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Articles

Volume 04, Number 2 (1979)

The Explorer in Western Canadian Literature

  • Frank Davey
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1979-06-06

Abstract

From Earl Birney and Ethel Wilson to the present, the explorer as chartmaker and wanderer has engaged the western Canadian literary imagination, to the point of becoming a metaphor for the writer. In such a metaphor, the explorer represents not only an accurate responsiveness to experience, but also the immense and creative force of the grounds, lines, tides, and winds which limit his ‘fancy' and will. Writers discussed include Robert Kroetsch, George Bowering, Newlove, Ethel Birney, and Earl Birney.