A few acres of snow : literary and artisic images of Canada : Conference on "Literary and artistic images of Canadian landscapes" : Revised selected papers

In 1759, Voltaire in Candide referred to Canada as "quelques arpents de neige." For several centuries, the image prevailed and was the one most frequently used by poets, writers, and illustrators. Canada was perceived and portrayed as a cold, hard, and unforgiving land. this was not a land for the fainthearted. Canada has yieled its wealth only reluctantly, while periodically threatening life itself with its displays of fury. Discovering its beauty and hidden resources requires patience and perseverance. A Few Acres of Snow is a colletion of twenty-two essays that explore, from the geographer's perspective, how poets, artists, and writers have addressed the physical essence of Canada, both landscape and cityscape. "Sense of place" is clearly critical in the works examined in this volume. Included among the book's many subjects are Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, Lucius O'Brien, the art of the Inuit, Lawren Harris, Malcolm Lowry, C.W. Jefferys, L.M. Montgomery, Elizabeth Bishop, Marmaduke Matthews, Antonine Mailet, and the poetry of Japanese Canadians. Contents......Page 8 Contributors......Page 10 List of Illustrations......Page 12 Acknowledgments......Page 14 1 No Vacant Eden......Page 16 2 Hugh MacLennan: Literary Geographer of a Nation......Page 31 3 "The Kindling Touch of Imagination": Charles William Jefferys and Canadian Identity......Page 43 4 Theory in Literary Geography: The Poetry of Charles Mair......Page 63 5 Moral Frames for Landscape in Canadian Literature......Page 73 6 In a Hard Land: The Geographical Context of Canadian Industrial Landscape Painting......Page 86 7 Human Encroachments on a Domineering Physical Landscape......Page 101 8 The North and Native Symbols: Landscape as Universe......Page 114 9 The Forest Landscape in Maritime Canadian and Swedish Literature: A Comparative Analysis......Page 124 10 Elizabeth Bishop from Nova Scotia: "Half Nova Scotian, Half New Englander, Wholly Atlantic"......Page 137 11 Ways of Seeing, Ways of Being: Literature, Place, and Tourism in L.M. Montgomery's Prince Edward Island......Page 152 12 La Mer, La Patrie: Pointe-aux-Coques by Antonine Maillet......Page 163 13 Picturing the Picturesque: Lucius O'Brien's Sunrise on the Saguenay......Page 173 14 Revisioning the Roman Catholic Environment: Geographical Attitudes in Gabrielle Roy's The Cashier......Page 186 15 Monumental Buildings: Perspectives by Two Montreal Painters......Page 195 16 Augurs of "Gentrification": City Houses of Four Canadian Painters......Page 204 17 Drawing Earth; Or Representing Region Niagara: An Approach to Public Geography......Page 218 18 The Manitoba Landscape of Martha Ostenso's Wild Geese......Page 232 19 Deriving Geographical Information from the Novels of Frederick Philip Grove......Page 240 20 "Cloud-Bound": The Western Landscapes of Marmaduke Matthews......Page 250 21 Structured Feeling: Japanese Canadian Poetry and Landscape......Page 258 22 A Loving Nature: Malcolm Lowry in British Columbia......Page 273 C......Page 286 G......Page 287 J......Page 288 M......Page 289 P......Page 290 S......Page 291 Z......Page 292 "In 1759, Voltaire in Candide referred to Canada as "quelques arpents de neige." For several centuries, the image prevailed and was the one most frequently used by poets, writers, and illustrators. Canada was perceived and portrayed as a cold, hard, and unforgiving land. this was not a land for the fainthearted. Canada has yieled its wealth only reluctantly, while periodically threatening life itself with its displays of fury. Discovering its beauty and hidden resources requires patience and perseverance. A Few Acres of Snow is a colletion of twenty-two essays that explore, from the geographer's perspective, how poets, artists, and writers have addressed the physical essence of Canada, both landscape and cityscape. "Sense of place" is clearly critical in the works examined in this volume. Included among the book's many subjects are Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, Lucius O'Brien, the art of the Inuit, Lawren Harris, Malcolm Lowry, C.W. Jefferys, L.M. Montgomery, Elizabeth Bishop, Marmaduke Matthews, Antonine Mailet, and the poetry of Japanese Canadians."--Back cover These 22 essays explore how poets, artists, and writers have addressed the physical essence of Canada