Refereeing Identity: the Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels
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REFEREEING IDENTITY: THE CULTURAL WORK OF CANADIAN HOCKEY NOVELS (Spine title: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels) (Thesis format: Monograph) by Michael P. Buma Graduate Program in English A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Michael P. Buma 2008 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: 978-0-494-43045-3 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-43045-3 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 Plntemet, prefer, 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. Canada THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners Dr. Manina Jones Dr. Jamie Dopp Supervisory Committee Dr. Don Morrow Dr. Joe Zezulka Dr. D.M.R. Bentley Dr. Thy Phu The thesis by Michael Paul Buma entitled: Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board 11 ABSTRACT Hockey has often been understood in Canadian society to inform national identity, ensure cultural distinctiveness, and embody the longstanding association between masculinity and toughness. This loose collection of ideas and significations can be referred to as Canada's "hockey myth." My dissertation examines the hockey myth as it is represented in Canadian hockey novels. Taking as my starting point Roland Barthes's suggestion that myth often works to "transform history into nature," I challenge the "naturalness" with which hockey novels represent the game as innately Canadian and incontrovertibly masculine. Such representations, I contend, arise from widespread cultural anxieties about the effacement of national distinctions due to increased globalization and from the late-twentieth-century crisis of masculinity identified by Michael Messner, Varda Burstyn, Susan Faludi, and others. By hearkening back to an imagined state of national coherence and masculine stability, hockey novels attempt to reassure readers that these "threatened" identities remain benignly in place in at least one area of culture, the hockey rink. The cultural work of hockey novels, however, is not merely to reassure readers that the identities of hockey-as-nation and masculinity-as-toughness are still in place, but to reproduce these identities through performance and repetitive rehearsal. Keywords: Hockey Novels, Sport and Literature, Sport and Canadian Nationalism, Sport and Gender 111 A hockey game is the same story told over and over again. Shift the plot around, switch the characters, change the ending a bit, but it's all the same and we already know how it will end. - Cara Hedley, Twenty Miles IV Dedication To Selena, for sitting with me "up there in the blues," and to Mom and Dad, for early-morning practices and everything else. Acknowledgements No player can realize their potential without the help of a good coach, so I would like to begin by thanking my supervisor, Manina Jones, for all her wisdom, guidance, encouragement, and support. I would also like to thank my second reader, Joe Zezulka, for his helpful insights and judicious edits. I'm generally indebted to the faculty, staff, and graduate students of The University of Western Ontario English Department for their friendship, collegiality, and support. Furthermore, I would like to thank my fellow hockey scholars, particularly those who attended the Plymouth and Victoria conferences, for helping to shape my understanding of the game's cultural and political contexts and for validating my belief that the critical study of sport is indeed a worthwhile undertaking. A project such as this is in many ways a "team" effort, and I'm humbled by the generosity and intelligence that so many people have shared through their contributions. I am grateful to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in the form of Canadian Graduate Scholarships during both my Doctoral and Master's studies. I would also like to acknowledge Patrick Carroll and the Great Plains Press for their kind permission to reproduce Carroll's "The Deth of Wulf," and Brindle & Glass for their kind permission to reproduce the cover of Dave Bidini's Five Hole Stories. Benjamin West's "The Death of General Wolfe" and the 148th Battalion recruiting poster "Why Don't They Come" appear under license from the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian War Museum, respectively. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for the many ways in which they've expressed their interest and encouragement. Special thanks are due to my wife Selena and to my parents Paul and Clara Buma, all of whom have been unceasing in their love and steadfast in their support. VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page i Certificate of Examination ii Abstract iii Epigraph iv Dedication v Acknowledgments vi Table of Contents vii INTRODUCTION 1 Preamble 1 Canada's Hockey Myth 4 The Canadian Hockey Novel 24 Theory / Methodology 36 Chapter Summaries 46 CHAPTER 1: HOCKEY AND CANADIAN IDENTITY 49 Hockey as ontology 49 "Hockey has created our history" 59 "Hockey equals frozen rivers, wind and laughter" 69 "Without the rink, and all that went on surrounding it" 80 "Kildare had hockey": the game as small-town 86 CHAPTER 2: THE MYTH IN CRISIS 93 "Hello out there, we're on the air": Hockey and technological nationalism 93 Canada's national small-town; or, the "ugly American" goes to the rink 99 "The day the music died": the Gretzky trade 105 "Save our team, save our game" 114 CHAPTER 3: UNITY THROUGH HOCKEY? 133 "Rome's Canadiens versus Canterbury's Maple Leafs" 133 "They don't look oppressed to me, just big and mean": hockey and race 143 Why Duddy Kravitz is a bad Canadian , 158 CHAPTER 4: NATIONAL MANHOOD 168 Masculinity and national identity 168 Masculinity in crisis 175 Hockey violence in the Canadian context 180 Making national men: becoming a man through hockey violence 188 Good citizens and good soldiers: hockey as war 203 Contained critique: representing the 1970s "goon boom" 213 CHAPTER 5: MYTHS OF MASCULINITY 226 Myths of masculinity 226 The hero-protector, or, the hockey bildungsroman revisited 227 Bully masculinity: The Last Season 234 V"»\ The New Man: The Good Body and Puck is a Four Letter Word 244 The sexual athlete: Bus Ride and The Uninvited Guest 262 CHAPTER 6: THE HOMOSOCIAL DRESSING ROOM 272 Hockey homosociality and the myth of team-as-community 272 Exclusions, part one: women 279 Exclusions, part two: gay men 288 Making the team: hazing 298 Declaiming masculinity: homophobia 301 Sexual schizophrenia and the traffic in women 307 The exceptions that prove the rule: Iced and Twenty Miles 311 CONCLUSION 322 NOVELS DISCUSSED IN THIS STUDY 325 WORKS CITED 327 APPENDIX A 342 APPENDIX B 343 APPENDIX C 344 APPENDIX D 345 APPENDIX E 346 CURRICULUM VITAE 347 ViM 1 INTRODUCTION1 Preamble I don't think I've ever felt so Canadian as on February 24, 2002. The men's hockey finals were taking place at the Salt Lake City Olympics, Team Canada versus Team USA, and I was watching the game from Port-au-Prince, Haiti with an exuberant group of fellow expatriates. The tension in the room was palpable when the Americans scored first; it was as if the goal had thrown a blanket on the fire of our collective hopes, reinforced our doubts about Canada's chances against a strong American team. But then it happened: only minutes after the American goal, Canada's Chris Pronger made a cross-ice pass to team captain Mario Lemieux. As if by clairvoyance or extrasensory perception, Lemieux somehow sensed teammate Paul Kariya directly behind him and in better position to get a shot away. As the puck sped toward Lemieux, the captain opened his legs and allowed it to glide through to Kariya, who converted the pass for a game-tying goal. I'll never forget the split- second before the room erupted into cheering, screaming, and applause. It was a moment of mutual understanding, an awareness among everyone present that we had witnessed an act of inimitable athletic brilliance.