This study analyzes the Canadian poet, typographer, and translator Robert Bringhurst’s (b. 1946) extensive engagement with the poetry, poetics and metaphysical concerns of the American modernist poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955). It asserts that Bringhurst’s poetry responds to Stevens’ poetry and poetics to a degree that has not previously been recognized. Although Bringhurst’s mature poetry—his works from the mid-1970s and after—departs from the obvious imitation of the elder poet’s writing that is present in his early poems, it continues to engage some of Stevens’ central concerns, namely the fertility of the liminal moment and/or space and a meditative contemplation of the physical world that frequently challenges anthropocentric narcissism. The dissertation proposes that Bringhurst shares Stevens’ desire to inscribe an authentic encounter between person and place. The first chapters establish the literary basis for the comparison of the poets’ works. The following chapters show how both poets draw on the symbology and metaphors of the Christian concept of the Sacrament in order to describe poetically the nature of the personally renewing experience of place. They examine poems from throughout Stevens’ career, including those that express a more determinedly materialistic vision, and the pervasive use of sacramental terminology in Bringhurst’s polyphonic poetry; such language is integral to Bringhurst’s efforts to describe a transformative experience of encounter with the physical world. The final chapters contend that Stevens’ and Bringhurst’s divergent visions of the ethical responsibility of poetry are shaped by their differing perspectives on the relation between the poem and the sacramental experience inscribed within it. The dissertation makes original contributions to the study of the poetry of both Bringhurst and Stevens. It demonstrates the significance of the inheritances of the Protestant religious tradition to both poets’ bodies of work, and it casts Bringhurst as a profoundly Stevensian author. A study of poetic influence, it attests to the vitality of Stevens and Bringhurst as ecologically oriented writers concerned with the meaning of place in North America. / Graduate / 2018-01-17

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Lack of knowledge about the lived experience of leisure is a result of the distanced, objective way in which it has primarily been studied (Hemingway, 1999), and there is an increased interest in conceptualizing leisure as a dynamic force for social and political change (Shaw, 1994; 2001; Mair, 2002/03; Sharpe, 2008). Constructs such as resistance (Shaw, 2001), critically reflexive leisure (Mair, Sumner & Rotteau, 2008) and pleasure-politics (Sharpe, 2008) illuminate the role and potential of individual and collective leisure in social change. Within a critical constructionist, qualitative research design, this study of witchcamps and magical activism was informed by feminist, queer, and leisure theories. Data were collected through participant-observation at 2 witchcamps, 21 semi-structured intensive interviews, 11 focused interviews, and 19 elicited electronic text submissions. This research reflects the emerging trend within leisure studies of using qualitative approaches and reflexivity to look at our own leisure (Axelsen, 2009; Collinson, 2007; Havitz, 2007; Lashua & Fox 2006; MacKellar, 2009; McCarville, 2007; Parry & Johnson, 2007; Rowe, 2006; Samdahl, 2008). As a member of the witchcamp community under study, the research was carried out in the researcher’s own community ‘backyard’ (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992), and as insider research, it provides a detailed description of alternative culture from the viewpoint of a professional researcher and personal insider. Data analysis followed a constant-comparative method, and employed memo writing, thematic, and focused coding. The study provides insight into the intersection of leisure, ecospirituality, community, and social change. Setting, activities, beliefs, and community intersect to function as a container for personal and social transformation, and provide an ‘antidote’ to alienation and isolation experienced by individuals in the dominant culture. The study provides empirical evidence of the centrality of leisure to community responsibility for broader social, political and environmental concerns, as theorized by Arai and Pedlar (2003). This research furthers the perspective that community is multidimensional, and has the potential to unify marginalized groups (Arai & Pedlar, 2003). The findings of this study also reflect Mair’s (2006) conceptualization of community as one that provides a space for celebration of diversity.

Lack of knowledge about the lived experience of leisure is a result of the distanced, objective way in which it has primarily been studied (Hemingway, 1999), and there is an increased interest in conceptualizing leisure as a dynamic force for social and political change (Shaw, 1994; 2001; Mair, 2002/03; Sharpe, 2008). Constructs such as resistance (Shaw, 2001), critically reflexive leisure (Mair, Sumner & Rotteau, 2008) and pleasure-politics (Sharpe, 2008) illuminate the role and potential of individual and collective leisure in social change. Within a critical constructionist, qualitative research design, this study of witchcamps and magical activism was informed by feminist, queer, and leisure theories. Data were collected through participant-observation at 2 witchcamps, 21 semi-structured intensive interviews, 11 focused interviews, and 19 elicited electronic text submissions. This research reflects the emerging trend within leisure studies of using qualitative approaches and reflexivity to look at our own leisure (Axelsen, 2009; Collinson, 2007; Havitz, 2007; Lashua & Fox 2006; MacKellar, 2009; McCarville, 2007; Parry & Johnson, 2007; Rowe, 2006; Samdahl, 2008). As a member of the witchcamp community under study, the research was carried out in the researcher’s own community ‘backyard’ (Glesne & Peshkin, 1992), and as insider research, it provides a detailed description of alternative culture from the viewpoint of a professional researcher and personal insider. Data analysis followed a constant-comparative method, and employed memo writing, thematic, and focused coding. The study provides insight into the intersection of leisure, ecospirituality, community, and social change. Setting, activities, beliefs, and community intersect to function as a container for personal and social transformation, and provide an ‘antidote’ to alienation and isolation experienced by individuals in the dominant culture. The study provides empirical evidence of the centrality of leisure to community responsibility for broader social, political and environmental concerns, as theorized by Arai and Pedlar (2003). This research furthers the perspective that community is multidimensional, and has the potential to unify marginalized groups (Arai & Pedlar, 2003). The findings of this study also reflect Mair’s (2006) conceptualization of community as one that provides a space for celebration of diversity.

A significant and growing number of authors and commentators have proposed that ecologically enlightened (‘greened’) religion is the solution or at least a major part of the solution to the global ecological crisis. These include Birch, 1965 p90; Brindle, 2000; Callicott, 1994; Gardner, 2002, 2003, 2006; Gore Jr., 1992; Gottlieb, 2006, 2007; Hallman, 2000; Hamilton, 2006b, a, 2007b; Hessel & Ruether, 2000b; Hitchcock, 1999; King, 2002; Lerner, 2006a; McDonagh, 1987; McFague, 2001; McKenzie, 2005; Nasr, 1996; Oelschlaeger, 1994; Palmer, 1992; Randers, 1972; Tucker & Grim, 2000; and White Jr., 1967. Proponents offer a variety of reasons for this view, including that the majority of the world’s and many nations’ people identify themselves as religious, and that there is a large amount of land and infrastructure controlled by religious organisations worldwide. However, the most important reason is that ‘religion’ is said to have one or more exceptional qualities that can drive and sustain dramatic personal and societal change. The underlying or sometimes overt suggestion is that as the ecological crisis is ultimately a moral crisis, religion is best placed to address the problem at its root. ¶ Proponents of the above views are often religious, though there are many who are not. Many proponents are from the USA and write in the context of the powerful role of religion in that country. Others write in a global context. Very few write from or about the Australian context where the role of religion in society is variously argued to be virtually non-existent, soon to be non-existent, or conversely, profound but covert. ¶ This thesis tests the proposition that religion is the solution to the ecological crisis. It does this using a case study of mainstream religion in Australia, represented by the Catholic, Anglican, and Uniting Churches. The Churches’ ecological policies and practices are analysed to determine the extent to which these denominations are fulfilling, or might be able to fulfil, the proposition. The primary research method is an Internet-based search for policy and praxis material. The methodology is Critical Human Ecology. ¶ The research finds that: the ‘greening’ of these denominations is evident; it is a recent phenomenon in the older Churches; there is a growing wealth of environmentalist sentiment and ecological policy being produced; but little institutional praxis has occurred. Despite the often-strong rhetoric, there is no evidence to suggest that ecological concerns, even linked to broader social concerns (termed ‘ecojustice’) are ‘core business’ for the Churches as institutions. Conventional institutional and anthropocentric welfare concerns remain dominant. ¶ Overall, the three Churches struggle with organisational, demographic, and cultural problems that impede their ability to convert their official ecological concerns into institutional praxis. Despite these problems, there are some outstanding examples of ecological policy and praxis in institutional and non-institutional forms that at least match those seen in mainstream secular society. ¶ I conclude that in Australia, mainstream religion is a limited part of the solution to the ecological crisis. It is not the solution to the crisis, at least not in its present institutional form. Institutional Christianity is in decline in Australia and is being replaced by non-institutional Christianity, other religions and non-religious spiritualities (Tacey, 2000, 2003; Bouma, 2006; Tacey, 2007). The ecological crisis is a moral crisis, but in Australia, morality is increasingly outside the domain of institutional religion. The growth of the non-institutional religious and the ‘spiritual but not religious’ demographic may, if ecologically informed, offer more of a contribution to addressing the ecological crisis in future. This may occur in combination with some of the more progressive movements seen at the periphery of institutional Christianity such as the ‘eco-ministry’ of Rev. Dr. Jason John in Adelaide, and the ‘Creation Spirituality’ taught, advocated and practiced by the Mercy Sisters’ Earth Link project in Queensland.