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The following is excerpted from Canadian Literature's review of Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels by Michael Buma.
Michael Buma’s fine Refereeing Identity is the only one of these three recent hockey books to focus on literature. Buma’s own shorthand rendering of the book’s broader argument is:
[Canadian hockey] novels . . . typically work in the service of homogenizing nationalism and traditional masculinity.If that sounds both grandiosely programmatic and simplistic—as if novelists worry more about national unity than language or plot—Buma builds a solid case in showing how, collectively, hockey fiction often does tend to champion a Don Cherryesque image of Canada.The freshest part of Refereeing Identity explores masculinity. Yes, there is intelligent discussion of the usual hockey fights and
ol’ time hockeyhere, but even more captivating are the fuzzy on-ice cases Buma highlights. He insightfully points out where, and how, violence, traditional masculinity, and gender issues converge. Among the boys, he quotes Mark Jarman’sSalvage King, Ya!. Bleeding and in need of help, the rough-and-tumble Drinkwater is nevertheless choosy about the first aid product:A tampon? You put a tampon on my face?Sure,replies the referee,they're efficient at soaking up blood.Among the girls, there’s Hal in Cara Hedley’s Twenty Miles, who grew up playing contact hockey with boys. At her first university women’s team try-out, she forgets the no-contact rule and coolly bodychecks a future teammate. The victim recovers and declaresI was just laid out by a fucking Barbie doll.At such moments, traditionalmasculine toughness is interrupted or diminished by the intrusion of unexpected items or thoughts associated with femininity.
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