Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
808922941
Author
Kelly, Erica Sue,1980-
Title
A useful art : artistic labour and social justice in Canadian poetry from 1789 to 1945.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Western Ontario, 2010
Publisher
Ottawa : Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, [2012]
Description
4 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
Since well before the official endorsement of "peace, order and good government" in the British North America Act of 1867, Canada has understood itself as a peace keeping and socially-progressive collective. Both before and after the BNA Act, Canadian poets critiqued as well as celebrated this persistent national mythology, offering their poetry as social commentary and as impetus to change. This thesis considers the shifting understanding of the role of Canadian poets in shaping the nation and in establishing social justice. After tracing a history of theoretical understandings of social justice with specific attention to the arrival and evolution of such theory within Canada, the thesis reads poetry from before Confederation to the end of the Second World War in relation to its political and social moment.
ISBN
9780494734865
0494734868