POEMS: RECONFIGURATION of the NATION-DISCOURSE in EXPERIMENTAL CANADIAN POETRY (1960S-1980S)
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ALTEWNATIONS - LONG(1NG) POEMS: RECONFIGURATION OF THE NATION-DISCOURSE IN EXPERIMENTAL CANADIAN POETRY (1960s-1980s) Alessandra Capperdoni Laurea in Lingue e Letterature Straniere, Universiti degli Studi di Bologna, Italy, 1998 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Department of English O Alessandra Capperdoni 2006 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Fall 2006 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Alessandra Capperdoni Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: AlterINations -Long(ing) Poems: Reconfiguration of the Nation-Discourse in Experimental Canadian Poetry (1960s-1980s) Examining Committee: Chair: Peter Dickinson Assistant Professor of English and Associate Chair Department of English Sandra Djwa Senior Supervisor Professor Emerita English George Bowering Professor Emeritus English Roy Miki Professor of English Richard Cavell Internal External Examiner Director International Canadian Studies Centre Professor of English University of British Columbia Smaro Kamboureli External Examiner Canada Research Chair in Critical Studies in Canadian Literature University of Guelph, Ontario Date DefendedJApproved: UN~WB~WI~SIMON FRASER brary DECLARATION OF PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the "Institutional Repository" link of the SFU Library website www.lib.sfu.ca> at: ~http:llir.lib.sfu.calhandlell8921112>)and, without changing the content, to translate the thesislproject or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Revised: Fall 2006 ABSTRACT In Canadian literature, the discourse of the long poem has been both constitutive of, and excessive to, the formation of a national imaginary. The experimental poetics of this genre is evident in the poetry of Phyllis Webb, Roy Kiyooka, George Bowering and Daphne Marlatt from the early 1960s to the late 1980s. These poetics intervened critically at a powerful moment in the definition of a Canadian cultural identity, between the cultural and political nationalism marked by the institution of the Massey Commission in 1949 and anxieties around the demise of the nation-state marked by the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in 1987. Desires saturate the political language and socio-cultural representations of this significant period: national and cultural identity (the 1967 Centennial); national or provincial autonomy (the 1982 repatriation of the Constitution and Quebec separatism); regional identity; the management of ethnic diversity (official multiculturalism); contested sovereignties (First Nations); and globalism (free-trade ideology and NAFTA). The concept of "genre as social action" (Carolyn R. Miller) is valuable in demonstrating the ways in which experimental poetic practices enter signifying systems of cultural formation and, by making such desires inhabitable, subvert the fixity of meaning (and deployment of closure) of liberal nationalist ideologies. To the 'lack' posited by cultural nationalists, the contemporary long poem opposes a poetics of 'excess' which escapes the logic of fixity and containment, utility and consumption, and transforms notions of nationness and belonging. This strategy of poetic excess is also a textuality of desire, yet one that interrupts the powerful identifications produced by nationalist ideologies, no longer allowing for their safe habitation. As a creative discourse, it extends the textual possibilities of language and opens up spaces of critical intervention that help in rethinking the meaning of nationness and citizenship, as these become again highly contested notions in this time of late modernity and global capitalism. Keywords: nation-state; Canadian long poem; experimental poetics; Canadian post-war avant-garde; desire; citizenship; Phyllis Webb; Roy Kiyooka; George Bowering; Daphne Marlatt Ai miei genitori e Suor Maria Nazarena. E quella infinita tempesta, finita in un rivo canoro. Dei fulmini fragili restano cirri di porpora ed oro .. A Laura. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My warmest thanks to the members of my committee for their invaluable mentoring, support and friendship: my senior supervisor, Prof. Sandra Djwa, for her generosity, academic rigour and for believing in me from the beginning of this 'adventure'; Prof. George Bowering, whose poetic 'voice' enticed me across the ocean and kept my faith in poetry alive; and Prof. Roy Miki, whose always affectionate critical mind challenged my intellectual endeavours. Many faculty members of Simon Fraser University have gone beyond their duty to support me intellectually, emotionally and financially. Special thanks to Prof. Kathy Mezei, pour avoirpartage' son esprit au fbminin, and Prof. Jerry Zaslove because "eine Volksiiberlieferung warnt, Traume am Morgen niichtern zu erzahlen." Prof. Margaret Linley has offered me friendship and theoretical flights, Prof. Chin Banerjee his postcolonial challenges and Prof. Carole Gerson has introduced me to the darings of nineteenth-century Canadian women. Profs. Sophie McCall, David Chariandy, Colette Colligan, Jeff Derksen, Peter Dickinson and Sean Zwagerman have nourished me intellectually, kept my spirit high and shared their generous friendship. Thanks to Profs. Paul Delany, Tom Grieve and Steve Collis for their encouragement and to all the staff, especially Denise Vandenvolf and Malcolm Toms for their priceless assistance. With graduate students I have shared exciting courses and well deserved relaxing moments. While the list is necessarily incomplete, I wish to thank: Nancy Earle, who shared this journey with me and whose attentive criticism was invaluable for the last stages of this thesis; Stefania Forlini and Tara Lee, for their critical edges; and Janet Friskney, Alison McDonald, Greg Placonouris, Lesley Selcer, Wendy Thomson and Josh Toth. Special thanks to my undergraduate supervisor, Lilla Maria Crisafulli, without whose encouragement this would not have happened, to my parents and all the friends-Elizabeth, Laura, Alessandra, Ilaria, Giusy, Silvia & Silvia, Mark, Stefania, Claudia, Giovanni, Paolo and Alessandro-that helped me 'think and love'. To my 'beloved', Patrick, because "my heart was empty and you filled it with love." TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval ............................................................................................................................11 ... Abstract .............................................................................................................................111 Dedication ...........................................................................................................................v Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... vi .. Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ v11 List of Figures................................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER ONE On Nation-ness and Bel~nging.......................................................................................... 1 The Nation as a Notion ........................................................................................................ 1 Imagining Canada .............................................................................................................. 11 Colonial Enterprise and Nation-building................................................................... 11 Culture and the State .................................................................................................. 18 Whose Imagined Canada? Dominant and Minority Nationalisms ....................................24 The Politics of Citizenship: Radical Counter.Discourses. 1960s-1980s ...........................28 The National Longing for Form: the Canadian Long Poem .............................................. 35 Desirous Subjects ..............................................................................................................