ENGL 3503 X2 - Herb Wyile

POETRY OF ATLANTIC CANADA

This course exposes students to a selection of works in a range of poetic forms from the long and rich tradition of poetry in Atlantic Canada. We will sample the Loyalist verse of colonial times, such as the work of Joseph Stansbury and Jonathan Odell. The contribution of Charles G.D. Roberts and Bliss Carman as part of the Confederation group of poets in the late nineteenth century will be examined, as will the writing of mid-twentieth century poets such as E.J. Pratt and Charles Bruce and labour activist poets Joe Wallace and Dawn Fraser. We will explore the flurry of activity in the 1960s and 70s, including the work of Alden Nowlan, Milton Acorn, and Rita Joe. Much of the course will be devoted to considering contemporary poetry in the region, including the work of Harry Thurston, Mary Dalton, Lynn Davies, Brent MacLaine, and George Elliott Clarke. We will explore themes such as colonialism and the politics of race; nature, ecology and the landscape; tourism and constructions of culture in the Maritimes and Newfoundland; history and constructions of the past; class and labour.