A Great Duty: Canadian Responses to Modern Life and Mass Culture, 1939-1967In A Great Duty>/I>L.B. Kuffert shows that the history of Canadian culture from the war to Canada's centenary is much richer and more complex than has previously been recognized. He looks at the responses of cultural critics to such topics as war, reconstruction, science, conformity, personality, and commemoration, catching outspoken observers in the act of synthesizing new interpretations of the contemporary world and protesting the dominance of mass-produced entertainment.English-Canadian cultural critics from across the political spectrum championed self-improvement, self-awareness, and lively engagement with one's surroundings, struggling to find a balance between the social benefits of democracy and modernization and what they considered the debilitating influence of the accompanying mass culture. They used print and broadcast media in an attempt to convince Canadians that choosing wisely between varieties of culture was an expression of personal and national identity, making cultural nationalism in Canada a "middlebrow" project. As Kuffert argues, "if English Canadians are today more familiar with the ways in which modern life and mass culture envelop and define them, if they live in a nation where private citizens and cultural institutions view the media as avenues of entertainment, as businesses, or as the means to construct identity, they should be aware of the role of wartime and post-war cultural critics" in creating those orientations toward culture. |
Contents
Light from the Crucible of War | 29 |
The Culture of Reconstruction | 66 |
POSTWAR REALITIES SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES 19451957 | 105 |
Science and Religion in a Mass Culture | 107 |
Cultural Policy Cultural Pessimism | 135 |
FULL CIRCLE A BROADENING DEFINITION OF CULTURE 19571967 | 175 |
Mass Media Broadcasting and Automation | 177 |
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Great Duty: Canadian Responses to Modern Life and Mass Culture, 1939-1967 L.B. Kuffert Limited preview - 2003 |
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A.R.M. Lower active Adult Education advertising American artists Arts Atomic audience Automation B.K. Sandwell British broadcast CAAE Canadian cultural Canadian Forum Centennial Commission Christian Citizens commentators Committee community centres critique cultural critics culture of reconstruction democracy democratic early enemy entertainment Expo Expo 67 faith historian History human ideal industrial Intellectuals John John Grierson Kirkconnell leisure listeners Lister Sinclair living London Maclean's mass culture Massey Commission material McClelland and Stewart McGill-Queen's University Press McLuhan ment middlebrow modern Montreal Morley Callaghan National Neatby organizers Ottawa Papers planning political popular culture postwar produced radio recognized reel religion role Royal Commission Ryerson Salverson Sandwell Saturday Night scientific scientism scientists Second World seemed Sept social society tastes television tion Toronto Press tradition ture University of Toronto W.L. Morton wartime Watson Kirkconnell York
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