The Year's Work in Canadian Poetry Studies: 1986

     The annotated checklists of the Year's Work in Canadian Poetry Studies for 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984 and 1985 can be found in nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 of Canadian Poetry.

Ballstadt, Carl. "Secure in Conscious Worth: Susanna Moodie and the Rebellion of 1837." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), 88-98.

MacDonald, Mary Lu. "The Natural World in Early Nineteenth-Century Canadian Literature." Canadian Literature, no. 111 (Winter 1986), 48-65.

MacKinnon, Neil. "Bitter Verse: Poetry, Verse and Song of the American Loyalists in Nova Scotia." Daihousie Review, 65:1 (Spring 1985), [111]- 12 1. 

Titley, E. Brian. "Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs." In Colin Nicholson and Peter Easingwood, eds., Canadian Story and History 1885-1985: Papers Presented at the Tenth Annual Conference of the British Association for Canadian Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, [1986], [47]-60.

Banting, Pamela, and Kristjana Gunners. "Poetry Is For People: An Interview with Dorothy Livesay." Prairie Fire, 7:3 (Autumn 1986), 8-13.

Billard, Jean Antonin. "Biobibliographie de Dorothy Livesay." Ellipse, no. 35 (1986), 93-95.

A brief description of Livesay's life and works, containing both bibliographical elements and reference to more substantial biographical and bibliographical material.

Burke, Anne. "John V. Hicks: A Modern Metaphysical Poet." Cross-Canada Writer's Quarterly, 8:3/4 (1986), 17-18.

Burke identifies Hicks as part of a Canadian modernist tradition, emphasizing his musical interests and background as a key to his verse's sound and image structures.

Davies, Robin Edwards. " 'A Game's Stances': Questions of Language and Unity in Klein's 'The Provinces.' " Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 49-56.

A poststructuralist analysis of "The Provinces" revealing the relation between the specific elements of the poem and Klein's broad concern with achieving a balance between "the universal and the specific."

Dorney, Lindsay, Gerald Noonan, and Paul Tiessen, eds. A Public and Private Voice: Essays on the Life and Work of Dorothy Livesay. Waterloo: University of Waterloo Press, c1986. [vii], 139 pp.

Selected papers from the 1983 conference, "Dorothy Livesay: The Evolution of Canadian Poetry," held at St. Jerome's College, University of Waterloo.

Gagnon, Madeleine. "Les ages de l'amour de Dorothy Livesay: lecture." Ellipse, no. 35 (1986), 90-92.

Gagnon discusses the erotic impulse in Livesay's poetry and suggests a broader dimension of the sensual than is usual in assessments of her work.

Gingell, Susan. "Prosodic Signification in the Longer Poems of Klein's Hath Not a Jew." Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 11-25.

Through close analysis of several poems and passages in Hath Not a Jew (1940), Gingell demonstrates Klein's mastery of prosody and his his use of meter, rhyme and form to encode meaning.

Groening, Laura. "Critic and Publisher: Another Chapter in E.K. Brown's Correspondence." Canadian Literature, no. 110 (Fall 1986), 46-58.

Brown's exchange of letters with Lorne Pierce documents the emergence of a Canadian literary nationalism in the interaction between a critic and a publisher who felt themselves both shapers and custodians of a tradition articulated in On Canadian Poetry (1943). Contention over the precise contours of the poetic landscape and evaluation of its major figures constitutes "a dialogue between traditional literary values and innovative modernist values."

Heenan, Michael. "An Interview with F. R. Scott." Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 92-101.

Kizuk discusses Ross's work in terms of its audience and its conception of the poet, illuminating various poems by placing them in a context that included the arrival of Modernism in Canada and Ross's interest in mysticism and "visionary truth." More than the simple "imagist" of received opinion, Kizuk argues, Ross is a poet who used imagist techniques for his own social and spiritual purposes.

Lane, M. Travis. "An interview with Alfred Goldsworthy Bailey." Studies in Canadian Literature, 11:2 (Fall 1986), 226-245.

____________ "A Sense of the Medium: The Poetry of A.G. Bailey." Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 1-10.

Lane initiates a revaluation of Bailey's poetry in terms of its modern roots and its postmodern resonances. Bailey's "verbal dandyism" thus derives from T.S. Eliot (and others) and anticipates more recent concerns with language itself. Other aspects of Bailey's poetry discussed include its treatment of Maritime history, external nature and quest patterns.

McCarthy, Dermot. "The Concentric Poet: Ralph Gustafson's Rocky Mountain Poems." Poetry Canada Review, 7:4 (Summer 1986), 3-4, 8.

McCarthy describes how Gustafson's evolution from modernist abstraction is traced to his fusion of personal values and public concerns, technique and belief, reaching an active involvement with the "cadences" of the "visible universe" of time and place in Rocky Mountain Poems (1960).

The Papers of Dorothy Livesay: A Research Tool. Compiled by the Staff of The Department of Archives and Special Collections, University of Manitoba Libraries. [Winnipeg]: University of Manitoba, 1986. xxviii, 419 pp.

Perkin, J.R.C. Morning in His Heart: The Life and Writings of Watson Kirkeonnell. [Hantsport, N.S.]: Published for Acadia University Library by Lancelot Press, 1986. viii, 371 pp.

With biographical sketch by J.R.C. Perkin and bibliography by James B. Snelson.

"Ralph (Barker) Gustafson, 1909- ." In Daniel G. Marowski, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 36. Detroit: Gale Research, c1986, 211-222.

Biographical sketch with excerpts from commentary, reviews and criticism on Gustafson published 1945-83.

Relke, Diana M.A. "The Task of Poetic Mediation: Dorothy Livesay's Early Poetry." Ariel, 17:4 (October 1986), 17-36.

Relke argues for a reconsideration of Livesay's "apprenticeship" poems, stressing their mediation between culture and nature as prescient for both the poet's later works and for contemporary thought in general. Eschewing the easy Romantic notion of man/nature identification, Livesay's early verse articulates a feminine awareness of the disparity in a symbolic opposition of house/tree.

Ricou, Laurie. "Literary Theory in the Classroom: Three Views of P.K. Page's 'The Permanent Tourists.' " Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 57-75.

Approaching P.K. Page's poem from three different perspectives (Freudian, feminist/deconstructive, ecopoetic), Kay Stockholder, Shirley Neuman and D.M.R. Bentley show how current critical theory can be used in a classroom context.

Sutherland, Ronald. "Eastern Townships' Poet Neil Tracy (1905-1986)." Matrix, no. 22 (Spring 1986), 10-14.

A memorial profile, this essay discusses Tracy's English influence in a largely Francophone setting (through extensive quotation from Alfred DesRochers) and acknowledges the range and sensitivity found in the verse of this little-known poet.

Tihanyi, Eva. "'The Aim of Our Lives': George Faludy." [Interview] Waves, 15:1/2 (Fall 1986), 4-17.

Trehearne, Brian. "Finch's Early Poetry and the Dandy Manner." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), 11-34.

Arguing that Finch's poetry is characterized by its verbal dandyism, Trehearne discusses the Toronto poet's development up to the 1940s in terms of formal and aesthetic features that link it with various English and French poets from Baudelaire to Betjeman. In Trehearne's view, "few other poets of the Canadian Modernist generation developed so distinctive a voice, or broached so consistent an aesthetic attitude" as Finch, a writer who deserves more respect and attention than he has hitherto received.

Turner, Barbara E., ed. Skelton at 60. tFestschrift] Erin, Ont.: Porcupine's Quill, c1986. 239 pp.

Van Wart, Alice. "By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept: The Novel as a Poem." Studies in Canadian Literature, 11:1 (Spring 1986), 38-51.

Van Wart celebrates images redolent of the metaphysical as narrative assumes a lyrical dimension in Elizabeth Smart's "poem-novel." It is a progressive "journey of the heart," conveyed through allusion and image in a "language of feeling," as the biblical "'Song of Songs' is sung in a material and alien world."

Whiteman, Bruce. "The Beginnings of Modernism (3): The Poets of 'New Provinces.' "Poetry Canada Review, 7:4 (Summer 1986), 24.

Whiteman traces the traditional modernist influences in the 1936 anthology "New Provinces," a largely neglected assemblage of Finch, Kennedy, Klein, Pratt, Scott and Smith which, though suggesting a "hothouse" self-consciousness, represented a step toward Canadian awareness of contemporary poetic developments.

___________ "Here and Now: A Note and an Index." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), 77-87.

Whiteman's Introduction briefly outlines the context in which Here and Now was founded and published in Toronto between 1947 and 1949.

Whitney, Patricia. "En Masse: An Introduction and an Index "Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 76-91.

In her Introduction, Whitney discusses the contexts and implications of En Masse, the little magazine edited by Patrick Anderson in Montreal in 1945.

____________ "From Oxford to Montreal: Patrick Anderson's Political Development." Canadian Poetry, no. 19 (Fall/Winter 1986), 26-48.

Drawing on Anderson's unpublished papers, as well as his published work, Whitney establishes the political context (Communism) for his poetry and journalism, most notably En Masse and Preview magazines.

CONTEMPORARY

Amprimoz, Alexandre L. "The Thinking Heart: Barry Callaghan's Exile." Poetry Canada Review, 7:4 (Summer 1986), 18-23.

Amprimoz's personal sketch of Callaghan provides a forum for an evaluation of the current poetry perspective in Canada, the United States, and Europe and acknowledges the role of Exile as a significant Canadian cultural phenomenon.

Banting, Pamela. "An Interview with Fred Wah." Brick, no. 27 (Spring 1986), 13-16.

Benazon, Michael. "Leonard Cohen of Montreal." [Interview] Matrix, no. 23 (Fall 1986), 43-55.

Billings, Robert. "Changes the Surface: A Conversation with Erin Mouré" Waves, 14:4 (Spring 1986), 36-44.

Borson, Roo. "The Road: Meditations on Reading and Writing." Canadian Forum, 66:760 (June/July 1986), 40-42.

Borson traces early influences in terms of significant experiences which intruded upon her consciousness, her initial summoning to a life in literature and recurrent reinforcement toward the creative act furnished by moments of visionary insight.

Buitenhuis, Peter. "Attempted Edens: The Poetry of Dale Zieroth." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 92-105.

Landscape reflects states of mind as the Edenic paradise of childhood is embodied in the nature and expanse of Zieroth's verse. Both Clearing (1973) and Mid-River (1981) contain poems of personal background and experience but work toward an integration with the natural world.

Cogswell, Fred. "Alden Nowlan as Regional Atavist." In Franz K. Stanzel and Waldemar Zacharasiewicz, eds., Encounters and Explorations: Canadian Writers and European Critics. Wûrzburg: Konigshausen und Neumann, 1986, 37-55.

Cogswell endeavours to extend previous commentary on Nowlan by expanding upon the poet's regional identity and Maritime preoccupations. Containing a strong personal dimension, the article also draws specific parallels between the lives of the two poets in their attitudes and sensibilities. Also published in Studies in Canadian Literature, 11:2 (Fall 1986), 206-225.

Cooley, Dennis. "The Vernacular Muse in Prairie Poetry, [I]." Prairie Fire, 7:4 (Winter 1986-87), 24-36.

Cooley sees the vernacular movement in Prairie poetry as a distinctive postmodern movement toward the "appropriation" of texts to artistic status reflective of the uniqueness of their time and place, independent of stultifyingly traditional English models. "Proper" form is seen as artificial and restrictive, as Cooley propounds a consideration of "subliterary-subversive" in a "naturalizing" language of "contradiction."

Deahl, James, ed. [Milton Acorn Memorial Issue.] Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:3/4 (1986). 2-23, 52-58 pp.

Interview, tributes and reminiscences by Ted Plantos, James Deahl, Al Purdy, Chris Faiers, Greg Keilty, Irving Layton, Gwendolyn MacEwen and Terry Barker.

Dutton, Paul, and Steven Smith, eds. "Read the Way He Writes: A Festschrift for bp Nichol." Open Letter, ser. 6, nos. 5/6 (Summer/Fall 1986). 270, [1] pp.

Fagan, Cary. "Remembering Stilt Jack." Books in Canada, 15:4 (May 1986), 6-7.

Fagan's recapitulative note defines the forcefulness and insight of John Thompson's Stilt Jack, published posthumously in 1978. The promise of Thompson's earlier At the Edge of the Chopping There Are No Secrets (1973) was realized in the subsequent work, but the author's premature death in 1976 left his output small and his reputation uncertain.

Fitzgerald, Judith. "Gay Allison: WQ Interview." Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:2 (1986), 16-17.

____________. "WQ Interview with C.H. Gervais." Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:1 (1986), 3-5.

Frey, Cecelia. "The Left Hand of Phyllis Webb." Prairie Fire, 7:3 (Autumn 1986), 37-48.

Water and Light: Ghazals and Anti-Ghazals (1984) is seen as Webb's revision of a female "text of despair," replacing female as object with female as writing subject in an exercise of self-definition. The dialectical ghazal/anti-ghazal structure provides a vehicle for the reversal of male assertiveness through poetic energy and carries the female poet beyond passive interiority. The article traces Webb's development through early confrontations with "the text of the authoritative male" to the self-affirming projections of Wilson's Bowl and The Kropotkin Poems.

Goddard, John. "Interview [with] Fred Wah." Books in Canada, 15: 7 (October 1986), 40-41.

Gray, Lynn. "'Half-Said Things': An Interview with Michael Ondaatje." Prairie Fire, 7:4 (Winter 1986-87), 5-11.

Harris, John. "Brian Fawcett: The Routes of Imagination." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 41-69.

"Fawcett is drawing a myth out of the BC interior," Harris states, with the force of social involvement and political direction toward reform. In Fawcett's work, man's warfare against the landscape becomes warfare within himself, finding many of its patterns of action in classical mythology and gradually working its way toward celebration of a "City of Gentleness," governed by love and immediate human feeling.

Hillis, Doris. "Interview with Gary Hyland." NeWest Review, 11:5 [11:6] (February 1986), 4-6.

Hilmo, Maidie. "Interview with bill bissett." Essays on Canadian Literature, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 134-146.

Hulcoop, John. "Webb's 'Water and Light.' "Canadian Literature, no. 109 (Summer 1986), 151-159.

An extended review, the article speaks of Webb's adaptation of the Persian lyric (ghazal) as a feminist expression, borrowing from the techniques of Adrienne Rich to escape the "male technique" of traditional verse. Through extended reference to the poetry, Hulcoop demonstrates Webb's ambivalent relation to domestic establishment and idealized escape.

Jewinski, Ed. "WQ Interview with Susan Musgrave." Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:2 (1986), 3-5.

Juhasz, Suzanne. "Renunciation Transformed, the Dickinson Heritage: Emily Dickinson and Margaret Atwood." Women's Studies, 12:3 (March 1986), [2511-270.

Suggesting that Dickinson renounced the social self to embrace a poetic vocation in which "emotional responses occurred privately," Juhasz draws a parallel with Atwood's internalizaton of an outward struggle. Seeking to extend her imagination into the external world, the modern poet finds herself denied access to the experience of others, fascinated by the texture of their forbidding surfaces, and falling back into the realms of the self.

An encyclopaedic exploration of"angles of approach" to Emily Carr as a literary phenomenon, from drama (Harron/Campbell, Voaden and transformations), poetry (McNeil), ballet (Wyman/Mortifee) and music (Freedman). Working toward evocations of Carr in the poems of E.D. Blodgett, Kathleen Moore, Wilfred Watson, John Barton, Charles Lillard, Susan Musgrave and Dorothy Livesay, Kroller suggests the artist's identity as a metaphor which others adopt to define their own existence and achievements.

Lane, M. Travis. "'Emotion First! Understanding Later!': The Poetry of Kevin Roberts." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 27-40.

Lane explores Roberts' use of fishing as metaphor in his poised and natural Deep Line volume (1978) but confronts critically the carelessness of image structures in Stone fish and Other Poems (1982). An epilogue suggests that Nanoose Bay Suite (1984) may reconcile these values and perceptions in a work of eloquence and poetic effectiveness.

Lanthier, Philip. "An Interview with Doug Jones." Matrix, no. 22 (Spring 1986), 63-70.

Lecker, Robert. Robert Kroetsch. Boston: Twayne Publishers, c1986. (Twayne's World Author Series: Canadian Literature, TWAS 768) [vi], 165 pp.

Lee, Dennis. "The Poetry of Al Purdy: An Afterword." In Russell Brown, ed., The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, c1986, 371-391.

Lee's essay discusses the lengthy process of Purdy's poetic develop ment, the transcendent and epiphanic nature of much of his work, and its particularly Canadian voice as an evocation of landscape and culture. An excerpt from Lee's essay was published in Canadian Forum (August/September 1986), pp. 16-18.

Lenoski, Daniel S. "Voicing Prairie Space: Interview with Dennis Cooley." Line, nos. 7/8 (Spring/Fall 1986), 166-183.

"Leonard (Norman) Cohen." In Daniel G. Marowski, ed., Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 38. Detroit: Gale Research, c1986, 130-138.

Biographical sketch with excerpts from commentary, reviews and criticism on Cohen published 1957-1984.

MacEwen, Gwendolyn. "A Poet's Journey into the Interior." Cross-Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:3/4 (1986), 19.

MacEwen sees poetry as the voice of the inner self, mediating between the world of the psyche and the world of things.

Mallinson, Jean. "'Woman On/Against Snow': A Poem and Its Sources." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 7-26.

Pat Lowther's poem is presented with correlation to Edmund Carpenter's "Image Making in Arctic Art" and Paul Riesman's "The Eskimo Discovery of Man's Place in the Universe" as sources in legend and anthropology. These provide a paradigm for the poem's process of personal transformation and self-creation, which is itself reflected in the poet's treatment of her non-poetic source material.

McCaffery, Steve. North of Intention: Critical Writings 19 73-1986. New York: Roof Books; Toronto: Nightwood Editions, 1986. 239 pp.

A collection of essays, both critical and theoretical, on the art and practice of poetry, including discussions of Wah, Dewdney, bissett, Bowering, Truhlar, and contemporary movements in sound and performance poetry.

____________. "Under the Blowpipe: George Bowering's Allophanes." Line, nos. 7/8 (Spring/Fall 1986), 184-193.

McCaffery writes of Allophanes (1976) as a work of the protean image in which not only the central symbol of the poem (the snowball in hell) but the very method of scriptive notation take on elements of transformational change. Also, the design of the book, in patterns, structure and texture, enacts a kind of "experiencing" which broadens and activates the text.

McKinnon, Barry. "Interview with Brian Fawcett." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 122-133.

____________. "With Jim Brown: Vancouver Writing Seen in the 60s." [Interview] Line, nos. 7/8 (Spring/Fall 1986), 94-123.

Mezei, Kathy. "Interview with Norbert Ruebsaat." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 147-159.

Mooers, Vernon. "Susan Musgrave: Poet Behind the Prodigy." Cross- Canada Writers' Quarterly, 8:2 (1986), 6-7.

A personal profile of the poet involving reminiscences and other background material gleaned from interviews and conversations.

Mouré, Erin. "I'll Start Out by Talking." Poetry Canada Review, 7:2 (Winter 1985-86), 13-14, 16.

The first in a Poetry Canada Review series of essays on poetics, Mouré's article focusses upon her own sense of personal influences and the selective memory/forgetfulness which shapes the poetic conscious ness. Narrative, she suggests, formulates experience, and she cites works by Bronwen Wallace to illuminate the personal immediacy of "real speaking."

Pelletier, Claude, ed. "Leonard Cohen, 1961-1985." in his Ecrivains anglo-québécois, I: Dossiers de presse. Sherbrooke: Bibliothèque du Séminaire de Sherbrooke, 1986 (Dossiers de presse sur les écrivains québécois, 48), [58] pp.

An assemblage of press clippings dealing with Cohen during the period indicated.

____________. "Margaret Atwood, 1970-1986." in his Écrivains canadiens anglais: Dossiers de presse. Sherbrooke: Bibliothèque du Séminaire de Sherbrooke, 1986 (Dossiers de presse sur les écrivains québécois, 59), [62] pp.

An assemblage of press clippings dealing with Atwood during the period indicated.

Pivato, Joseph. "Irving Layton." [Interview] Athabasca University Magazine, 10:4 (Winter 1986-87), 7-10.

___________ "Italian-Canadian Women Writers Recall History." Cana dian Ethnic Studies, 18:1 (1986), [79]-88.

Using the personal expression of poetry as a key, Pivato attempts to define the human implications of early Italian immigrants to Canada. The non-traditional pattern of family separation has profound psychological implications which the article traces through such poets as Di Michele, Melfi and Michelutti in terms of women's freedom from and control by men.

Precosky, Don. "Interview with Barry McKinnon." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 160-173.

Purdy, Al. "How To Be a Poet." Waves, 14:4 (Spring 1986), 4-7.

A personal reminiscence of Purdy's days as the school poet, his adventures on the railroad and the Great Depression, and his six-year stint in the R.C.A.F.

__________ "Memoir: As For Them and Their Houses." Books in Canada, 15:4 (May 1986), 35-38.

A reminiscence of Purdy's adventures with publishers, including recollections of Lorne Pierce, Mel Hurtig, Jack McClelland and — as a new collaborator — Harold Town.

Rizzardi, Alfredo, ed. Canada: The Verbal Creation/La creazione verbale. Abano Terme: Piovan Editore, 1985. (Saggi e ricerche di lingue e letterature straniere, 17) 316 pp.

Papers from the Fifth International Conference of the Italian Association for Canadian Studies (AISC), Università di Messina, including presentations on contemporary Canadian poets ("History and Literature: Contemporary Canadian Writing," E. Mandel) and Layton ("The Love Song of Irving Layton," A. Rizzardi; "Irving Layton: Laughter and Death," M. Domenichelli).

Rogers, Linda. "Uncle Nathan & the Fisher of Men: The Many-Coloured Stream of Joe Rosenblatt." Poetry Canada Review, 7:3 (Spring 1986), 45-46.

Brides of the Stream (1983) is seen as the culmination of Rosenblatt's baroque amplitude, embracing the rhythms of life in a metaphor of "flowing" which becomes an ultimate gesture of acceptance. Uncle Nathan, ritual fishmonger and rabbi, becomes the human archetype as questor-celebrant of experience.

Ross, Catherine Sheldrick, and Cory Bieman Davies. "An Interview with Margaret Atwood." Canadian Children's Literature, no. 42 (1986), 9-16.

Sanger, Peter. SeaRun: Notes on John Thompson's Stilt Jack. Antigonish: Antigonish Review, 1986. 57 pp.

A line-by-line annotation of the 1978 collection of Thompson's poems.

Savoie, Paul. "Anne Szumigalski and the Art of Taking Risks." Quarry, 35:4 (Autumn 1986), 76-83.

Savoie provides a personal portrait, demonstrating the continuum of life and art in the works of Szumigalski, with particular references to Risks (1983).

Sherman, Jason, and Kevin Connolly. "Interview: Tom Walmsley." What, no. 4 (April/May 1986), 10-12, 19.

Sward, Robert, and Pat Keeney Smith. "An Interview with Leonard Cohen." Malahat Review, no. 77 (December 1986), 55-63.

Tener, Jean F., and Apollonia Steele, eds. The Robert Kroetsch Papers, First Accession: An Inventory of the Archive at the University of Calgary Libraries. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, c1986. (Canadian Archival Inventory Series: Literary Papers, no. 3), xlviii, 371, [1] pp.

"Biocritical Essay" by Aritha van Herk, ix-xxxviii.

Thesen, Sharon. "Chains of Grace: The Poetry of George Stanley." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 106-113.

Through You: Poems 1957-67 (1974) and The Stick (1974) to Opening Day (1983), Stanley moves according to an Orphic, form-giving immediacy toward a poetry of direct and specific statement. While his early works focus mainly on the self, later works integrate the poet with his culture and its communal continuity.

____________ "A Few Notes on Poetry." Poetry Canada Review, 7:4 (Summer 1986), 13.

In this third essay of the Poetry Canada Review series on poetics, Thesen writes on her actual process of composition, stressing communication with the prospective audience and the integration of substance and form, always emphasizing the active involvement of poetry with life.

Thorpe, Michael. "Recent Atlantic Poetry, a Survey: 1980-1985. Introduction, I: The Islands." Antigonish Review, no. 65 (Spring 1986), 95-105.

Through quotation and description, Thorpe inventories recent poetic developments in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island. Though the essay is encyclopaedic rather than specifically critical, a general discussion of context develops the idea of region as opposed to regionalism as a governing concept and addresses the issue of universal themes emerg ing in culturally peripheral settings.

Wachtel, Eleanor. "An Interview with Daphne Marlatt." Capilano Review, no. 41 (1986), 4-13.

Wah, Fred. "Subjective as Objective: The Lyric Poetry of Sharon Thesen." Essays on Canadian Writing, no. 32 (Summer 1986), 114-121.

The lyric poetry of Thesen demonstrates not only the poet's subjective feeling but also illustrates a "proprioceptive" process in which cadenced language consolidates emotion as "body-feeling." A sense of location "p1aces" the self, as outside environment reflects the inward state.

Wilson, Sharon R. "Bluebeard's Forbidden Room: Gender Images in Margaret Atwood's Visual and Literary Art." American Review of Canadian Studies, 16:4 (Winter 1986), [385]-397.

Wilson relates Atwood's watercolours and other illustrations to central themes in her fiction and verse, concentrating on elements of mysticism and fairy tale, though gathering poetic associations as well.

Woodcock, George. "In the Beginning Was the Question: The Poems of Phyllis Webb." Queen's Quarterly, 93:3 (Winter 1986), 527-545.

Woodcock places Webb's evolving poetic identity in a biographical context, diagramming her movement toward a poetry of "moral involvement" and awareness of the poet as cultural chronicler. Central to the essay is the delineation of Webb as a poet of engagement with significant personalities and intellectual events of her times, as represented in her later works Wilson's Bowl (1980) and The Vision Tree (1982).

York, Lorraine M. "'The Progress of Illumination': The Design and Unity of David Helwig's Catchpenny Poems." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), 55-65.

Catchpenny Poems (1984) is shown to be unified rather than random, and Helwig is praised as a poet "capable of seeing both light and dark, capable of perceiving unity in diversity."

Young, George. "Electric Poetry: A Polemic." Waves, 14:4 (Spring 1986), 104-106.

Young argues the case for audio-visual publishing of poetry in Canada, stressing that poets must learn to work with burgeoning technology to reach an audience nurtured and shaped by "the media."

GENERAL STUDIES

Bentley, D.M.R. "Preface: Boxing the Compass: Ontario's Geopoetics." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), [v]-[xiii].

In this Preface to a special issue of Canadian Poetry on "Poetry in Ontario," Bentley suggests ways in which the regional features of the Province and its closeness to the United States have affected its culture. Attention is particularly paid to the mystical aspects of Ontario poetry as a basis for "what might . . be called an Ontario hermeneutic."

____________. "Remembering and Forgetting in Canadian Literature and Criticism." What, no. 4 (April/May 1986), [15]-[17].

With reference to the works of several writers, including Lampman, Kroetsch, F.R. Scott and Dewdney, Bentley discusses the forces (cultural, institutional, personal) that have led to the neglect of much early and contemporary Canadian writing. Particular attention is focussed on the amnesiac tendencies of Modern Canadian poetry and criticism.

Cockburn, Jean, and Mary Schendlinger. "Twenty Years of Talonbooks: A Bibliography: 1967-1986." Line, nos 7/8 (Spring/Fall 1986), 136-[165].

A chronological listing of books published by the Vancouver literary press.

Davies, Barrie. "Dulce vs. Utile: The Kevin O'Brien Syndrome in New Brunswick Literature." Studies in Canadian Literature, 11:2 (Fall 1986), 161-167.

The imaginative alien in a materialistic culture can be either the estranged aesthete or the vigorous and vital frontier spirit observing with deflationary piquancy. Drawing references from R. Cockburn, C.G.D. Roberts, Nowlan and Cogswell, Davies suggests that, in either case, the artistic impulse is surreptitious and apart from the cultural mainstream.

Gair, Reavley, ed. A Literary and Linguistic History of New Brunswick. Fredericton: Fiddlehead Poetry Books and Goose Lane Editions, 1985. 286 pp.

Contains contributions on topics ranging from the Maliseet language, the poetry, drama and prose of the Acadian and English-speaking peoples, folklore and oral tradition, including essays by Barrie Davies, Robert Gibbs and Fred Cogswell on the Province's poetic tradition. Also published in French edition: Langues et littératures au Nouveau-Brunswick. Moncton: Éditions d'Acadie, c 1986.

Mandel, Eli. The Family Romance. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 1986. 259 pp.

Critical essays spanning literary theory, cultural criticism and analyses of individual writers, including the poetry of Atwood, Dewdney, Cohen, Page, Layton, Kroetsch, Whyte and others.

Mayne, Seymour, ed. Essential Words: An Anthology of Jewish Canadian Poetry. Ottawa: Oberon Press, c1985. 182 pp.

In his introduction (pp. 9-15), Mayne suggests that "complexity of experience" makes Jewish Canadian poetry uniquely recognizable, as its focus upon the human dimension, the status of the outsider, and the quality of joy amid adversity provide cultural concerns which become manifested in a communal language. Historical and socio-cultural patterns were different from those which shape the Anglo-Canadian tradition, and interaction between these generated a ferment which ultimately enriched the poetry of this country.

Marshall, Tom. "Some Notes on Poetry: On What Otherwise Cannot Be Said At All." Poetry Canada Review, 7:3 (Spring 1986), 3-4.

Marshall writes of poetry as a validation of reality, as the poet establishes a concrete relationship between himself and his world. Citing examples from the works of Purdy, Klein, Layton, Avison and others, Marshall delineates the magical leap from the personal to the universal.

Metcalf, John, ed. The Bumper Book. Toronto: ECW Press, c1986. 238 pp.

First in a projected series of literary overviews, including contributions by such poets as Layton, Dudek, Woodcock, Bowering, Gustafson and others. Basically a "collection of essays, poems, and epigrams on the state of Canadian literature," the anthology is largely meditative / deliberative / satirical in tone.

New, W.H., ed. Canadian Writers Since 1960: First Series. Detroit: Gale Research, c1986. (Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 53) xiii, 445 pp.

Includes biocritical essays on the following poets: Acorn (T. Goldie), Atwood (L. Hutcheon), Avison (E.H. Redekop), bissett (D. Barbour), Bowering (P. and M. Quartermain), Cohen (I.B. Nadel), Colombo (D. Barbour), Davey (P. and M. Quartermain), D.G. Jones (C.R. Steele), Kroetsch (R.R. Wilson), Patrick Lane (D. Barbour), Lee (D. Barbour), Lowther (H.L. Thomas), MacEwen (S.E. Grace), Macpherson (S.E. Grace), Eli Mandel (C.R. Steele), Nichol (D. Barbour), Nowlan (F. Cogswell), David Adams Richards (J. Doyle), Schroeder (N. Besner), Skelton (K. Garebian), Solway (D. Stouck), Suknaski (D. Barbour), Wayman (D. Barbour) and Webb (J.F. Hulcoop).

Precosky, Don. "Seven Myths About Canadian Literature." Studies in Canadian Literature, 11:1 (Spring 1986), 86-95.

Precosky's witty, mocking article reasserts the beginnings of Canadian Modernism in an historical context, explodes the myth of writerly neglect in Canada by exposing the institutional "honey pots," dispels the insularities of regionalism and "unloads" upon George Woodcock as critic. Lampman's limitations and Crawford's shortcomings are also cited — all in an effort to promote sober and mature consideration of Canadian poetry.

Richards, David. "Language and Identity in Canadian and Irish Poetry." In Cohn Nicholson and Peter Easingwood, eds., Canadian Story and History 1885-1985: Papers Presented at the Tenth Annual Conference of the British Association for Canadian Studies. Edinburgh: Edin burgh University, [1986], [92]-101.

Richards sees some similarities between Irish and Canadian surrender of landscape to usurpation by naming. The cultural metaphor in the translation of place names is qualified in the Canadian context, however, by awareness of an "archaeological fiction of community" which fixes language to meaning in naming the landscape in the works of Purdy, MacEwen, Klein, Birney and others.

Ross, Malcolm. The Impossible Sum of Our Traditions: Reflections on Canadian Literature. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, c1986. 211 pp.

A collection of reprinted essays drawn from the period 1954-1984. Specific poetic focus is given to Carman, Roberts and other poets of the Confederation, and relationships between Canadian and American traditions in poetic expression.

Sharman, Vincent."'God Likes Music an' Naked Women': The Outsider as Positive Force in English-Canadian Literature." Laurentian University Review, 18:2 (February 1986), 89-97.

Though primarily focussing on prose fiction, Sharman discusses the recurrent figure of the creative alien in the works of Lampman, Pratt, Klein and (in some detail) Cohen's "Alexander Trocchi."

Sproxton, Birk, ed. Trace: Prairie Writers on Writing. Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, c1986. xiii, 328 pp.

The regional vitality of Prairie literature emerges in this collection of essays, statements, and counter-statements by both established contributors and a new generation of poets and critics.

Waterston, Elizabeth. "Regions and Eras in Ontario Poetry." Canadian Poetry, no. 18 (Spring/Summer 1986), 1-10.

Waterston surveys the history of poetry in Ontario in terms of shifts in the centre of poetic activity from the early nineteenth century to the present. Among the centres discussed are Niagara-on-the-Lake, Peterborough, Toronto and Ottawa.

Mary Ann Jameson