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Canadian Identity (Steel Rail $14.95)
ROBIN MATHEWS RAISED in Powell River. He believes British Columbians look at the world in a special way, from a very special vantage point. "One, we have the privilege to grow up almost in wilderness," he says, "Two, we have the privilege to be distant from the centres of power, even Canadian power. These combine to give us a kind of innocence.
"And three, the genuine multi-culturalism of British Columbia teaches us at the earliest age that we are just people. It's the most beautiful place in the world!" Having returned to B.C. to teach Canadian Studies at SFU, Mathews has coincidentally published Canadian Identity (Steel Rail $14.95) analysing Canadian perspectives of reality and how these have been shaped.
"The general, agreed-upon reality in North America," he says, "is a middle class reality and it defines the human condition in our time. But it is a narrow, blind view. "My work calls into question the complacency of this reality, and that is why there are those who are disturbed by the reality my work represents."
His earlier controversial book, The Struggle for Canadian Universities, recalls his 15 year struggle to see Canadian universities house and nurture Canadian knowledge by employing more Canadian citizens and studying more Canadian materials.
"Why was the American Huckleberry Finn studied in an English course and not the Canadian Who has Seen The Wind?" he asks, "Studying the narrow selection of great literary works largely from the two empires, Britain and the States, denies examination of our real selves."
Mathews' protectionist beliefs have frequently drawn scorn. Ten years ago the American-born UBC poetry professor Warren Tallman, for example, went so far as to rent the Vancouver East Cultural Centre for an afternoon to defend himself against Mathews' charges and to perform a heated counter-attack on Mathews' anti-Americanism. "I have also been criticized for being a political poet," says Mathews, "Some people say 'Why don't you just leave politics out and write poetry?.' Well, in reality, art and politics are married.
"Every human being exists in a social order of class, religion and race which shapes the perception of one's reality and therefore, the work that one contributes.";You can't write with character if you pretend the reality which gives character does not exist. So I believe a writer shouldn't ignore politics."
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
"And three, the genuine multi-culturalism of British Columbia teaches us at the earliest age that we are just people. It's the most beautiful place in the world!" Having returned to B.C. to teach Canadian Studies at SFU, Mathews has coincidentally published Canadian Identity (Steel Rail $14.95) analysing Canadian perspectives of reality and how these have been shaped.
"The general, agreed-upon reality in North America," he says, "is a middle class reality and it defines the human condition in our time. But it is a narrow, blind view. "My work calls into question the complacency of this reality, and that is why there are those who are disturbed by the reality my work represents."
His earlier controversial book, The Struggle for Canadian Universities, recalls his 15 year struggle to see Canadian universities house and nurture Canadian knowledge by employing more Canadian citizens and studying more Canadian materials.
"Why was the American Huckleberry Finn studied in an English course and not the Canadian Who has Seen The Wind?" he asks, "Studying the narrow selection of great literary works largely from the two empires, Britain and the States, denies examination of our real selves."
Mathews' protectionist beliefs have frequently drawn scorn. Ten years ago the American-born UBC poetry professor Warren Tallman, for example, went so far as to rent the Vancouver East Cultural Centre for an afternoon to defend himself against Mathews' charges and to perform a heated counter-attack on Mathews' anti-Americanism. "I have also been criticized for being a political poet," says Mathews, "Some people say 'Why don't you just leave politics out and write poetry?.' Well, in reality, art and politics are married.
"Every human being exists in a social order of class, religion and race which shapes the perception of one's reality and therefore, the work that one contributes.";You can't write with character if you pretend the reality which gives character does not exist. So I believe a writer shouldn't ignore politics."
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
Submitted on February 5, 2004 in By David.
