The Routledge Introduction to Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Canadian Poetry

Description

When asked the question "what is the power of poetry?," writer Ian Williams said "poetry punctures the surface." Williams' statement—that poetry matters and that it does something—is at the heart of this book. Building from this core idea that poetry perforates the everyday to give greater range to our lives and our thinking, the practical and pedagogical aim of this book is twofold: the first aim is to provide students with an introduction to the key cultural, political, and historical events that inform twentieth- and twenty-first-century Canadian poetry; and to familiarize those same readers with poetic movements, trends, and forms of the same time period. This book addresses the aesthetic and social contexts of Canadian poetry written in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: it models for its readers the critical and theoretical discourses needed to understand the contexts of literary production in Canada. Put differently, readers need a sense of the "where" and "how" of poetic production to help situate them in the "what" of poetry itself. In addition to offering a historically contextualized overview of the significant movements, developments, and poets of this time period, this book also familiarizes readers with key moments of reflection and rupture, such as the effects of economic and ecological crisis, global conflicts, and debates around appropriation of culture. This book is built on the premise that poetry in Canada does not happen outside of political, social, and cultural contexts. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface 1 Emergent Patterns and Wandering Trajectories “Good Poetry”: Poetic Circulation Contexts for Critical Consideration Pattern One: Inventing Tropes of Indigenous Peoples Pattern Two: Projects of Settlement Pattern Three: Wandering Trajectories Case Study: Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, Bliss Carman, and Wandering Trajectories Pattern Four: The Work of Poetry Anthologies Key Terms for Preface and Introduction Notes Works Cited 2 Poetry of Critique, Engagement, and Transnationalism Canada and the First World War: Effects and Poetics Tracking Modernist Shifts Case Study: E.J. Pratt and the Long Poem Case Study: Little Magazines and Aesthetic Developments in Poetry Case Study: F.R. Scott, Aesthetics, and Poetics That “Do” Things Case Study: Dorothy Livesay, Leo Kennedy, and Poetics of Engagement and Transnationalism Conclusion Key Terms Notes Works Cited 3 Poetic Witness and the 1940s Case Study: Preview (1942–45), First Statement (1942–45), and Northern Review (1945–56) Case Study: P.K. Page Case Study: A.M. Klein Conclusion Key Terms Notes For Further Reading Works Cited 4 Post-War Poetics and New National Mythologies After the Report Developing Poetic Infrastructures Case Study: Phyllis Webb, Poet of Space and Silences Case Study: TISH and Experimentations With Perception Case Study: Nicole Brossard Case Study: The Kootenay School of Writing, Expo ’86, and The Giantesses Conclusion Key Terms Notes For Further Reading Works Cited 5 Indigenous Poetics Indigenous Poetics Case Study: E. Pauline Johnson Case Study: Rita Joe and Annharte Case Study: Jeannette Armstrong Case Study: Armand Garnet Ruffo Case Study: Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm Idle No More Case Study: Jordan Abel Conclusion Key Terms Notes For Further Reading Works Cited 6 Contemporary Poetics and Planetary Engagements The Long Poem From Reinventing to Reorienting History Case Study: Dionne Brand Case Study Erín Moure Case Study: Sina Queyras and Lyric Conceptualism Case Study: Anne Carson From Reorientation to Rerooting Case Study: Canisia Lubrin Conclusion Key Terms Notes For Further Reading Works Cited Index