Abstract
A great deal of Elizabeth Hay's novel entitled Late Nights on Air takes place in Yellowknife, a town in the Northwest Territories of Canada, situated on the edge of the Arctic Circle. In 1974 Judge Thomas Berger came there to hold an inquiry concerning the environmental implications of the proposed gas pipeline. Although Berger is not a protagonist of the story, his inquiry becomes one of its focal points. This article addresses the book's portrayal of the Canadian North and Northern environment. It focuses on the North as one of the protagonists, which becomes increasingly endangered by economic development.
Highlights
The above quotation from Elizabeth Hay's novel refers both to the deceptive serenity of an Arctic lake and to the North itself
Marta Wójcik from her study of representations of the North in Canadian literature and culture (Rosenthal 2009:26). On the surface it is a story about complex relationships among colleagues from a local radio station, who follow in the footsteps of the unsuccessful explorer John Hornby and undertake a canoe trip into the Barrens
Caroline Rosenthal notices that since the novel focuses on the radio, it is alive with sound (Rosenthal 2009:30)
Summary
The above quotation from Elizabeth Hay's novel refers both to the deceptive serenity of an Arctic lake and to the North itself. The author of Late Nights on Air demonstrates that the Canadian North is treated as a resource-rich frontier, which entails grave consequences for its people and the environment. The proposed pipeline is to traverse the traditional home grounds of Subarctic and Arctic indigenous groups, including the Inuit, the Dene and the Métis, which means that they will have to bear ecological consequences of the project.
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