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The following is excerpted from the SLA review of Refereeing Identity:
The central premise of Refereeing Identity is that hockey novels participate in the myth building around Canadian identity. Buma focuses specifically on hockey novels' representation of nation and gender, paying particular attention "to the cultural work of hockey novels, the ways in which fictive representations of the game work to rehearse and/or referee certain identities and derive their significations within larger networks of cultural meaning" (5). Some key myths, which Buma describes (and deconstructs), are: unity through hockey, hockey as extension of Canadian landscape, and hockey's proposed antagonism between small towns and big cities as well as between Canadian and American nations.
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In the most energetic chapter, Buma considers the homosocial dressing room; his criticism of hockey literature's treatment of sexuality is, for me, the highlight of the book. Buma's discussion of the exclusion of women and gay men in representations of hockey is fascinating and his analysis astute. He argues that "by validating hockey homophobia in the minds of readers and reinforcing this harmful status quo through coercive repetition, hockey novels help to maintain a culture that is harmful to developing identities of gay youth and which undoubtedly ends up deterring young people such as [Brendan] Burke from playing the game" (220). Buma uses David Bidini'sFive Hole Stories as an unusual and exemplary piece of hockey literature that allows for homosexuality to coexist with hockey. He argues that Bidini "challenges the sexual strictures of hockey culture" by having the goaltender fantasize about his teammate (220) and thus allows for the inclusion of homosexuality within the definition of masculinity (a project that is so central to much of hockey literature). Again, Buma's arguments inspire me as a teacher, and I have already added Bidini's Five Hole Stories to my sport literature class this fall.
Congratulations (and thank-you) to Michael Buma for this comprehensive, readable, enthusiastic, and provoking consideration of hockey literature and Canadian identity.
Or read an excerpt from Refereeing Identity
To learn more about Refereeing Identity, or to order online, click here.
To arrange an interview with the author, contact MQUP Publicist Jacqui Davis.
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