UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Kootenay School of Writing: History, Community, Poetics Jason Wiens A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 200 1 O Jason Wiens 200 1 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellingion Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your lils Votre r6Orence Our file Notre rdfdtencs The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/^, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être implimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract Through a method which combines close readings of literary texts with archiva1 research, 1provide in this dissertation a critical history of the Kootenay School of Writing (KSW): an independent, writer-run centre established in Vancouver and Nelson, British Columbia in 1984. Emerging at a time in which the B.C. provincial govemment's program of "restraint" entailed drastic cuts to funding for education and the arts, KSW became a site for oppositional and innovative writing practices. KSW was an open-ended community insofar as the parameters of the comrnunity were never firmly established, or its principles explicitly codified. This mode1 of community corresponded with an open form poetics practiced by writers associated with the school, as well by writers across North America - in particular writers associated with Language Writing. For the writers working in and around KSW, 1 argue, community and poetics CO-existedin a mutually informing and productive relationship: the politics of the writers entered their work, and their work enabled the imagination of an alternative politics. My study approaches KSW through the overlapping frames of "History," "Community," and "Poetics." My introductory chapter considers KSW's institutional and historical position within the wider frame of Canadian literature, and the degree to which the school reflects and negotiates the shifting political, cultural and economic context of contemporary North America. 1then situate the formation of the school, and the writing that emerged from its context, within B.C.'s tradition of poetic comrnunities and innovative poetics. KSW also extends a dialogue with important poets in the United States which began in Vancouver in the late 1950s, and my project situates their work in relation to Arnerican writers such as Jack Spicer and Lyn Hejinian. The following chapter on "Community" considers KSW's collective role through an examination of its relations with several differing communities: the language writers in the U.S., "work writing," Vancouver's visual arts scene and a transnational network of feminist writers. My chapter on "Poetics" looks closely at the work of four writers associated with KSW: Kevin Davies, Deanna Ferguson, Lisa Robertson and Jeff Derksen. My "Coda" briefly addresses more recent developments at the school up to the present moment. Acknowledgements One of the experiences that have made this project unique has been the active involvement of the "objects" of my research in my dissertation. There are a number of people associated with the Kootenay School of Writing or involved in the writing scene in Vancouver who should receive acknowledgement. Thanks to Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Deanna Ferguson, Peter Culley, and Gerald Creede for agreeing to be interviewed by me in September of 2000. Thanks also to the following individuals who have lent advice, support and insights throughout my research: Michael Barnholden, Clint Burnham, Jeff Derksen, Roger Fan, Carol Harnshaw, Reg Johanson, Kathryn MacLeod, Roy Miki, Kathleen Ritter, Jacqueline Turner, and Tom Wayman. Special thanks to Aaron Vidaver, archivist extraordinaire, who aided me throughout my research but was particularly helpful in retrieving citations from the Kootenay School archives as 1 neared completion. 1 would like to acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, which provided me a doctoral fellowship for the final year of this project. 1 would also like to thank the Department of English and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Calgary, which provided financial support through fellowships, teaching opportunities and research assistantships as 1 pursued rny doctoral degree. 1twice received the Charles R. Steele Memorial Award for graduate research on Canadian literature: thanks to Apollonia Steele and to her husband's memory. Sections three and four of my second chapter were presented in earlier forms at "Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Gained: Negotiating Interdisciplinarity in the Twenty-First Century," held at the University of Calgary in May 200 1, and at "Regenerations: Celebrating Fifteen Years of the British Association of Canadian Studies Literature Group," held at the University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K. in September 1999, respectively. Thanks to Lynette Hunter of the University of Leeds for her helpful insights and support in the early stages of my research. Much of my research was conducted at various library collections throughout North America. 1 would like to acknowledge the hard work of the staff at the following collections: Special Collections at University of Calgary; the Contemporary Literature Collection at Simon Fraser University; the Poetry / Rare Books Collection at the State University of New York, Buffalo; the Literary Manuscript Collection at the National Library of Canada, Ottawa; the Mandeville Special Collections Library, University of California, San Diego. The following individuals were especially helpful: Apollonia Steele, Gene Bridwell, Enrique Cruz, Tony Power, Michael Basinski, Catherine Hobbs, Karen Raymond, and Shanon Lawson. 1 would like to thank Susan Rudy, my supervisor, for her advice and support over the course of this project. Susan also provided me an excellent opportunity as her research assistant on a pair of projects which overlapped considerably with my own, and which included a trip to Vancouver to research at Simon Fraser University. Thanks also to the other members of my dissertation committee, Fred Wah. and Stephen Guy-Bray, for their insights and cornrnents over the past couple of years. Thanks to my two extemal examiners, Heather Coleman and Michael Davidson, for their interest in the project. Although not an officia1 member of my committee, Pauline Butling showed an interest in and offered helpful advice on my dissertation throughout its development. Finally, 1 would like to acknowledge the support and input of a number of friends and colleagues from Calgary: Louis Cabri, Tom Loebel, Sang Cung, Rob McComber, and Sonya, Jim and Shirley Scott. Warm thanks. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval Page ........................................................................................11 Abstract ...........................................................................................111 Acknowledgements ...............................................................................v. ............................................................................... Table. of. Contents vil... Permissions ..................................................................................... v111 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................1 Institutions and the Administration of Culture ............................................... 10 Coterie, Community. Network ................................................................ 17 Oppositional Poetics and Discourses of the State: Shifting Stances ......................25 (North) American Poetics? .................................................................... 31 CHAPTER ONE: HISTORY ................................................................... 41 "Love / of this our land / turning": Jack Spicer's Vancouver Poems .....................47 Revisionings: Roy Kiyooka's "the 4th avenue poems" ..................................... 65 "A colloquy with history": periodics and the New Prose ..................................77 Fred Wah and the 'Kootenay Schooi'. ........................................................ 93 CHAPTER TWO: COMMUNITY ......................................................... -106 KS W. Language Writing. and the 1985 New Poetics Colloquium ...................... 109 Working Through Writing: Gerald Creede ................................................. 129 Installing Poetics: Cross-disciplinary Collaboration in 1980s Vancouver ............. 142 KSW and Feminist (Trans-)Nationalkm ................................................... 159 CHAPTER THREE: POETICS ............................................................. -179 Elisions and Revisions: [Self] Censorship