1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910818098503321

Autore

New W. H (William Herbert), <1938->

Titolo

Land sliding : imagining space, presence, and power in Canadian writing / / W. H. New

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1997

©1997

ISBN

1-281-99762-5

9786611997625

1-4426-7656-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/971

Soggetti

Canadian literature - History and criticism

Land use in literature

Livres numeriques.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

e-books.

Electronic books.

Canada In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Land-Forms: An Introduction -- 1. Landing: Literature, Contact, and the Natural World -- 2. Land-Office: Literature, Property, and Power -- 3. Landed: Literature and Region -- 4. Landscape: Literature, Language, Space, and Site.

Sommario/riassunto

W.H. New invites readers to look again at Canada's changing cultural character by rereading both the landscape and the people who have interpreted it. Land Sliding will have an important place in many disciplines, among them literary studies, geography, fine arts, and Canadian studies.

Asking what 'land' as an abstract concept and a physical site has to do with writing, representation, and power, New looks at the 'sliding' relationship by which people associate their surroundings with their position in society. New's study of land in literature is a commentary on



the way a culture produces values by transforming the 'natural' into literary idiom and, in turn, making literary convention seem natural. Land Sliding develops not as a history of uniformity or progress, but as a series of dialogues between part and present, between paradigms and disciplines. It draws on a wide range of texts, including First Nations narratives, contemporary poetry and fiction, government documents, and real estate ads, as well as artwork and photographs, to illustrate the complex associations that link place, power, and language in Canada today.

Why have so many of this century's prominent political and literary critics wanted to find a single metaphor to describe the character of Canada? Why have so many used land-based metaphors in reference to the divisions between centre and margin, colony and empire, wealth and power? W.H. New, in Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing, investigates this established paradigm by examining why so many writers have accepted the land as a comprehensive image of nationhood. Is there in fact, he questions, a landscape that is 'natural, ' unmediated by social values and literary representation?