Abstract
The refutation and the obliteration of the modernist era in Canadian literature by Robert Kroetsch and reasserted by Glen Wilmott makes it imperative to look at highly experimental literary works in the first half of the 20th century in Canada. The purpose of this paper, thus is to make a case for the inclusion Irene Bird’s Waste Heritage in the repertoire of modernist works in North America. The various criticism of Canadian literature as not having a modernist era needs to be debunked. The false assertion that Canadian literature moved straight from the Victorian era to a postmodernist face is probably due to the difficulty of defining what modernism is. The evolution and the expansion of the term modernism makes it imperative for one to reappraise the creative works of Irene Bird (Waste Heritage) and Sheila Watson (Double Hook) as modernist. An attempt to include Waste Heritage in the new modernist discourse of global literature by looking at the experimental way by which Baird used documentary modernism. The sustainability of a growing modern society vis-à-vis modernism, and the resistance of capitalism in Baird’s narrative would be used to make a case for Baird’s modernism.
Highlights
The refutation and the obliteration of the modernist era in Canadian literature by Robert Kroetsch and reasserted by Glen Wilmott makes it imperative to look at highly experimental literary works in the first half of the 20th century in Canada
The false assertion that Canadian literature moved straight from the Victorian era to a postmodernist face is probably due to the difficulty of defining what modernism is
Documentary modernism is an experimental form of naturalism that serves as a social commentary
Summary
Documentary modernism is an experimental form of naturalism that serves as a social commentary. She had a clear view of some of the character’s plights Her representation of the sit-downs gave account of police brutality, and hypocritical laws that disallowed the unemployed qualify for social benefits twice in a region, giving birth to transient men. There was public resentment on the part of people who believed these transient men deliberately refused to work This kind of resentment was shown when a man asked Matt; “Don’t you boys have nothing to do but sit around here and wait for a settlement” (Baird 50)? The monopolized media is the only source of information about the sit-downers for most people, before Waste Heritage was published: “I guess you will be wondering what happened to me unless you read in the papers about our arriving” (Baird 130). The unimpressive journalism of the media propelled Baird’s experimental journalism, documentary, and experimental naturalism
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