Robert Bringhurst and Polyphonic Poetry: Literature as Participation in Being

Abstract

Robert Bringhurst states that polyphonic art is a faithful, artistic reflection of the multiplicity of the world's ecosystems. This ecocritical perspective recognizes that human art informs our understandings of the world, and therefore artists have a moral obligation towards that world. In Chapter One I argue that mimesis should be reclaimed as a useful literary category since all art, regardless of intentions, has an effect on both culture and the natural world. In Chapter Two I argue that by reconnecting publishing craft and philosophy, our books can serve to bring us more in tune with the structures of the natural world. I conclude in Chapter Three by asking how a counterpublic consciousness can be cultivated, and how Bringhurst's mission of transforming culture might be fully realized. Altogether, this view of literature offers an antidote to Western culture's destructive tendencies towards the natural world.

Author Keywords: Bringhurst, ecocriticism, mimesis, poetry, polyphony, typography

    Item Description
    Type
    Contributors
    Creator (cre): Cecchin, Scott Richard
    Thesis advisor (ths): Steffler, Margaret
    Degree committee member (dgc): Popham, Elizabeth
    Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
    Date Issued
    2016
    Date (Unspecified)
    2016
    Place Published
    Peterborough, ON
    Language
    Extent
    141 pages
    Rights
    Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
    Local Identifier
    TC-OPET-10394
    Publisher
    Trent University
    Degree
    Master of Arts (M.A.): English (Public Texts)