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The following is excerpted from What 'national pastime' novels say about Canada by Adela Talbot:
That ‘good old hockey game’ is, without a doubt, ingrained in the Canadian identity and landscape. Hockey culture is omnipresent in Canada, prevalent in music, literature and art. The sport is packaged and marketed for mass consumption and, for better or worse, hockey, in a lot of ways, defines our nation.
But is the traditional mythologizing of hockey in Canada a good thing?
Western’s Michael Buma, who recently published Refereeing Identity: The Cultural Work of Canadian Hockey Novels, a book discussing the hockey myth as presented in Canadian literature, doesn’t think so.
Hockey, as a cultural myth, is quintessentially Canadian, explained Buma, who teaches in the English Department and School of Kinesiology.
“In its most basic version, hockey is distinctly Canadian. It says something about us; it has ties to winter and a rugged, pastoral, settler mentality. It’s played traditionally, nostalgically, out on the pond. There’s a spiritual purity to it; it’s ‘Canada’s game.’ And it has a gender component; hockey is a rugged, white man’s game. These are familiar ideas,” he said. “Hockey novels are very, very concerned with playing up this national mythology and with establishing certain icons of Canadian-ness and trying to put forward a national community.”
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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