Bringing Blood to Ghosts: English Canadian Drama and the Ecopolitics of Place

Abstract

Since the early twentieth century, a tradition of ecocentric plays has been a consistent presence in English Canadian drama—plays that situate human actions not as isolated social phenomena, but as profoundly connected to ecological community. In all of these works the more-than-human world plays a significant role in the dramatic action, and, in many, affirmations of place-identity have direct ties to postcolonial issues. To chart the trajectory of this ecocentric tradition, I will be looking at Archibald Key’s The Mother Lode and T. M. Morrow’s Manitou Portage—two plays from the early twentieth century that reveal place-based attitudes among Canada’s settler population—and then proceed to the twenty-first century to show how issues of place-identity and environmental justice come together in the ecopolitics of two First Nations playwrights, Tomson Highway and Marie Clements.KeywordsEnvironmental JusticeGeiger CounterSettler PopulationDramatic ActionCherry BlossomThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.