Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian WritingUniversity of Toronto Press, 1997 - 278 páginas Why have so many of this century's prominent political and literary critics wanted to find a single metaphor to describe the character of Canada? Why have so many used land-based metaphors in reference to the divisions between centre and margin, colony and empire, wealth and power? W. H. New, in Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing, investigates this established paradigm by examining why so many writers have accepted the land as a comprehensive image of nationhood. Is there in fact, he questions, a landscape that is 'natural,' unmediated by social values and literary representation? Asking what 'land' as an abstract concept and a physical site has to do with writing, representation, and power, New looks at the 'sliding' relationship by which people associate their surroundings with their position in society. New's study of land in literature is a commentary on the way a culture produces values by transforming the 'natural' into literary idiom and, in turn, making literary convention seem natural. Land Sliding develops not as a history of uniformity or progress, but as a series of dialogues between part and present, between paradigms and disciplines. It draws on a wide range of texts, including First Nations narratives, contemporary poetry and fiction, government documents, and real estate ads, as well as artwork and photographs, to illustrate the complex associations that link place, power, and language in Canada today. W. H. New invites readers to look again at Canada's changing cultural character by rereading both the landscape and the people who have interpreted it. Land Sliding will have an important place in many disciplines, among them literary studies, geography, fine arts, and Canadian studies. |
Conteúdo
Literature Contact and the Natural World | 21 |
Literature Property and Power | 73 |
Literature and Region | 116 |
Direitos autorais | |
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Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing William H. New Visualização parcial - 1997 |
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aesthetic Alaska Passage anglophone Canadian argues articulate associated attitudes authority British Columbia Canada Canadian Literature Canadian Publishers Canadian Shield Canadian writing century Charles G.D. Roberts claim construct context conventional cultural Daphne Marlatt discourse E.J. Pratt Earle Birney effect Eli Mandel emphasize empirical English essays European example F.R. Scott fiction forms function garden gender geography Grove hence Indian land landscape language Laurentian Len Norris literary literature Margaret Laurence margins McClelland & Stewart meaning metaphor Moodie mountains narrative Native nature newfoundland newfoundland newfoundland newfoundland North novel observes Ontario oral painting paradigm particular picturesque poem poet poetry political prairie Quebec readers reality region relation representation reproduced courtesy resistance rhetoric river Scott shape social society space spatial speech story structure Susanna Moodie territory tion Toronto trope urban values Vancouver verbal vernacular visual Watson wild wilderness words