Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
English452lQ0l
DougBeardsleY
19August2003
. Haven
FreeingAl Purdy: FromNationalistCell to Postmodern
6 o.
o./] {h*O Silverberg,in '"TheCan(adi)onization
of Al Purdy,"arguesthatPurdywasusedby a
"native"(228),,
personae-thatbeing,a backwoods, un-American, man-critics
working-class
in the SeSa"d
andanthologists ,d'(and beyond)provideda very limited senseof the manto
and
thereadingpublic. He thinksPurdyis actuallyfar more"paradoxical,"problematical,
V,' (231)thanwe havebeenleadto expect.Purdy,apparently,wasnot only more
yrt_$$"Ohisticared"
interestingbut more postmodernthan we have been lead to expect,too, and Silverberg off-ersus
t'bb
.f
textualanalysesof selectpoemsin part to suggestjust how awarePurdy was of the socially
worthyof
recoverqualities"at theheartof Purdy'swork" (245)but to establishPurdyassomeone
postmodern
sophisticated attentions.
asprimarilyinterestedin
wantedhim to be understood
selectivelyso: sinceanthologists/critics
narratives,andin
in "garrison/survival"
crafting"sketches"of "suitablynativelandscape[s],
(230),only poemswhichbestdeveloped
/. maintainingthe "continuityof thepresentandthepast"
\a"- ,,, upon.
jdpt',tr"r" subjectsandthemeswerewidely circulatedandcommented
;r,.
Silverberg believes that the anthologists/critics desire to "pigeon-hole" Purdy as an
(.2\.-\.*J
"authentic[. . .] Canadian"(230) hasmeantthat we havebeenoffered a very skewedandJi{aitetL
andmimetic,"
poemsareinvariablydocumentary
senseof thepoet. Becausethe "anthologized
andmoretechnically
Purdy's"fine experimental
Silverbergarguesthatwe rarelyencounter
his poemsdedicated
wantedto link him to his Canadianpoeticpredecessors,
anthologists/critics
(23r).rnshort, havebeenleft
thatreaders
of moreparochial
subjects" perbere believes
Sff*i
andcosmopolitanism.
largelyunawareof thefull extentof Purdy'ssophistication
&\
\ \
Silverberg'sinterestin theeffectsof nationalistideologyon the circulationof Purdy's
poetry suggeststhe influenceof New Historicist analysison his thought. The influenceof other
critical approachesupon his criticism is apparentin his "recovery" of the complex natureof a
unanthologizedpoem, "On RealizingHe Has Written SomeBad Poems." The "Song of the
(237). He alsodoesan analysisof "On Realizing" in which he likens Purdy to the still fashionable
like an alert studentof deconstruction,was well awareof how "languagewill alwayshaveits way
not of nationalistliterary
sortin thesedaysof thehegemonicsupremacy,
entirelydisrespectable
establishes
(239)portrayalof Purdyin his essay,but sincethis effort so cleanly,so suspiciously,
of Purdy'sencounter
Purdyasa writer of "survival"(241)poetry,yet his own characterization
(andseemingly
Ire's studyof Purdy's"pollphony" (U7), he still endshis essaycharacterizing
(247).
Purdyasa manawareof his own "bumbling[. . .] failuresandtreacheries"
sumrnarizing)
of Purdycloselyechoesthatof othercriticssuchasRosemarySullivan(who
This assessment
such
gaze"wasof "ironic-deflation"[143]) andanthologists
believesthatPurdy's"quintessential
(750 words)
Works Cited
: 226-51.
,tr
2"'o'
go