Canadian Cultural Poesis: Essays on Canadian Culture

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

The editors have solid credentials: Garry Sherbert is an associate
professor of English at the University of Regina, Annie Gérin is an
assistant professor of art history and art theory at the University of
Ottawa, and Sheila Petty is dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts and a
professor of media studies at the University of Regina.

In this book they pose the question, How do we make culture and how
does culture make us? Revolving around the notion of culture as social
identity, the essays that make up the collection address gender,
technology, cultural ethnicity, and regionalism, among other topics. The
contributors represent a broad range of disciplines.

The book is divided into four parts. Part 1, “Media and Its
(Dis)Contents,” examines the capacity of various media to influence
the content of “imagined communities” in both positive and negative
ways. Part 2, “Performing and Disrupting Identities,” investigates
the ways in which individual and national identities are socially
constructed. Part 3, “(Dis)Locating Language,” explores language
issues through essays such as Gérin’s “Public Art and Linguistic
Identity in Quebec.” Part 4, “Cultural Dissidence,” focuses on
political conflicts like the one documented in Eric Sherbert’s
outstanding contribution, “Culture and an Aboriginal Charter of
Rights.”

Canadian Cultural Poesis is a must-have for anyone interested in
cultural studies in general and Canadian culture in particular.