James Reaney on the Grid
James Reaney on the Grid

Author: Stan Dragland

Publisher: The Porcupine's Quill

Published: 2023-04-30

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 0889844526

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‘Set up a trellis for flowering plants to climb all over: it’s there but unseen, supporting all that floral leaf-green beauty.’ In James Reaney on the Grid, Stan Dragland examines an artist fiercely loyal to his artistic practice, deploying the metaphor of the grid to explore the inherited literary patterns and archetypes underpinning works of London poet, playwright and educator James Reaney. With extensive references to Reaney’s considerable oeuvre (from early publications such as A Suit of Nettles and The Box Social to what is arguably his master work, The Donnellys), and to an eclectic collection of theorists, artists and contemporaries whose ideas inform and respond to Reaney’s, Dragland seeks to reveal not only what Reaney’s work is about but also what it does. In so doing, he takes readers by the hand in a surprisingly personal ramble through the processes and productions of one of Southern Ontario’s most influential writers.

The Emblems of James Reaney
The Emblems of James Reaney

Author: Thomas Gerry

Publisher: The Porcupine's Quill

Published: 2013-03-11

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1180134265

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The literary emblem can trace its roots back to sixteenth-century English collections, which sought to reconcile classical philosophy with Christian doctrine. Consisting of images and verses, emblems challenged readers to use their wit and knowledge to deduce the connection between the visual and the textual. In The Emblems of James Reaney, former Reaney student and professor Thomas Gerry draws on his own considerable wit and knowledge to help readers understand the myth, mystery and meaning behind ten literary emblems, published in 1972 as ‘Two Chapters from an Emblem Book’ by poet, playwright and painter James Reaney. Gerry conducts an exhaustive investigation of the ‘magnetic arrangement’ that links each emblem with some of Reaney’s best-known fiction, poetry, drama and painting. His detailed analysis of the visual and verbal aspects of each emblem draws on alchemy, biblical mythology and Haitian voodoo. By referring to the influence and inspiration that Reaney drew from William Blake, Edmund Spenser, Northrop Frye and Carl Jung, Gerry reveals the overall cycle of meaning behind the emblems and shows how Reaney marries the opposing concepts of art and experience into a unified artistic vision. The Emblems of James Reaney presents a fascinating organizational scheme within which to study some of Reaney’s most beloved works, encouraging readers to frolic in the playbox of Reaney’s imagination and to revisit his work – and Canadian literature – with new eyes.

New Contexts of Canadian Criticism
New Contexts of Canadian Criticism

Author: Ajay Heble

Publisher: Broadview Press

Published: 1997-04-18

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9781551111063

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Times change, lives change, and the terms we need to describe our literature or society or condition—what Raymond Williams calls “keywords”—change with them. Perhaps the most significant development in the quarter-century since Eli Mandel edited his anthology Contexts of Canadian Criticism has been the growing recognition that not only do different people need different terms, but the same terms have different meanings for different people and in different contexts. Nation, history, culture, art, identity—the positions we take discussing these and other issues can lead to conflict, but also hold the promise of a new sort of community. Speaking of First Nations people and their literature, Beth Brant observes that “Our connections … are like the threads of a weaving. … While the colour and beauty of each thread is unique and important, together they make a communal material of strength and durability.” New Contexts of Canadian Criticism is designed to be read, to work, in much the same manner.

James Reaney
James Reaney

Author: James Stewart Reaney

Publisher: Agincourt, Ont. : Gage Educational Pub.

Published: 1977

Total Pages: 128

ISBN-13:

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This volume is a carefully delineated study of the plays of James Reaney, written by his son, James Stewart Reaney, who is very familiar with the plays and the characters as he literally grew up with them. This young writer treats his father's work with an objectivity and clarity surprising in one who has been so intimately and closely associated with them since childhood. The author presents a short biographical sketch of his father - the man and the playwright - followed by an analysis of his plays.

An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English
An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English

Author: Russell Brown

Publisher: Oxford University Press Canada

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 788

ISBN-13: 9780195407853

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This is the first annotated anthology of Canadian poetry and prose, from the eighteenth century to the present. Volume I contains the work of 40 writers. Some 200 pages are devoted to poetry and 350 pages to prose, which includes not only short fiction but five autobiographical pieces, eight essays of literary criticism, and a play. There are many cross-connections - in related subject matter, in the criticism and memoirs that reflect on other selections - so that the anthology offers a firm context for the study not only of individual writers but of the literary culture of Canada. With introductions to the writers and their works, and annotations.

The Rise of the Canadian Newspaper
The Rise of the Canadian Newspaper

Author: George Fetherling

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13:

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This lively, readable survey describes how Canadian newspapers were born as a tool of government, gradually became a tool of various political parties, and freed themselves only after their popularity had been surpassed by television and other media. A valuable account of social history, this book traces the rise of Canadian newspapers from the Colonial Reform Press and their crucial political role through the western expansion and development of professional staff and reporters to the birth of independent papers.

Souwesto Home
Souwesto Home

Author: James Reaney

Publisher: London, Ont. : Brick Books

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13:

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The poems in Souwesto Home are fresh, youthful meditations on such diverse subjects as the Little Lakes near Stratford, Ontario, the flora of Elgin County, the Donnelly feud, lichens, a Department Store Jesus, and so on. The collection ranges widely in tone and technique, from the lyrical to the satirical, from the direct and straightforward to the linguistically playful. As ever, Reaney's signature voice, his inimitable combination of sophistication and child-like simplicity, may be heard in every line. Like his contemporaries, P.K. Page, Margaret Avison and Colleen Thibaudeau (his wife), he has lost nothing of his poetic prowess to advancing years