In The Last Canadian Poet Sam Solecki offers the first book-length study of the entire body of work of Al Purdy. The book grew out of Solecki's work as editor of The Canadian Forum (1979-82), and his growing sense that, despite being one of Canada's major poets, Purdy has been ignored by critics and academics. This book takes into account not only Purdy's more than forty published books, but also the manuscripts from the Purdy archives at the University of Saskatchewan and Queen's University. It is the first serious study of Purdy's work since George Bowering's monograph was published thirty years ago.
The Last Canadian Poet suggests that Purdy's work articulates a vision of Canada, both of what it is and of what it might be. It is a poetic vision of one man's encounter with his country and the world. Purdy's poems record his sense of being in the world as a Canadian, of being rooted in a particular landscape, way of life, and history. They also show the struggle for a Canadian poetics, a way of writing in what might be called the Canadian grain.
The book also argues that Purdy's forging of a native poetic idiom occurred at roughly the same time that the nationalist phase of Canadian political and cultural development was coming to an end. In the 1960s, at the very moment when Canadian nationalism had gained general acceptance, a crucial shift was occurring not only in how the Canadian state and nation were being defined but also in how Canadians viewed their relationship to literature. The book offers an essentially conservative defence of what some critics have called the 'national-referential aesthetic' that underlays much of the literary production and cultural criticism of Canada's first century. It also questions the influence of multiculturalism and postcolonial criticism on the contemporary devaluation of the traditions, works, and history of the past hundred years. In this context, Purdy's poetry plays an important role in a larger argument about Canadian identity and nationhood and the need for a more nuanced attitude towards the past.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 811/.54
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781442681590 0802084435
- LCCN
- PR9199.3.P8
- LCCN Item number
- Z85 1999eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (316 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00600644 (OCoLC)244768786 (CaOOCEL)417973
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOTU
Table of Contents
- CONTENTS 8
- PREFACE 10
- ABBREVIATIONS 20
- I: Poetry, Nation, and the Last Canadian Poet 24
- II: The Poetry of Al Purdy 66
- 1 Bliss Carman's Shadow 70
- 2 D.H. Lawrence in North America 98
- 3 The Limits of Lyric 118
- 4 Poetry and the Poet 147
- 5 Starting from Ameliasburg: Old Rid, Owen Roblin, and Al 165
- 6 History and Nation 179
- 7 Origins and Being 210
- 8 Conclusion: The Future of the Past 236
- APPENDIX. ANNOTATING THE POEMS OF AL PURDY: QUOTATION, ALLUSION, ECHO, AND (SOME) REFERENCES 240
- NOTES 288
- BIBLIOGRAPHY 312
- INDEX 326
- A 326
- B 326
- C 327
- D 328
- E 328
- F 328
- G 329
- H 329
- I 330
- J 330
- K 330
- L 330
- M 331
- N 332
- O 332
- P 332
- R 335
- S 336
- T 336
- U 337
- V 337
- W 337
- X 337
- Y 337
