messie de Belém by Pierre Samson
3. Un Garçon de compagnie by Pierre Samson

Subjects: Francophone, Novel

De l'ombre dans la mire (p. 170 - 172)

by Laurent Poliquin

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Erica je brise by Gilles Cyr
2. Lignes aériennes by Pierre Nepveu
3. Murs mouillés d'€™ombre by Diane Cardinal

Subjects: Francophone, Poetry

The Bible Fryed (p. 172 - 173)

by Barbara Pell

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Frye and the Word: Religious Contexts in the Writing of Northrop Frye by Jeffery Donaldson and Alan Mendelson

Subjects: Religion

The Long Day Wanes (p. 173 - 174)

by Charles Barbour

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Postmodernism: The Key Figures by Joseph Natoli and Hans Bertens

Subjects: Postmodernism

Repositioning Diasporic Identities (p. 174 - 175)

by Christine Kim

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Asian North American Identities by Eleanor Ty and Donald Goellnicht

Subjects: Asian American, Asian Canadian, Essays

Hammering in the Sky (p. 175 - 177)

by Paul Denham

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Yours, Al: The Collected Letters of Al Purdy by Sam Solecki

Subjects: Correspondence, Poetry

This Much is True (p. 177 - 179)

by Lisa Grekul

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Any Day But This: Stories by Kristjana Gunnars
2. The Memory Man: A Novel by Lisa Appignanesi

Subjects: Jewish-Canadian , Novel, Short Fiction

To Tell the Story (p. 179 - 180)

by Hugh Hazelton

Book(s) reviewed:

1. Testimonio: On the Politics of Truth by John Beverley

Subjects: Autobiography, Latin-American

Opinions & Notes

Arnold Berleant and Allen Carlson

• The Aesthetics of Natural Environments (p. 180)
• Subjects: Essays, Landscape/Space, Nature Writing

Robert McGill

• The Mysteries (p. 181)
• Subjects: Crime & Detective, Novel

J. A. Wainwright

• Every Grain of Sand: Canadian Perspectives on Ecology and Environment (p. 181 - 182)
• Subjects: Essays, Landscape/Space, Nature Writing

Pamela Porter

• The Crazy Man (p. 182)
• Subjects: Children's Literature, Prairie Writing

Stephen Hume

• Off the Map: Western Travels on Roads Less Taken (p. 182)
• Subjects: Journalism, Language/Linguistics, Native Studies

Cécilia W. Francis

• France Daigle. À propos des jeux de l'art et du hasard (p. 183 - 192)
• Subjects: Art, Francophone

Last Pages

Ernest Buckler

• The Line Fence (p. 193 - 197)
• Subjects: Short Fiction