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This dissertation offers the first comprehensive examination of the diverse inte-ractions and collaborations among Canadian modernist poets and artists, as well as the aesthetic, thematic, and idiomatic relationships between their poems and works of art. The project incorporates archival and historical research to demon-strate the interartistic nature of modernist poetry in Canada between 1930 and 1960. By establishing that paintings, sculptures, and book designs and illustrations by Canadian artists who knew and worked closely with Canadian modernist poets informed and affirmed the content and aesthetics of the poetry, the dissertation argues for a consideration of the social dimension of literary modernism in Cana-da. Chapter One investigates the personal relationship between the poet Dorothy Livesay and the artist Emily Carr and reveals the aesthetic and thematic conver-gences of their paintings and poems as they relate to landscape and affect. Chapter Two deals with the Montreal little magazines of the 1940s as interartistic sites of collaboration among artists and poets and argues that the artists' paintings provided models of human agency for the poets. Chapter Three considers the small press movement and gallery space of the 1950s as similar sites of interartistic collaboration and contact; it suggests that this contact inspired Canadian modernist poets to translate the aesthetic and thematic tensions of Canadian art into their poems. Chapter Four concerns both the poetry and visual art of P.K. Page-Irwin and argues that the poet addressed an ongoing aesthetic conflict in her poetry through the visual arts. Where the first chapter examines the relationship between a single poet and a single artist, the second and third chapters analyze the dynamics of groups of artists and poets working closely together on little magazines and on small press publications and encountering each others' work within the space of a gallery. The final chapter considers the work of a poet who is also a visual artist. This framework reveals the diversity of interartistic relationships that flourished throughout the rise of modernism in Canada. / Cette thèse de doctorat offre le premier examen approfondi des diverses interactions et collaborations parmi les poètes et les artistes modernes du Canada et les relations aesthétiques, thématiques, et idiomatiques entre leurs poèmes et leurs oeuvres d'art. Le projet prend en compte la recherche historique et archiviste pour démontrer la nature interartistique de la poésie moderniste au Canada entre 1930 et 1960. En démontrant que les peintures, sculptures, et conceptions et illustrations de livres par les artistes Canadiens qui connaissaient et travaillaient de près avec les poètes modernistes du Canada ont informé et affirmé les sujets et l'aesthetique de la poésie, cette thèse de doctorat soutient que la di-mension sociale de la litérature moderniste au Canada soit considérée. Chapître un enquête sur la relation personnelle entre la poète Dorothy Livesay et la peintre Emily Carr et révèle les convergences aesthétiques et thématiques de leurs pein-tures et poèmes comme ils se rapportent au paysagisme et aux émotions. Chapître deux traite sur le sujet des petites revues de Montréal dans les années 1940 comme étant des sites interartistiques de collaboration parmi des artistes et des poètes et soutient que les peintures par ces artistes fournissaient des modèles de l'agence humaine pour les poètes. Chapître trois considère le mouvement de petites maisons d'édition et l'espace des galeries d'art dans les années 1950 comme étant de semblables sites interartistiques de collaboration et contact; il suggère que ce contact a inspiré les poètes modernistes du Canada à traduire les tensions aesthétiques et thématiques d'art Canadien vers leurs poèmes. Chapître quatre concerne et la poésie et l'art visuel de P.K. Page-Irwin et soutient que la poète ab-ordait un conflit aesthétique continuel dans sa poésie à travers les arts visuels. Où le premier chapître examine la relation entre une seule poète et une seule artiste, le deuxième et le troisième chapîtres analysent les dynamiques des groupes d'artistes et poètes travaillant ensembles sur les petites revues et les publications de petites maisons d'édition et qui devenaient exposés aux oeuvres des uns et des autres dans l'espace de la galerie d'art. Le dernier chapître considère l'ouvrage littéraire et artistique d'une seule poète qui est aussi une artiste visuelle. Ce cadre révèle la diversité des relations interartistiques fleurrissant durant la hausse du modernisme au Canada.

The very impetus of this study — to examine the representations of craft in literature — defies the functional binaries so long attributed to art and craft. This study examines the literary formulations of textile crafts and their makers in Canadian works of fiction at the turn of the twenty-first century. Included are three Canadian novels published after 1990: Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace (1996), Austin Clarke's The Polished Hoe (2002) and Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance (1995). Through close analysis of these patchwork novels, I suggest ways of reading quilts and other textile crafts as a recontextualization of the forms of the past (through the workings of displacement and parody) in Canadian literature. Chapter One proposes theoretical reconceptualizations of crafts culminating in the 1990s and establishes three paradigms that structure my analysis in each of the chapters: the relations of textile crafts with (a) narrative, (b) trickery, and (c) a dehierarchical and plural aesthetic. In the subsequent chapters, each one dealing with a single novel, I explore the reassembled quality of the narratives and variations of the spider-weaver archetypes they represent, both of which I consider fundamental to the patchwork novel. In Chapter Two, I posit the patchwork quilt in Atwood's Alias Grace as a model for the processes of recollection and fragmentation involved in historiographic metafiction. Chapter Three establishes the crafted object in Clarke's The Polished Hoe as a site of struggle and an embodiment of the collective and composite nature of heritage in the neoslave narrative. Chapter Four focuses on the way the "sordid quiltings" (379) of Mistry's A Fine B / Cette étude contribue à remettre en question la célèbre dichotomie entre l'art et l'artisanat en se penchant sur les représentations de l'artisanat dans la littérature. Plus spécifiquement, cette étude vise à explorer les représentations de l'artisanat textile et de la figure de l'artisan dans le roman canadien au tournant du vingt-et-unième siècle, à travers trois romans publiés après 1990 : Alias Grace (1996) de Margaret Atwood, The Polished Hoe (2002) d'Austin Clarke et A Fine Balance (1995) de Rohinton Mistry. Une analyse de ces trois romans-patchwork et du rapiéçage qui en informe leur structure et leur contenu nous révèle une nouvelle façon de conceptualiser l'artisanat tout en remettant en contexte des formes traditionnelles du passé (tels que tissage, tressage, couture) dans la littérature canadienne contemporaine. Le premier chapitre, explorant les théories transdisciplinaires autour de l'artisanat apparues vers 1970 et atteignant leur apogée dans les années 1990, propose trois paradigmes structurant mon analyse dans chacun des chapitres, à savoir, les relations entre l'artisanat textile et (a) le récit, (b) la ruse, et (c) la transformation et la pluralité. Chacun des chapitres suivants explore les récits rapiécés et les variations autour de la figure mythique du (de la) fileur(euse) rusé(e) (la figure du « trickster » dans le mythe nord-américain) qui constituent un ensemble caractéristique du roman patchwork. Le deuxième chapitre propose le patchwork présent dans Alias Grace comme un modèle de processus de récupération et de fragmentation propre au roman historique (ou ce que Linda Hutcheon nomme « historiographic m

Abstract George Elliott Clarke's 1999 opera Beatrice Chancy is the story of the daughter of a slave owner and a slave in Nova Scotia in 1801. It addresses Canada's ignorance about its history of slavery from 1689-1834. The play shows how love becomes perverted in a society in which bodies can be owned, to the point that the landscape becomes "transfigured by unfulfilled love" (143). Québécité, on the other hand, is an opera about two interracial couples getting married in contemporary Quebec City. It is Clarke's utopia and Beatrice's dream: a world where love is possible across any historical or cultural boundaries. This utopia, informed by Canada's policy of multiculturalism, is problematic, especially in terms of its engagement with Québec's own cultural and historical issues. As performances, however, both plays invite an inclusive community of Canadians to discuss the issues raised, even if they cannot yet be solved. / Précis Beatrice Chancy (1999), l'opéra par George Elliott Clarke, est l'histoire de la fille d'une esclave Noire et de son maître Blanc dans la Nouvelle Ecosse de 1801. Adressant l'ignorance qu'ont plusieurs Canadiens de l'esclavage pratiquée au Canada entre 1689 et 1834, la pièce démontre comment se pervertit l'amour dans une société où un corps peut être une commodité. Québécité (2003), d'autre part, met en scène deux couples de races mixtes qui se marient dans la Ville de Québec contemporaine. L'histoire est également l'utopie de Clarke et le rêve de Beatrice: une monde où l'amour est possible à travers toutes frontières historiques et culturelles. Cette utopie tant informée par l'éthique multi-culturelle Canadienne est très problématique, spécialement mise en vue de son engagement avec la dynamique culturelle et historique du Québec au sein du Canada. À travers leurs manifestations dramatiques, les deux pièces invitent une communauté inclusive de Canadiens à discuter les problèmes abordés, sans exiger leur résolution.

The thesis is a short novel, Adam's Navel, followed by a critical afterword. / The narrator, Sam Meir, a first year medical student at McGill University, recounts the events of the unsuccessful road trip from Montreal to Seattle that he made in the summer before his last year of undergraduate study. Sam attempts the trip with his girlfriend, but his increasing obsession with historical, and mythical figures disrupts their relationship and their travel plans. As the two travel deeper into the middle of America, Sam realizes he cannot leave his family or his past behind him. Thematically, Adam's Navel is a contemplation of the meaning of family, tradition, and the intense sense of gravity that results from an historical awareness. / The critical afterword explores the function of repetition in the transcendental narrative strategies of certain quasi-mythological heroes of the American canon, Huckleberry Finn and Nick Carraway. As is required, Sam's narration is included in the discussion.

Examining the potential for conversation between poets within the glosa, this work responds to the lack of critical treatment of the poetic form by opening up new avenues for consideration. In order to understand the role of conversation within a poem, this thesis parallels the glosa with the concept collaboration, the dramatic monologue, the pas de deux, the elegy and the dedication collection in contemporary Canadian writing. Through comparative analysis with these other forms, this thesis develops new understandings of the way in which lyric subjectivity can be conditioned by poly-vocal poetry. The study culminates in a collection of poems entitled, Songs of the Involuntary Night Choir, which further questions the relationships between poets and their social context, their readers and their peers and predecessors. / En recherchant les possibilités qu'offre l'étude de la conversation entre poètes dans le «glosa», cet ouvrage répond à l'absence de traitement scolaire de la forme poétique en ouvrant de nouvelles avenues théoriques. Afin de comprendre le rôle de la conversation dans un poème, ce mémoire met en parallèle le glosa avec «la collection collaborative», le monologue dramatique, le «pas de deux», l'élégie et la collection de dévouement dans la littérature canadienne contemporaine. Grâce à une analyse comparative avec ces autres formes, ce mémoire développe une nouvelle perspective quant à la manière dont la subjectivité lyrique peut être influencée par la poésie poly-vocale. L'étude aboutit à un recueil de poèmes intitulé «Songs of the Involuntary Night Choir» qui approfondit l'examen des relations entre les poètes et leur contexte social, leurs lecteurs, leurs contemporains et leurs prédécesseurs.

This dissertation focuses on five closely knit writers who, between 1962 and 1981, produced exemplary historiographic poetry that guided their contemporaries. Al Purdy, John Newlove, Barry McKinnon, Andrew Suknaski, and Margaret Atwood were the chief voices of a literary mode that I term "modernist lyric historiography": a meditative modernist lyric that is self-critical, self-consciously incapable of claiming and skeptical about any claim to authority over history, and fundamentally historiographic (in the sense that it synthesizes, discards, and/or critically evaluates fragments of history). Arguably, Purdy was the inaugurator of lyric historiography: in the early 1960s, he experimented with a modernist lyric attentive to a broad vision of Canadian history. Newlove was one of many poets who saw Purdy's lyric historiography as a mode that could be used to provide insight into neglected prairie histories. As part of their search for more intimate connections to history that could sustain longer, narrative poems, McKinnon and Suknaski adapted lyric historiography to explore the familial past. Atwood reimagined lyric historiography as the search for Canadian "foremothers," proto-feminists that could serve as models for the second-wave feminist movement.Addressing the archives, creative writing, and historical contexts of these five writers, this dissertation proposes two primary claims. First, modernism persisted well into the 1970s (and even beyond) and shared with Canadian postmodernism a sophisticated approach to the idea of "history." Second, modernist lyric historiography was a continued investigation into one's ability to claim authority over historical narratives. Many modernists found some measure of such authority by exploring the most intimate connections to the past, which tended to be literal and figurative familial ones. / Cette thèse traite de cinq écrivains, qui, entre 1962 et 1981, ont créé des modèles de poésie historiographique, qui ont guidé leurs contemporains modernistes. Al Purdy, John Newlove, Barry McKinnon, Andrew Suknaski et Margaret Atwood ont été les figures principales d'un mode littéraire que nous appelons «l'historiographie lyrique moderniste». Ce terme désigne une poésie lyrique moderniste et méditative, qui est autocritique, réticente à revendiquer une quelconque autorité sur l'histoire et méfiante de cette autorité lorsqu'elle est invoquée, ainsi que fondamentalement historiographique. Au début des années 1960, Purdy expérimente avec la poésie moderniste sur l'histoire du Canada. Newlove considérait l'historiographie lyrique de Purdy comme une manière d'écrire qui pourrait offrir une nouvelle façon de voir le passé négligé des prairies. McKinnon et Suknaski ont adapté l'historiographie lyrique en examinant le passé de leur famille. Atwood a réinventé l'historiographie lyrique en tant que recherche des «aïeules» canadiennes, des proto-féministes qui pourraient servir de modèle à la deuxième génération de féministes. En tenant compte des archives, de l'écriture et des contextes historiques de ces cinq écrivains, cette thèse propose deux idées principales. Premièrement, nous affirmons que le modernisme a persisté durant l'après-guerre et qu'il partageait avec le postmodernisme canadien une approche sophistiquée et critique de l'histoire. Deuxièmement, nous soutenons que l'historiographie lyrique moderniste consistait en un questionnement persistant sur la capacité de revendiquer une certaine autorité concernant un récit historique. Plusieurs modernistes ont trouvé une certaine autorité en explorant les liens les plus intimes avec le passé, qui avaient tendance à être des liens familiaux littéraux et métaphoriques.

The thesis consists of the first part of a four-part novel and critical afterword. / The Slaughter is an account of Peter Scythes' poetic attempt to accommodate himself in a world he perceives as strange. In this mythological novel, character development takes place where the carnivalesque and the fantastic intersect. / The required critical afterward is in three parts: a summary Mikhail Bakhtin's writings on Rabelais; a consideration of plot ambiguities in the text The Slaughter and Henry James' The Turn of The Screw; and a discussion of how Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and The Slaughter use language, memory and myth-making as essential structural and narrative devices.

A novel, Enfilade simultaneously relates the stories of Alistair Preston, a young soldier in the Canadian army in Belgium during the First World War, and that of his fiancee and family in the Eastern Townships of Southern Quebec. Elspeth, his fiancee, is a school teacher and the Preston family are beef farmers. Told from several different points of view, Enfilade addresses the psychological, cultural and aesthetic implications of the Canadian experience in the Ypres Salient in 1917, and, more generally, in the First World War. Primary among the novel's concerns are the psychological change brought about by the experience of industrialised warfare and the resulting difficulty in regaining a sense of normality and home, both for the combatants themselves and for those to whom they returned, and the enormous gap created between the generation that fought in the war and that of their parents.

In 1969, Dorothy Livesay affirmed that, beginning in the 1930s, the Canadian long poem had evolved into a new genre by following the "experimentations" originally made by John Grierson---father of the British documentary movement and NFB film commissioner---in film ("Documentary Poem" 269). Echoing the well-known Griersonian assertion that documentary film should "interpret Canada to Canadians," Livesay also attached a special nation-building value to the Canadian documentary poem by stating that its methods and conventions "subtly [...] cast light on the landscape, the topography, the flora and the fauna as well as the social structure" of Canada (269). Prompted by Livesay's statements, and by the current lack of scholarship examining the Griersonian heritage of her documentary poetry, this thesis performs a critical examination of the points of continuity between the Griersonian tradition of nationalist filmmaking and the Canadian documentary poem as Livesay defined it. Drawing on key Canadian film policy documents of the modernist era and on close readings of seminal documentary texts by the National Film Board, I trace the ideological maneuvers and narrative practices that the Griersonian documentary traditionally deployed in order to fulfill its mandate of interpreting Canada to Canadians, foregrounding the representational gaps and disturbances underpinning these conventions. I then examine the extent to which these conventions penetrated Livesay's own documentary project, highlight the efforts she made in order to transcend the limitations of her original format. In an effort to chart the aesthetic and political ramifications of this representational struggle, in a concluding section I explore the ongoing reappraisal of the Griersonian documentary tradition in key postmodern documentaries by Livesay and another prominent Canadian documentary poet, Daphne Marlatt.