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CRITICAL AGON, APOCALYPTIC ORCHESTRATION: CONFLICT AND COMPLEMENTARITY IN THE THOUGHT AND WRITINGS OF MARSHALL McLUHAN AND NORTHROP FRYE B. W. POWE 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 JULY 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54101-2 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-54101-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives 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 I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, 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 this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extra its substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada Critical Agon, Apocalyptic Orchestration: Conflict and Complementarity in the Thought and Writings of Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye by Bruce Powe a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ©2009 Permission has been granted to: a) YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES to lend or sell copies of this dissertation in paper, microform or electronic formats, and b) LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA to reproduce, lend, distribute, or sell copies of this dissertation anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats and to authorize or procure the reproduction, loan, distribution or sale of copies of this dissertation anywhere in the world in microform, paper or electronic formats. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. IV Abstract This thesis examines and explores the critical agon and complementarities in the thought and writings of the two leading Canadian theorists, Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye. The thesis also proposes a reappraisal of Frye and McLuhan as originators of a visionary-apocalyptic-seer-hearer tradition in the Canadian context, one which nevertheless has wide-ranging implications for the global society and culture. Pivotal to the thesis is an explication of the controversial agonistic relationship between McLuhan and Frye. They are examined in terms of their differing and often controversial exchanges over the nature and intentionalities of theory and perception, of literary text and the new texts of the media. The thesis also proposes a synergistic reading of the two thinkers' primary contributions to contemporary critical thought and theory: what happens when we combine McLuhan's "the medium is the message" and media ecology with Frye's great code and literary textual re-visioning; what illuminating theoretical re-combinations appear? The thesis offers new scholarship and fresh research into the work and thought of the two most influential and prophetic intellectuals of the Canadian literary landscape. Dedication Page For my students vi Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank the following people for their direction of this thesis: Professor Ian Balfour (supervisor), Professor Susan Warwick, and Professor Marcus Boon. The dissertation examination committee also contributed to the refinements of the final version. The committee was made up of Professor David Staines, Professor Janine Marchessault, and Professor Mauro Buccheri. Many other colleagues contributed to my research into this material: I thank, in particular, Dr. Eric McLuhan and Dr. Robert D. Denham, who illuminated and confirmed many essential details, and provided me with access to the archival sources that proved to be pivotal in my explorations into the complexities of the Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye matrix. Many others supported and encouraged the work. It is important to thank Professor Julia Creet, Professor Art Redding, Professor Thomas Loebel, and Dean Robert Drummond. I am also indebted to the advice of Peter Paolucci on computer technicalities; and to Professor Christopher Innes and Professor Susan Swan, who listened while I expanded on some of the ideas contained herein. My students in the English Department at York University inspired many of the ideas I have proposed in this thesis. Prominent among these students have been Joseph Glover, Lai-Tze Fan, Lisa Polivka, Adebe DeRango-Adem, Roxanne Mastromatteo, and especially Karim Wissa. Other readers outside the York community, or outside academia, also contributed ideas and suggestions: these include R. Murray Schafer, Dr. Robert K. Logan, Charlene Jones and George Steiner. The late Donald Theall provided many important and stimulating insights. The late Corinne McLuhan was an invaluable resource and support. Above all, this thesis is very much indebted to Professor Balfour, who inspired and sometimes provoked me into working with greater precision and breadth of reference. Table of Contents Introduction Overview 1 Introduction Overview Endnotes 48 Chapter One: Presences: Signatures and Evocations 57 Chapter One: Presences: Signatures and Evocations Endnotes 129 Chapter Two: Critical Agon 136 Chapter Two: Critical Agon Endnotes 217 Chapter Three: Apocalyptic Orchestration: Complementarities 220 Chapter Three: Apocalyptic Orchestration: Complementarities Endnotes 296 Chapter Four: Synergy and Alchemy: Communions 301 Chapter Four: Synergy and Alchemy: Communions Endnotes 358 Conclusion 360 Conclusion Endnotes 367 Vlll The Wise Perceive Imminent Events The gods perceive future events, mortals present ones, and the wise perceive those that are imminent. — Philostratus, Life ofApollonius ofTyana VIII. 7 Men have knowledge of the present. As for the future, the gods know it, Alone and fully enlightened. But for matters on the verge of occurring, things that are imminent, these the wise perceive. Sometimes, when they are deep in study, their hearing is convulsed. The veiled hum of imminent events approaches. And they listen rapt. Meanwhile, out on the street, the people hear nothing. -- C. P. Cavafy 1 Introduction Overview This thesis argues that Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye initiated a visionary apocalyptic tradition in Canadian letters. This original tradition is seminal to understanding the Canadian spirit. The range of their thought, the depth of their perceptions and speculations, the complexity of their engagements, the impact of their writings, the drama of their ideas, the effects of their intensities of insight and foresight, are still being attacked, absorbed, debated and adapted by critics, philosophers, writers and teachers. McLuhan and Frye form a powerful alternative visionary protocol to other theoretical propositions, and a distinctly Canadian intellectual re-creative stance. They should be understood as an audacious pairing. So compressed and allusive, provocative and inspirational, is their work that we could say that they are our most indispensable literary figures. Certainly, they continue to be among the most influential authors in what we could call the Canadian sublime, the literary and intellectual tradition that is emerging through our writers and artists, thinkers and poet-philosophers. McLuhan and Frye are primary because they are prophetic. The prophetic possibility means the charged capacity to make their writings and thought perpetually relevant, in a quickening now of interpretation and re-creation. In ways this thesis will explore, they are permanently controversial. There is a necessary challenge at the core of their work that compels us to rise and respond. They knew controversy brings frictions; friction yields to more ideas, 2 deeper perception. At crossroads ahead they appear, turning towards us, asking us to catch up to them. By being ahead of us they also ask us to move forward. This thesis recasts McLuhan and Frye, these University of Toronto counterparts, as pivotal apocalyptics. Prophecy and apocalypse were part of their literary and educational mission: to awaken people's minds, to sharpen awareness,