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Canadian Nationalist Par Excellence
"I'm not saying Robin Mathews is yet nearly as good as he's going to be. But he's so far ahead of the ruck, right now, that if he wanted to look back at them, he'd have to use binoculars." -- Milton Acorn
Language of Fire (Introduction)
"Were Mathews a Quebecois writer who advocated the independence of Quebec, rather than a Canadian patriot who advocates the independence of Canada, he would be a cultural hero in his community, if not a cabinet minister."
Larry McDonald
Our Schools, Our Selves (September 1995)
Robin Mathews is, probably, the finest living political poet in Canada. Few can match his demanding metaphors, razor like insights, incisive probes into the nature of Canadian nationalism and the fate of most colonized Canadians.
Mathews was born in Smithers/BC in 931, and spent his early years in Powell River/BC. It was just matter of time before university would beckon him, and he attended UBC in the 1950s. He studied English Literature when at UBC, and encountered many of the worthies of the day while there: Earle Birney, Roy Daniells and others. This was a period of time when there was a much questioning amongst Canadians about their literary heritage.
Why was it that English and American Literature were studied at Canadian universities, but Canadian Literature was marginalized, ignored and rarely brought to front stage? Few are the states that would allow their literary, educational and political traditions to be co-opted by other states. Mathews was more than alert to the obvious problem, and it was time and training that was soon to converge to draw Mathews to the forefront of the Canadian nationalist debate of the 1960s.
Mathews taught at University of Alberta in the early-mid 1960s with Eli Mandel after doing an MA in the USA and beginning a PH.D. at the University of Toronto. He had studied with Northrop Frye when he was at University of Toronto in the late 1950s, and, unlike Margaret Atwood, he dared to differ with the reigning monarch of the Canadian literary establishment at the time. It is somewhat ironic that when Frye gave the Massey Lectures in 1963, The Educated Imagination, on the role of Literature, he never mentioned Canadian Literature. Mathews could not help but detect this obvious omission. Mathews the poet and literary critic, political activist and educator was internalizing much that would soon challenge Canadians in the True North to retake their history and way of being against the empire to the south.
Mathews' earliest books of poetry were published when he was in Edmonton: The Plink Savoir (1962), Plus Ca Change (1964) and This Time, This Place (1965) made it abundantly clear that Canada had a political poet on the stage that would not be silent on the tough issues that silenced many a docile, passive and compliant Canadian. The Mathews family left Canada in 1966, and Mathews taught at Leeds in England from 1966-1967. The family was also Paris when the strike took place that paralysed the nation in May 1968. Mathews collected most of the posters that were in Paris supporting the strike against De Gaulle, and the collection is now at SFU and is called the 'Esther and Robin Mathews Paris Poster Collection'.
Mathews compelling nationalism burst forth in fuller force in 1969 with the publication of The Struggle for Canadian Universities (James Steele was the co-editor). Why were Canadians sidelined at Canadian universities from being hired and Americans and English given priority? Mathews/Steele sought to correct this obvious wrong, and did so midst much controversy. This Cold Fist (1969) was also published at this engaging season of Mathews' life. Mathews was, increasingly so, a force to be reckoned with on the Canadian literary, cultural and educational stage-- he had now found a home at Carleton University in Ottawa, and it was from such a place he would go after the power elite in Canada.
When Margaret Atwood published Survival in 1972, Mathews could not be silent. He took Atwood to task for her reductionistic and simplistic read of the Canadian literary heritage. Atwood reacted in haste to Mathews. 'Mathews and Misrepresentation' remains to this day Atwood's classic response to Mathews just as Mathews' Canadian Literature: Surrender of Revolution (1978) is Mathews at his animated and moderate best, responding
to Atwood.
Air 7 (1972), Geography of Revolution (1975), Language of Fire: Poems of Love and Struggle (1976) and The Beginning of Wisdom (1978) made it obvious that Mathews was a political poet that had depth and sensitivity, a cold fist, a challenging head and a tender heart. Acorn did not often laud other poets, but he wrote the 'Foreward' to Language of Fire--- he suggested, in his graphic and not to be forgotten way, that Mathews would need to use binoculars if he ever hoped to see those of comparable poetic worth and stature in Canada.
Mathews was never far from the fray, and in 1985 things heated up yet once again. Mathews had rather innocently planned on doing a Carleton-SFU exchange teaching load for a year. The English department at SFU voted against have Mathews in their midst. Margaret Atwood, Pauline Jewett, David Suzuki, Ed Broadbent and many others came to Mathews' defence.
Letters, like well aimed and timed arrows, flew with much precision to both oppose and stand by Mathews side in the battle. SFU relented and Mathews was offered a position in Canadian Studies.
Mathews retired from SFU in the 1990s, but he is still active, writing literary criticism, poetry, ever engaged in the larger political and economic questions and a regular contributor to the Canadian nationalist website, Vivelecanada.
There is no doubt that Mathews is a distinctive Canadian icon and legend, and. without doubt, he is one of the finest Canadian nationalists par excellence.
Ron Dart
[Ron Dart has taught in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, Religious Studies at University of the Fraser Valley since 1990. Ron has published more than twenty books, and his book on Robin Mathews, Robin Mathews: Crown Prince of Canadian Political Poets (2002) is a primer on Mathews' life, poetry and politics.]
Language of Fire (Introduction)
"Were Mathews a Quebecois writer who advocated the independence of Quebec, rather than a Canadian patriot who advocates the independence of Canada, he would be a cultural hero in his community, if not a cabinet minister."
Larry McDonald
Our Schools, Our Selves (September 1995)
Robin Mathews is, probably, the finest living political poet in Canada. Few can match his demanding metaphors, razor like insights, incisive probes into the nature of Canadian nationalism and the fate of most colonized Canadians.
Mathews was born in Smithers/BC in 931, and spent his early years in Powell River/BC. It was just matter of time before university would beckon him, and he attended UBC in the 1950s. He studied English Literature when at UBC, and encountered many of the worthies of the day while there: Earle Birney, Roy Daniells and others. This was a period of time when there was a much questioning amongst Canadians about their literary heritage.
Why was it that English and American Literature were studied at Canadian universities, but Canadian Literature was marginalized, ignored and rarely brought to front stage? Few are the states that would allow their literary, educational and political traditions to be co-opted by other states. Mathews was more than alert to the obvious problem, and it was time and training that was soon to converge to draw Mathews to the forefront of the Canadian nationalist debate of the 1960s.
Mathews taught at University of Alberta in the early-mid 1960s with Eli Mandel after doing an MA in the USA and beginning a PH.D. at the University of Toronto. He had studied with Northrop Frye when he was at University of Toronto in the late 1950s, and, unlike Margaret Atwood, he dared to differ with the reigning monarch of the Canadian literary establishment at the time. It is somewhat ironic that when Frye gave the Massey Lectures in 1963, The Educated Imagination, on the role of Literature, he never mentioned Canadian Literature. Mathews could not help but detect this obvious omission. Mathews the poet and literary critic, political activist and educator was internalizing much that would soon challenge Canadians in the True North to retake their history and way of being against the empire to the south.
Mathews' earliest books of poetry were published when he was in Edmonton: The Plink Savoir (1962), Plus Ca Change (1964) and This Time, This Place (1965) made it abundantly clear that Canada had a political poet on the stage that would not be silent on the tough issues that silenced many a docile, passive and compliant Canadian. The Mathews family left Canada in 1966, and Mathews taught at Leeds in England from 1966-1967. The family was also Paris when the strike took place that paralysed the nation in May 1968. Mathews collected most of the posters that were in Paris supporting the strike against De Gaulle, and the collection is now at SFU and is called the 'Esther and Robin Mathews Paris Poster Collection'.
Mathews compelling nationalism burst forth in fuller force in 1969 with the publication of The Struggle for Canadian Universities (James Steele was the co-editor). Why were Canadians sidelined at Canadian universities from being hired and Americans and English given priority? Mathews/Steele sought to correct this obvious wrong, and did so midst much controversy. This Cold Fist (1969) was also published at this engaging season of Mathews' life. Mathews was, increasingly so, a force to be reckoned with on the Canadian literary, cultural and educational stage-- he had now found a home at Carleton University in Ottawa, and it was from such a place he would go after the power elite in Canada.
When Margaret Atwood published Survival in 1972, Mathews could not be silent. He took Atwood to task for her reductionistic and simplistic read of the Canadian literary heritage. Atwood reacted in haste to Mathews. 'Mathews and Misrepresentation' remains to this day Atwood's classic response to Mathews just as Mathews' Canadian Literature: Surrender of Revolution (1978) is Mathews at his animated and moderate best, responding
to Atwood.
Air 7 (1972), Geography of Revolution (1975), Language of Fire: Poems of Love and Struggle (1976) and The Beginning of Wisdom (1978) made it obvious that Mathews was a political poet that had depth and sensitivity, a cold fist, a challenging head and a tender heart. Acorn did not often laud other poets, but he wrote the 'Foreward' to Language of Fire--- he suggested, in his graphic and not to be forgotten way, that Mathews would need to use binoculars if he ever hoped to see those of comparable poetic worth and stature in Canada.
Mathews was never far from the fray, and in 1985 things heated up yet once again. Mathews had rather innocently planned on doing a Carleton-SFU exchange teaching load for a year. The English department at SFU voted against have Mathews in their midst. Margaret Atwood, Pauline Jewett, David Suzuki, Ed Broadbent and many others came to Mathews' defence.
Letters, like well aimed and timed arrows, flew with much precision to both oppose and stand by Mathews side in the battle. SFU relented and Mathews was offered a position in Canadian Studies.
Mathews retired from SFU in the 1990s, but he is still active, writing literary criticism, poetry, ever engaged in the larger political and economic questions and a regular contributor to the Canadian nationalist website, Vivelecanada.
There is no doubt that Mathews is a distinctive Canadian icon and legend, and. without doubt, he is one of the finest Canadian nationalists par excellence.
Ron Dart
[Ron Dart has taught in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, Religious Studies at University of the Fraser Valley since 1990. Ron has published more than twenty books, and his book on Robin Mathews, Robin Mathews: Crown Prince of Canadian Political Poets (2002) is a primer on Mathews' life, poetry and politics.]
Submitted on September 15, 2009 in By David.
