Allan Smith

Metaphor and Nationality in North America

perience in a way that will provide a rationale for its continued existence. Lacking such a rationale and the mental picture of itself which that rationale helps to provide, no society can stay together. Language thus becomes an instrument o be employed in the fashioning of a nationalist ideology which itself becomes a tool designed for a particular purpose, the integrating of the human elements in a given geographical rea into a coherent, self-conscious whole. In the course of fulfilling that purpose, nationalist ideology, like ideologies generally, often does violence to truth and masks reality. xYet rhetoric of this sort, however much it deals in distortion, may still reflect something fundamental in the character of the society to whose mystique it attempts to give expression. Often it does this inadvertently by revealing a certain character trait in the act of focussing on something quite different. Thus the nationalist, in talking about his nations accomplishments, may reveal. pride, superiority, or arrogance. In dilating upon his countrys prospects for the future, he may reveal optimism, excessive s lf-confidence, or a will to power. In this way he may, in spite of himself, make an unintended gesture in the direction of reality. Less inflated rhetoric may make this same gesture in other ways, intentionally, and not as a result of error or oversight. Depending on how good or conscientious an historian he is, the nationalist may find himself limited in what he can make of his nations history and character by the circumstances of that history and the nature of that character. He may try to dramatize his nations experience by employing striking and memorable language, or by emphasizing those elements in it that make it (in his view) unique and superior. He will An earlier version oœ this paper was read at the Canadian-American Seminar, University of Windsor, November I968. x Cf. Karl Mannhelm, Ideology and Utopia (New York x936 )

The Myth of the Self-made Man in English Canada, 1850–1914

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP concerning society and values in English Canada has placed much emphasis on the extent to which their evolution demonstrates a continuing Canadian attachment to conservative principle. Strongly concerned to establish the ways in which the Canadian nation may be distinguished from the American, scholars have drawn particular attention to the role played in its growth by deference, a belief in the rights of the community over those of the individual, and a sense that the collective experience of those who compose it gives society its substance and texture. The Canadian mind, they argue, has been characterized not so much by faith in the potency of the individual as by a conviction that men in society must accept he authority of those who preside over their affairs. Living in a community which has been shaped by metropolitan institutions the church, the fur trade, government, corporations has, they suggest, made Canadians inclined to value behaviour that allows an harmonious existence within

The Border: Canada, the US and Despatches from the 49th Parallel (review)

however. To begin with only one list, recent films that received the best motion picture award at the Genie Awards include titles with historical themes such as Lies My Father Told Me (1976), J.A. Martin, Photographe (1979), The Bay Boy (1985), My American Cousin (1986), Black Robe (1991), Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould (1993), Le Confessional (1996), and Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001). Beyond this there is the larger number of films that have received other awards or none at all, but in their own way have had an impact on popular understandings of Canadian history. Nonetheless, most of the films discussed here are interesting in their own right, and this anthology deserves recognition as an illustration of the maturing Canadian film tradition. DAVID FRANK University of New Brunswick