Description
Book SynopsisAvant Canada presents a rich collection of original essays and creative works on a representative array of avant-garde literary movements in Canada from the past fifty years. From the work of Leonard Cohen and bpNichol to that of Jordan Abel and Liz Howard,
Avant Canada features twenty-eight of the best writers and critics in the field.
The book proposes four dominant modes of avant-garde production: ""Concrete Poetics,"" which accentuates the visual and material aspects of language; ""Language Writing,"" which challenges the interconnection between words and things; ""Identity Writing,"" which interrogates the self and its sociopolitical position; and ""Copyleft Poetics,"" which undermines our habitual assumptions about the ownership of expression. A fifth section commemorates the importance of the Centennial in the 1960s at a time when avant-garde cultures in Canada began to emerge.
Readers of this book will become familiar with some of the most challenging works of literature - and their creators - that this country has ever produced. From Concrete Poetry in the 1960s through to Indigenous Literature in the 2010s, Avant Canada offers the most sweeping study of the literary avant-garde in Canada to date.
Trade ReviewThis collection of academic essays and creative pieces takes an enthusiastic, engaged attitude to the unrolling of Canadian literature, starting with an intelligent introduction by editors Gregory Betts and Christian Bök [...] -- Derek Webster -- Canadian Notes and Queries, 2018
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- I INTRODUCTION
- 1 Gregory Betts and Christian Bök—Time for the Avant-Garde in Canada
- II PROLOGUE
- 2 Lisa Robertson—The Collective
- 3 Liz Howard—Against Assimilation I Rose into Poetry
- III THE CENTENNIAL
- 4 Kristine Smitka—The Sublation of Obduracy: Nationalism and the Avant-Garde Marketing of Beautiful Losers
- 5 Stephen Cain—""A Vision in the UofT Stacks"": bpNichol in the Library
- IV CONCRETE POLITICS
- 6 Julia Polyck-O'Neill—Words With(out) Syntax: Reconsidering Concrete Poetry: An Exhibition in Four Parts
- 7 Mike Borkent—Post/Avant Comics: bpNichol's Material Poetics and Comics Art Manifestos
- 8 Eric Schmaltz—A Field Guide to North Concrete: Identification Chart
- 9 Kelly Mark—National and Time
- 10 Kaie Kellough—Continents
- V LANGUAGE WRITING
- 11 Michael Roberson—Transformation or Resistance: The Kootenay School of Writing in Context
- 12 Kit Dobson—A Poetics of Neoliberalism
- 13 Dorothy Trujillo Lusk—Sleek Vinyl Drill
- 14 Erín Moure—Pillage 12 (""Anaximenes"")
- 15 Donato Mancini—If Violence (Hey You)
- VI IDENTITY WRITING
- 16 Myra Bloom—Messy Confessions: Sheila Heti's How Should a Person Be?
- 17 Sonnet L'Abbé—Erasures from the Territories Called Canada: Sharpening the Gaze at White Backgrounds
- 18 Leanne Betasamosake Simpson—caribou ghosts & untold stories
- 19 Lee Maracle—Bobbi Lee, Indian Rebel
- 20 Annharte—cum cum how cum dat cums around even from behind
- VII COPYLEFT POLITICS
- 21 Katie L. Price—A ≠ A: The Potential for a Pataphysical Poetics in Dan Farrell's The Inkblot Record
- 22 Darren Wershler—Everyday Practice Before and After Conceptual Writing
- 23 Derek Beaulieu—Prose of the TransCanada
- 24 Moez Surani—1988
- 25 Dani Spinosa—Anxious Influence: Reading John Cage Theoretically
- VIII EPILOGUE
- 26 André Alexis—On Amanda PL's Cancelled Exhibit
- 27 An Interview with Jordan Abel—A Line Can Be Drawn
- IX AFTER MATTER
- Notes and Acknowledgements
- Bibliography
- About the Authors
- Index
