Notions of Nationalism

Abstract

What’s in a name? The short response is, quite a lot. For example, the title of this journal, Canadian Theatre Review, indicates an assumption that there is a homogeneous theatrical practice which can be called “Canadian.” But is this the case? And if so, how might we begin to examine the implications of a theatre which is defined by the political construct “nation”? The answers to these questions may at first seem so evident that the questions might be viewed as rhetorical. I can imagine a response along the lines, “Of course there is a Canadian theatre. Why else would there be journals like CTR, Canadian Drama, a reference book like The Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre and the anthologies of Canadian drama which have appeared in recent years?” But this sort of response can be turned on itself so that these periodicals and books are not evidence of the existence of Canadian theatre but rather of the desire for Canadian theatre, for a theatre which defines use as a nation thereby giving us a sense of identity. (For an excellent discussion of the implications of the creation of a Canadian dramatic canon see “Voices (off): Deconstructing the Modern English-Canadian Dramatic Canon” by Richard Paul Knowles, forthcoming in The Canadian Canon: Essays in Literary Value. Ed. Robert Lecker. Toronto: U. of Toronto Press.)