The Language Revolution: Borderblur Poetics in Canada, 1963-1988
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THE LANGUAGE REVOLUTION: BORDERBLUR POETICS IN CANADA, 1963-1988 ERIC SCHMALTZ A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO JUNE 2018 © ERIC SCHMALTZ, 2018 ii Abstract This dissertation examines the emergence and development of a radical node of Canadian poetic activity known as the Language Revolution––that is, a movement concerned with the creation and proliferation of largely non-lyrical poetic modes by a number of Canadian poets whose careers mostly began in the 1960s and early 1970s. These poets include well-known writers like bpNichol, bill bissett, and Steve McCaffery alongside lesser-known but equally important figures such as Judith Copithorne, Martina Clinton, Gerry Shikatani, David UU, Susan McMaster, and Penn Kemp. As a loose affiliation, they gathered around shared values of poetic experimentation and small press literary culture, but they also actively pushed the boundaries of writing by exploring concrete poetry, sound poetry, and haptic poetry––the core topics of this dissertation’s three chapters. These poets described their work as “borderblur,” a term that acknowledges a broad range of poetic and artistic activity that seeks to dissolve boundaries between language, visuality, materiality, sound, and bodies. Over the course of this study, I examine how the poets of the Language Revolution develop a borderblur-based poetic as a reaction to problems posed by the expression of feeling during a period when human life was being standardized by emergent telecommunication technologies, a rapid increase in consumerism, and major shifts––documented by Marshall McLuhan and others––in human psychic and social life. This is the rise of what Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri refer to as postmodernity and the formation of third-stage capitalism, ushered in by the transition from industrialization to “informatization.” These poets produced work in dialogue with these conditions. They did so by working in deeply affective and expressive modes that were predicated on openness of poetic form, cultural production and circulation, community, and feeling. As a result, the Language Revolution figures as a significant, under-examined iii movement in Canada’s literary history that stands in stark contrast to the emergent mainstream of Canada’s literary public that was formulating at the time. In effect, their poetic activities––at the micro-level of writing and the macro-level of publishing––radically blurred the borders of art, literature, genre, economy, and community in search of alternative modes for the expression and endurance of life and language. iv For those I lost during this work v Acknowledgements Infinite gratitude to my advisory committee: Dr. Stephen Cain, Dr. Lily Cho, and Dr. Andy Weaver. Thanks to poets and publishers bill bissett, jwcurry, Michael Dean, Brian Dedora, Paul Dutton, Ingrid Harris, Penn Kemp, Susan McMaster, Jay MillAr, and Gerry Shikatani who were instrumental in providing me with various forms of support including access to rare publications as well as necessary background and contextual information. Thank you to the staff at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Reading Room at the University of Toronto for their assistance in accessing rare and important materials in their collections; likewise, thanks to Anna St. Onge, for her assistance in navigating bill bissett’s fond in the Clara Thomas Special Collections at York University. Additional thanks to Tony Power at Simon Fraser University’s Special Collections for speedy access to material in bpNichol’s fond; Sara Viinalass-Smith of Library Archives Canada for securing access to archival materials in David UU’s holdings; and Claire Sutton at the Ottawa City Archives for access to Susan McMaster’s and First Draft’s archival material. Permission to reprint images for the Appendices has been pursued where possible. My thanks to bill bissett, Judith Copithorne, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery, and Eleanor Nichol for their permissions. Thanks to Forum, Canadian Poetry, and Jacket2 for providing publication venues for drafts of certain sections of this work. This research has been supported by a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Doctoral Scholarship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Linda Heather Lamont-Stewart Fellowship in Canadian Studies, Clara Thomas Doctoral Scholarship in Canadian Studies, and Provost Dissertation Scholarship. Tremendous thanks to the following people for conversations, support, encouragement, and critique: derek beaulieu, Gregory Betts, Marcus Boon, MLA Chernoff, Marc Couroux, Christopher Doody, Peter Jaeger, Aaron Kreuter, Marie-Christine Lepps, Tom Loebel, Shannon Maguire, Phil Miletic, Julia Polyck-O’Neil, Alysha Poupolo, Kate Siklosi, Dani Spinosa, Stephen Voyce, and Robert Zacharias. Deepest gratitude to my parents, as always. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Embarrassing Responses to Seemingly Scandalous Poetries ............................................ 1 What is the Language Revolution? .................................................................................... 8 Affective, Emotional, and Postmodern Approximations: Criticisms .............................. 22 An Affective Poetic and the Conditions of Postmodernity .............................................. 26 Postmodernity in Other Words: Marshall McLuhan and the “Electric Age” .................. 34 The Revolution of the Language Revolutionaries ........................................................... 44 Contexts and Parameters .................................................................................................. 50 Chapter 2: Concrete Poetry .......................................................................................................... 59 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 59 Predecessors: The International Context ......................................................................... 65 Ground Work: The Canadian Context ............................................................................ 72 Reception and Criticism .................................................................................................. 86 Anthology as Manifesto: Toward Another Definition of Canadian Concrete Poetry ..... 92 Compositions of Feeling: Examples of the Work .......................................................... 100 On Seeing Canadian Concrete Poetry ............................................................................ 128 Chapter 3: Sound Poetry ............................................................................................................ 134 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 134 Canadian Sound Poetry Within a Global and Historical Context .................................. 146 In the Air: Canadian Sound Poetry ................................................................................ 161 Theorizing a Canadian Sound Poetic ............................................................................. 187 The Sounds of Feeling: Examples of the Work ............................................................. 205 On Hearing Canadian Sound Poetry .............................................................................. 224 Chapter 4: Haptic Poetry ............................................................................................................ 229 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 229 Toward a Theory of Haptic Poetics ............................................................................... 234 Haptic Art and Literature: Historical and International Contexts .................................. 247 Haptic Art and Literature: The Canadian Context ......................................................... 265 The Haptic Poetry of the Language Revolution ............................................................ 281 The Gift Economy ......................................................................................................... 306 Chapter 5: Conclusion: The Failure of the Language Revolution ............................................. 310 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 328 vii Appendices ................................................................................................................................. 359 Appendix A: “Konkreet Vizual” from space travl (1974) by bill bissett ...................... 359 Appendix B: “Untitled”