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u Ottawa L'Universit<5 canadienne Canada's university Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nm FACULTE DES ETUDES SUPERIEURES FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND ET POSTOCTORALES u Ottawa POSDOCTORAL STUDIES I,'University eanadienne Canada's university Tania Aguila-Way M.A.„„„„„„„„„ (English) Department of English FACUltTECOLE7blPARTEMENTrFXcuLTv^ "Returning the Gaze?': Reappraisals of the Griersonian Documentary in Livesay and Marlatt TITRE DE LA THESE / TITLE OF THESIS Janice Fiamengo EXAMINATEURS (EXAMINATRICES) DE LA THESE /THESIS EXAMINERS Gerald Lynch Robert Stacey Gary W. Slater Le Doyen de la Faculte des etudes superieures et postdoctorales / Dean of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoraf Studies Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "RETURNING THE GAZE": REAPPRAISALS OF THE GRIERSONIAN DOCUMENTARY IN LIVESAY AND MARLATT Tania Aguila-Way Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the M.A. degree in English Department of English Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © Tania Aguila-Way, Ottawa, Canada, 2009 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51825-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-51825-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i*I Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Aguila-Way i Abstract In 1969, Dorothy Livesay affirmed that, beginning in the 1930s, the Canadian long poem had evolved into a new genre by following the "experimentations" originally made by John Grierson - father of the British documentary movement and NFB film commissioner - in film ("Documentary Poem" 269). Echoing the well-known Griersonian assertion that documentary film should "interpret Canada to Canadians," Livesay also attached a special nation-building value to the Canadian documentary poem by stating that its methods and conventions "subtly [...] cast light on the landscape, the topography, the flora and the fauna as well as the social structure" of Canada (269). Prompted by Livesay's statements, and by the current lack of scholarship examining the Griersonian heritage of her documentary poetry, this thesis performs a critical examination of the points of continuity between the Griersonian tradition of nationalist filmmaking and the Canadian documentary poem as Livesay defined it. Drawing on key Canadian film policy documents of the modernist era and on close readings of seminal documentary texts by the National Film Board, I trace the ideological maneuvers and narrative practices that the Griersonian documentary traditionally deployed in order to fulfill its mandate of interpreting Canada to Canadians, foregrounding the representational gaps and disturbances underpinning these conventions. I then examine the extent to which these conventions penetrated Livesay's own documentary project, highlight the efforts she made in order to transcend the limitations of her original format. In an effort to chart the aesthetic and political ramifications of this representational struggle, in a concluding section I explore the ongoing reappraisal of the Griersonian documentary tradition in key postmodern documentaries by Livesay and another prominent Canadian documentary poet, Daphne Marlatt. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A mis padres, Jesus y Gabriela, por luchar tanto por nosotras Y a mi abuelita Lucy, por su valor, fortaleza, y apoyo incondicional Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Aguila-Way ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Holding the printed pages of this thesis brings me a level of satisfaction that I never could have anticipated when I first started this project. With this milestone comes another great pleasure: that of thanking all the mentors, friends, and family members whose help and support enabled me to get through what proved to be a very challenging undertaking. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Janice Fiamengo, for the continued guidance, support and encouragement she has offered not just throughout the thesis-writing process, but also throughout the entire duration of my Master's program. I owe many of the successes and accomplishments of the last two and a half years to her impeccable editing skills and generous willingness to look over virtually every piece of writing (thesis- related and otherwise) I have produced during this period. Through her precise, but always tactful and gracious comments, she has taught me (among many other things) that rigorous and theoretically informed scholarship should be made accessible to readers outside of one's specific field of study. This is a goal that I will continue to strive for as I advance in my graduate career. I also want to thank Professors Peter Hodgins and Kirsty Best, formerly of the University of Ottawa's Department of Communications, for encouraging me to pursue graduate studies and for allowing me to participate in their respective research undertakings. I have truly enjoyed working for them and have drawn much intellectual stimulation from their exciting projects. I am particularly indebted to Professor Hodgins, as this thesis was born out of a research assistantship I carried out for him in the third year of my undergraduate degree. I am very grateful to him for giving me this opportunity so early on in my career as a university student. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Diane Corcoran, graduate academic assistant of the English department, for her invariable willingness to assist me with any administrative hurdles I Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Aguila-Way iii encountered during my program and, most importantly, for being so kind and so generous with her time. I also want to thank the wonderful circle of friends I formed at Ottawa U over the past couple of years - Sue Bowness, Rachel Conlon, Tanja Maleska and Matthew McDonald among them - for the camaraderie, intellectual stimulation, and laughter they brought to my graduate experience. I especially want to thank Marissa McHugh for her steadfast friendship and for helping me get through difficult times. To my parents, Jesus and Gabriela, I owe not only this, but every accomplishment I have ever made. They have sacrificed much to make it possible for me to enjoy a life full of opportunity, and they continue to be an unwavering source of strength and encouragement even now that we live in different countries. To my grandma Lucy, I also owe a lifetime of unfailing love and support. I dedicate this thesis to her and to my parents with love and thanks for all they have done for me. Finally, I want to thank my husband, David, who has been my pillar and guiding light throughout this undertaking, even as he was struggling with his own challenges. He is a truly wonderful partner who bears my obsessive writing habits with admirable patience. I am blessed to have him in my life. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Aguila-Way iv Table of Contents Abstract i Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Role Of Documentary: Uniting A Country Of "Many Psychological And Geographic Distances" 13 Chapter 2 The Language Of Documentary: Displacing Difference And Social Strife 29 Chapter 3 Bringing Poetry Out Of The Ivory Tower: Social Protest, Griersonian "Actuality," And Dorothy Livesay's Documentary