Articles: Page 8

Abstract: In their geneaology of extractivism in “What do we talk about when we talk about extractivism?”, Szeman and Wenzel generate several provocations. One of these urges a strict usage of the term “extractivism” in order to prevent it from becoming an empty signifier for general use by scholars; another brings forward the perennial (but valid) lament concerning just what it is humanities scholarship can do in ‘the real world’. This article will take up those challenges to the field as they pertain to the Canadian-American poet Al Moritz's Mahoning. After defining terms and sketching the scholarship previously conducted in poetics conduced in the energy humanities, I return some challenges back to Szeman and Wenzel from the realm of poetics. Moritz's work is offered as a rich field of inquiry in theme, style, and tradition, suggesting how his poetic could be ‘non-instrumentalized’ to make ‘real change’ in the ‘real world.’

Poetics and Extraction Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 251 (2022): 51-71.

Alan Crawley and Contemporary Verse

by George Robertson

Abstract: The symposium that follows was prepared by George Robertson as a radio documentary and broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ...

Tenth Anniversary Issue. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 41 (Summer 1969): 87-96.

Media & Communications

Alberta’s Forgotten Censor: The Advisory Board on Objectionable Publications (1954-1976) and the Continued Campaign Against Comics Post-1954

by Amie Wright

Abstract: The postwar public health crisis afflicting children was not just polio. Across North America concerned citizens met to discuss the public health ‘emergency’ of comic books. Restrictions under the ‘Fulton Bill’ (1949), followed by Senate hearings in Canada (1952) and the United States (1954) argued that comics contributed to illiteracy and delinquency. Previous scholarship has focused on the US Senate hearings overlooking what happened after 1954–specifically the continued work of citizen committees. In Alberta this took the form of the Advisory Board on Objectionable Publications (1954-1976) which functioned (1) to control the sale of objectionable comics, tabloids and magazines in the Province and (2) to foster a public awareness of the danger inherent in permitting young people to read unwholesome material. Based on previously unpublished sources from the Provincial Archives of Alberta, this paper illuminates an under reported chapter in Canadian history and the history of comics censorship.

Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Canadian Comics Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 249 (2022): 80-98.