Open Border, Open Road: The Contemporary Anglo-Canadian Road Narrative by Anna Sajecki A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department of English and Film Studies University of Alberta ©Anna Sajecki, 2017 ii Abstract “Open Border, Open Road: The Anglo-Canadian Road Narrative” tells a new story about the contemporary Anglo-Canadian road narrative, a genre that I argue came into fruition with the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway. The dissertation traces how the contemporary Anglo-Canadian road genre maps a recalibrated sense of Canadian identity as Canadians adapted to shifting American-Canadian relations in the post-WWII period. I read the Trans-Canada Highway—and the road narrative that results from the construction of that highway—as a signal for the decreasing distance of Canada from the United States, particularly in relation to industrial-production capacities, capitalist economy, and liberal-democratic rights in the post-WWII period. Accordingly, I argue that the contemporary Anglo-Canadian road narrative mediates between affective attachments to the Canadian nation—whether expressed through spatial relations, historical relations, or narratives of economic advancement—and anxieties over the deterritorializing and denationalizing potential of this closer relation with the United States and with American ideals. While the effects of America on Canadian identity have been variously analyzed, particularly in relation to the field of border studies (e.g. Angus; Berland; McLuhan; Roberts; Siemerling and Phillips Casteel; Wyile), my dissertation argues for a more genealogical approach to this study of Canadian identity; an approach realized by mapping shifting aesthetics from the post-WWII period to our contemporary moment. While the first chapter of “Open Border, Open Road” traces the development of Trans-Canada Highway signification through tourism marginalia and travelogues from the 1950s and 60s, my dissertation more broadly analyzes Anglo-Canadian road fiction iii according to three periods of American-Canadian relations: the economic nationalism period of the late 1960s and early 1970s, the free-trade era beginning in the 1980s, and the era of the Anthropocene. Regarding the chapter on Canada’s period of economic nationalism, for instance, I evaluate three texts—Glenn Gould’s short story and radio documentary “The Search for Pet Clark” (1967); Don Shebib’s breakout film Goin’ Down the Road (1970); and Roy Kiyooka’s epistolary poetic volume Transcanada Letters (1975)—and the way they use the national highway to realize the failures of Canada’s post-WWII Fordist reconstruction vision. Using the mise-en-abyme structure, these texts frame central narratives with a Trans-Canada Highway trip to simultaneously probe economic and cultural Americanization and recast nationalist potential. This dissertation’s focus, then, is on tracing the arrival of different forms of the Anglo- Canadian road narrative and the way these forms alternatively aestheticize evolving Canadian-American relations. “Open Border, Open Road” questions how Canadians, within an Anglo-nationalist context, repeatedly came to see their country anew amid shifting American-Canadian relations in the post-WWII period, and argues for the road narrative as a crucial site for indexing these shifts. iv Acknowledgements I would like to begin by thanking the staff, administration and faculty in the Department of English and Film Studies for their support throughout my PhD. I would like to thank, especially, my supervisor Dr. Heather Zwicker, who expertly guided me through the dissertation process with an awesome combination of encouragement and critical engagement. A heartfelt thanks goes, as well, to my committee members Dr. Cecily Devereux and Dr. Mark Simpson, whose challenging and thoughtful questions played a crucial role in the development of my project. I want to thank too my external Dr. Kit Dobson, whose generous reception of my work was combined with a perspicacity that has enabled me to see how I might expand the project. And a special thanks to Dr. Daniel Laforest, who has provided excellent feedback and insight on more than one occasion, and with whom I have had the pleasure of working with both at the CLC, and through the Edmonton Pipelines project. I would be remiss, as well, if I didn’t thank all the Pipelines collaborators, who allowed me to see the creative potential of academic engagement. Finally, a sincere merci to Marie Carrière, who not only graciously chaired my defence, but who has been a wonderful mentor to me at the CLC. And to all those at the CLC—working with you over the past while already has furnished me a wealth of cherished memories. I would also like to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council; the fellowship I received allowed me to dedicate myself whole- heartedly to the dissertation for several years. This project would not have been possible if not for the endless support I have received from my family, and particularly my parents. Thank you for instilling in me both a deep value for education, and the belief that any achievement is within my grasp (as long as I work for it!). I would also like to acknowledge the community of friends and academics in Edmonton—the conversations and laughs we’ve shared have been life-sustaining. And finally, dear Spencer, thank you for sharing this journey with me. You have been my sounding board, my comic relief, and my best friend throughout the process. v Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………….ii Acknowledgements………………………………………………………...iv Introduction: Open Border, Open Road.………………………………..1 Driving as a Discursive Practice.…………………………………...5 Opening Economic Borders in the Post-WWII World……………..12 Canadian Nationalism and the Trans-Canada Highway……………17 Reading Canadian Nationalism in the Road Narrative……………..21 Dissertation Organization and Chapter Outline…………………….25 Conclusion………………………………………………………….30 Chapter One: Tourism Along the Trans-Canada…………………….....32 Building Unity with the Trans-Canada Highway………………….. 35 Selling the Trans-Canada During the Cold War…………………….41 The Canadian on the Highway……………………………………...58 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..72 Chapter Two: Defensive Driving………………………………………….74 Canada’s Economic Nationalism…………………………………....78 Economic Nationalism and the Canadian (Neo)Colonial Context…………………………………....85 The Trans-Canada Highway Aesthetic of American Imperialism…………………………………………….....90 Glenn Gould’s Northern Drive……………………………………....95 Don Shebib and Continual Movement Down the Road……………..106 vi Kiyooka’s Transnational Trans-Canada Highway………………….118 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..132 Chapter Three: Open Border, Open Road……………………………....135 From Branch-Plant to Free-Trade Worries……………………….....137 Canada in an American World: The Rhetoric of Free Trade and Globalization……………………………………….140 The Canadian Aesthetics of Free Trade and the Road Movie Bildungsroman………………...………………………145 Adolescence and the American Romance in My American Cousin………………………………………..154 Highway 61 and the Projection of Free Trade Canada……………...165 One Week and the Spectre of Nation………………………………..178 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..188 Chapter Four: Driven Beyond the National……………………………..190 Driving and Writing in the Anthropocene………………………….193 Perceiving a New Mobility and Public in the Anthropocene……….202 Karen Solie’s Phenomenological Gear Shift in The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out……………………………..208 The Ethics of Dismantling in Sina Queyras’ Expressway…………..225 Conclusion…………………………………………………………..242 Coda: Dis-Orientation and Re-Routing…..………………………………243 Conclusion…………………………………………………………...253 Works Cited………………………………………………………………...255 vii List of Figures or Illustrations Fig. 1………………………………………………………………………...9 Fig. 2………………………………………………………………………...52 Fig. 3………………………………………………………………………...54 Fig. 4………………………………………………………………………...56 1 INTRODUCTION Open Border, Open Road: The Contemporary Anglo-Canadian Road Narrative Four years before the Trans-Canada Highway officially opened in 1962, the National Film Board produced a documentary called Trans-Canada Summer (1958), wherein a narration by Pierre Berton overlays footage of driving the already-finished portions of the national highway through the provinces. The documentary’s blurring of the line between education and propaganda becomes evident in its rhetorical linking of Canadian nationalism to industrial development, particularly as Berton describes the positive effects of the new energy dam in New Brunswick, the thriving pulp and paper industry in Quebec, the oil industry in the West, and the car industry in Ontario. As the documentary displays a shot of the Ford auto plant in Oakville, Berton tells the viewer: The automobile contains more than 12,000 parts and these parts contain in one form or another almost every raw material the country produces. There’s now one car for every four Canadians … second highest rate in the world. 100 years ago home was your own village; today in a real sense home to the Canadians is becoming the whole country. One reason being the ubiquitous car. The description relies on the trope of the microscopic and macroscopic, contraction and expansion, to depict not only the relationship of the car to its parts—which are naturalized as Canadian through a reference to the raw materials that comprise them—but the relationship of Canada to its own constituent parts. Moreover, the scalar shift indirectly