Page 251 - Marcello Potocco, Nacionalni imaginariji, literarni imaginariji, Dissertationes 20
P. 251
Summary
is a similar use of affective elements, while the relation towards the na-
tives is even more complex, ranging from their inclusion to total assim-
ilation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, a shift occured in the English Canadian
poetry. While strong nationalist tendencies existed in the extraliterary
field (esp. in M. Atwood’s criticism), ideological tendencies seldom ap-
peared in literary works. Newlove’s poems, along with references to Al
Purdy’s, M. Atwood’s and G. Bowering’s texts, are treated as an exam-
ple of ideologically unaffected literature. However, Newlove’s probably
most famous poem – “The Pride” – is regarded as a turning point. New-
love employs elements of an indigenous oral narrative – where affective
elements successfully break its unity – only to turn the appropriated
narrative, through rhetorical means, into a claim for the ownership of
the land, or a rather forced identification with the land and the natives.
This seems to be the last trace of searching for a fixed identity, which
Newlove later abandons. The hostile world becomes a metaphor for the
general human condition. Similarly, in Purdy’s and Atwood’s poems,
the thematic material of the hostile land is transformed into a profound-
ly human psychological reality.
is a similar use of affective elements, while the relation towards the na-
tives is even more complex, ranging from their inclusion to total assim-
ilation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, a shift occured in the English Canadian
poetry. While strong nationalist tendencies existed in the extraliterary
field (esp. in M. Atwood’s criticism), ideological tendencies seldom ap-
peared in literary works. Newlove’s poems, along with references to Al
Purdy’s, M. Atwood’s and G. Bowering’s texts, are treated as an exam-
ple of ideologically unaffected literature. However, Newlove’s probably
most famous poem – “The Pride” – is regarded as a turning point. New-
love employs elements of an indigenous oral narrative – where affective
elements successfully break its unity – only to turn the appropriated
narrative, through rhetorical means, into a claim for the ownership of
the land, or a rather forced identification with the land and the natives.
This seems to be the last trace of searching for a fixed identity, which
Newlove later abandons. The hostile world becomes a metaphor for the
general human condition. Similarly, in Purdy’s and Atwood’s poems,
the thematic material of the hostile land is transformed into a profound-
ly human psychological reality.
