Page 86 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 86
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
to their ambiguous role in the literary system and allegedly naive literary
nationalism between the years 1921 and 1925.5 Between 1921 and 1923,
The Canadian Bookman encouraged the development of Canadian liter-
ature without paying much attention to its quality, while The Canadian
Forum showed a less unified image. Sandra Djwa characterised the maga-
zine as the catalyst for various positions, bringing these together, and also
emphasised the fact that the Forum wished to support Canadian literary
production and even national identification, too (Djwa 1976). Howev-
er, both Djwa and Kathryn Chittick claim that the magazine’s editorial
concept emphasised the fact that Canadian literary space should follow
international trends (Chittick 1981). The founder of the magazine First
Statement (1942–1945) John Sutherland was referring to Smith, anoth-
er collaborator of The Canadian Forum, when stating that “a poet who is
86 preaching politics in Auden’s style is a colonialist in the same manner as
one who praises Britain in a Tennysonian meter” (Daymond and Monk-
man 1984, 324). Sutherland’s reproach is not surprising, as Djwa points
out that The Canadian Forum did not hide the affinity to the concept of
continentalism, i.e. the unification of the North American continent at
least at the political level (Djwa 1976). She draws attention to columns by
F. H. Underhill, whose heading—the first verse of the national anthem (O
Canada)—already polemicises with, above all, the British-Canadian na-
tionalism of Roberts’ type (cf. Champion 2010, 80), and in which Under-
hill, among other things, stresses the clash between the ‘theory’ of Cana-
dian anti-americanism and the praxis of voluntarily exposing oneself to
American newspapers, radio programmes etc. (Djwa 1976).
This imbalance, highlighted by Underhill in The Canadian Forum,
sheds light, from a different angle, also on the writing of Confedera-
tion Poets. Explicit assertions of opposing the United States of Amer-
ica could not be expected from them also due to their participation in
American magazines and publishing from 1880 onwards. The possibility
of opposing the United States of America was thus mostly expressed in-
directly, through a declarative positioning of their newly-emerging cul-
ture inside the framework of the British empire—as in the above men-
tioned Roberts’ or Campbell’s poems—and later through cooperation
5 While it served as the bulletin of the Canadian Writers’ Association, The Canadi-
an Bookman could not distinguish well between at least two of its roles, as is evident
from the polemics between its head editor B. K. Sandwell and the writers of The Ca-
nadian Forum: the role of a bulletin from the role of a cultural magazine, and the role
of a critical assessor of literature from the role of the promotor of Canadian literature
and its publishers (see. Chittick 1981; Mulvihill 1985).
to their ambiguous role in the literary system and allegedly naive literary
nationalism between the years 1921 and 1925.5 Between 1921 and 1923,
The Canadian Bookman encouraged the development of Canadian liter-
ature without paying much attention to its quality, while The Canadian
Forum showed a less unified image. Sandra Djwa characterised the maga-
zine as the catalyst for various positions, bringing these together, and also
emphasised the fact that the Forum wished to support Canadian literary
production and even national identification, too (Djwa 1976). Howev-
er, both Djwa and Kathryn Chittick claim that the magazine’s editorial
concept emphasised the fact that Canadian literary space should follow
international trends (Chittick 1981). The founder of the magazine First
Statement (1942–1945) John Sutherland was referring to Smith, anoth-
er collaborator of The Canadian Forum, when stating that “a poet who is
86 preaching politics in Auden’s style is a colonialist in the same manner as
one who praises Britain in a Tennysonian meter” (Daymond and Monk-
man 1984, 324). Sutherland’s reproach is not surprising, as Djwa points
out that The Canadian Forum did not hide the affinity to the concept of
continentalism, i.e. the unification of the North American continent at
least at the political level (Djwa 1976). She draws attention to columns by
F. H. Underhill, whose heading—the first verse of the national anthem (O
Canada)—already polemicises with, above all, the British-Canadian na-
tionalism of Roberts’ type (cf. Champion 2010, 80), and in which Under-
hill, among other things, stresses the clash between the ‘theory’ of Cana-
dian anti-americanism and the praxis of voluntarily exposing oneself to
American newspapers, radio programmes etc. (Djwa 1976).
This imbalance, highlighted by Underhill in The Canadian Forum,
sheds light, from a different angle, also on the writing of Confedera-
tion Poets. Explicit assertions of opposing the United States of Amer-
ica could not be expected from them also due to their participation in
American magazines and publishing from 1880 onwards. The possibility
of opposing the United States of America was thus mostly expressed in-
directly, through a declarative positioning of their newly-emerging cul-
ture inside the framework of the British empire—as in the above men-
tioned Roberts’ or Campbell’s poems—and later through cooperation
5 While it served as the bulletin of the Canadian Writers’ Association, The Canadi-
an Bookman could not distinguish well between at least two of its roles, as is evident
from the polemics between its head editor B. K. Sandwell and the writers of The Ca-
nadian Forum: the role of a bulletin from the role of a cultural magazine, and the role
of a critical assessor of literature from the role of the promotor of Canadian literature
and its publishers (see. Chittick 1981; Mulvihill 1985).
