Canada and the Idea of NorthCanada and the Idea of North examines the ways in which Canadians have defined themselves as a northern people in their literature, art, music, drama, history, geography, politics, and popular culture. From the Franklin Mystery to the comic book superheroine Nelvana, Glenn Gould's documentaries, the paintings of Lawren Harris, and Molson beer ads, the idea of the north has been central to the Canadian imagination. Sherrill Grace argues that Canadians have always used ideas of Canada-as-North to promote a distinct national identity and national unity. In a penultimate chapter - "The North Writes Back" - Grace presents newly emerging northern voices and shows how they view the long tradition of representing the North by southern activists, artists, and scholars. With the recent creation of Nunavut, increasing concern about northern ecosystems and social challenges, and renewed attention to Canada's role as a circumpolar nation, Canada and the Idea of North shows that nordicity still plays an urgent and central role in Canada at the start of the twenty-first century. |
Contents
IDEAS OF NORTH | xxiii |
WRITING THE NORTH | 17 |
Representing North | 19 |
Constructing a Northern Nation | 43 |
ARTICULATING NORTH | 75 |
Visualizing North | 77 |
Performing North | 122 |
NARRATING A NORTHERN NATION | 163 |
Fictions of North | 165 |
THE NORTH WRITES BACK | 225 |
Writing ReWriting and Writing Back | 227 |
MAGNETIC NORTH | 259 |
Notes | 267 |
An Interdisciplinary Bibliography | 297 |
Index | 331 |
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Common terms and phrases
adventure Arctic ARTICULATING NORTH artist Bakhtin called Cana Canada Canada-as-North Canadian history Canadian identity Canadian North cold construction created Cree culture discursive formation Eskimo explorers FICTIONS OF NORTH film Flaherty formation of North Foucault Franklin Fur Queen Gabrielle Roy gender Geographic go North Gould Grey Owl Group of Seven Herk Hunter Idea of North Illus imagined Indian Inuit Inuk Inuktitut John Kate Carmack Klondike Kroetsch Lake land landscape Lawren Harris maps McClelland and Stewart Montreal myth Nanook NARRATING A NORTHERN native Nelvana nordicity NORTH WRITES BACK NORTHERN NATION Northern Review Northwest Nunavut painting photographs Pierre play poem political Press REPRESENTING NORTH Richler River Robert Robert Flaherty Roy's Rudy Wiebe Schafer semiotics snow social South southern space Stefansson story tells Thomson tion Tom Thomson Toronto True North Vancouver Voaden voice W.L. Morton Wiebe Windigo Winter woman WRITING THE NORTH Yukon
Popular passages
Page xvi - Follow me: I seek the everlasting ices of the north, where you will feel the misery of cold and frost, to which I am impassive.