Vancouver: Representing the Postmodern City

Norman Ravvin’s novel Café des Westens won the Alberta Culture New
Fiction Award.

This wide-ranging collection places Vancouver at the centre of
contemporary discussions concerning architecture, visual art,
literature, TV, and film. In a provocative introductory essay, the
editor explains why Vancouver can “claim a place ... in the urban
vanguard,” as well as how its cultural production can be seen to
include exemplary postmodern artifacts. Delany offers a thoughtful
consideration of what postmodernism has come to mean for a range of
artists, writers, and theorists, and he is perceptive about the role of
ethnicity, landscape, regionalism, and economics in driving
Vancouver’s recent dynamism.

Among the standout articles are Alberto Pérez-Gуmez’s introduction
to the work of Vancouver-based architect Richard Henriquez, and George
Bowering’s “Vancouver as Postmodern Poetry.” Both writers take a
personal and irreverent approach to the commonplace definitions of
postmodernity, and both are careful to set their theoretical arguments
in the context of thick historical description. Other essays in the
collection include Jeff Derksen’s “New Vancouver Writing,” Roger
Seamon’s analysis of Jeff Wall’s art, and Bruce Serafin’s portrait
of Commercial Drive, Vancouver’s stomping-ground for aging laborers,
pumped-up painters, and rebellious politicos of varying stripes. Taken
as a whole, this book offers a fascinating portrait of a city made up of
a great deal more than meets the eye.