Page 89 - 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. 89
National Identification in Canada 89
1988) influential Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian National-
ism, an essay also published in 1965. Like Innis, Grant opposed American
capitalism, and this is what cemented an anti-American sentiment in the
group’s conceptual horizon–trying to tread the middle ground between
Great Britain and the USA (Sanfilippo 1994, 21–25; Potocco 2013).
The extent to which Toronto-based writers were affected by their re-
lationship towards the United States of America is indicated by the scan-
dal associated with the national Governor General’s literary award of
1969. Toronto, which launched Atwood, John Robert Colombo (1936),
Joe Rosenblatt (1933), Gwendolyn MacEwen (1941–1987) and also Mil-
ton Acorn (1923–1986), was one of the two centres of Canadian poetry
production. In Vancouver, the TISH magazine, founded by George Bow-
ering (1935), Fred Wah (1939) and Frank Davey (1940), did not attempt
to conceal contacts with contemporary American currents (see e.g. New
1991, 223), namely the Beat poets, the Black Mountain school as well as
Olson’s theory of projective verse. Vancouver, visited by Allen Ginsberg,
Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan and Charles Olson, was considered the
symbol of the American influence as well as of academic and apolitical
poetry (Gudgeon 1996). This is why the jury’s decision in 1969 to award
Bowering as the major Vancouver poet,8 instead of choosing Acorn’s book
I’ve Tasted My Blood, triggered a strong response in Eastern Canada. The
critics of the award aimed their critique at the American influence on Ca-
nadian poetry, especially at the member of the jury who was American by
birth and a Columbia University professor, Warren Tallman. “Now we hav
Americans heading our English Departments, editing our literary mag-
azines [and] anthologisin our young poets,” was stated in the Montreal
newspaper Ingluvin (Gudgeon 1996, 137). In Toronto, Acorn’s support-
ers—led by Eli Mandel (1922–1992) and Rosenblatt—presented Acorn
with the alternative Canadian Poets Award (also known as People’s Poet
Award). As Chris Gudgeon claims: the Governor General’s Award con-
troversy “became an ideal symbol of both the fears and expectations of
Canadian nationalists” (139). Those opposing Bowering believed that
“Canadian sovereignty over Canadian literary awards is as important as
Canadian sovereignty over Arctic waters”, and the dispute can thus be
seen as the defence of Canadian tradition and the ‘Canadian idiom’ (qtd.
in Lemm 1999, 158).
The duality which was expressed outwardly as conflict has got a more
complex side in connection to concrete texts. Acorn’s poetics was part-
8 Bowering received the Governor General’s Award for two poetry collections, Rocky
Mountain Foot and Gangs of Cosmos.
1988) influential Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian National-
ism, an essay also published in 1965. Like Innis, Grant opposed American
capitalism, and this is what cemented an anti-American sentiment in the
group’s conceptual horizon–trying to tread the middle ground between
Great Britain and the USA (Sanfilippo 1994, 21–25; Potocco 2013).
The extent to which Toronto-based writers were affected by their re-
lationship towards the United States of America is indicated by the scan-
dal associated with the national Governor General’s literary award of
1969. Toronto, which launched Atwood, John Robert Colombo (1936),
Joe Rosenblatt (1933), Gwendolyn MacEwen (1941–1987) and also Mil-
ton Acorn (1923–1986), was one of the two centres of Canadian poetry
production. In Vancouver, the TISH magazine, founded by George Bow-
ering (1935), Fred Wah (1939) and Frank Davey (1940), did not attempt
to conceal contacts with contemporary American currents (see e.g. New
1991, 223), namely the Beat poets, the Black Mountain school as well as
Olson’s theory of projective verse. Vancouver, visited by Allen Ginsberg,
Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan and Charles Olson, was considered the
symbol of the American influence as well as of academic and apolitical
poetry (Gudgeon 1996). This is why the jury’s decision in 1969 to award
Bowering as the major Vancouver poet,8 instead of choosing Acorn’s book
I’ve Tasted My Blood, triggered a strong response in Eastern Canada. The
critics of the award aimed their critique at the American influence on Ca-
nadian poetry, especially at the member of the jury who was American by
birth and a Columbia University professor, Warren Tallman. “Now we hav
Americans heading our English Departments, editing our literary mag-
azines [and] anthologisin our young poets,” was stated in the Montreal
newspaper Ingluvin (Gudgeon 1996, 137). In Toronto, Acorn’s support-
ers—led by Eli Mandel (1922–1992) and Rosenblatt—presented Acorn
with the alternative Canadian Poets Award (also known as People’s Poet
Award). As Chris Gudgeon claims: the Governor General’s Award con-
troversy “became an ideal symbol of both the fears and expectations of
Canadian nationalists” (139). Those opposing Bowering believed that
“Canadian sovereignty over Canadian literary awards is as important as
Canadian sovereignty over Arctic waters”, and the dispute can thus be
seen as the defence of Canadian tradition and the ‘Canadian idiom’ (qtd.
in Lemm 1999, 158).
The duality which was expressed outwardly as conflict has got a more
complex side in connection to concrete texts. Acorn’s poetics was part-
8 Bowering received the Governor General’s Award for two poetry collections, Rocky
Mountain Foot and Gangs of Cosmos.
