Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism
The essay locates Joel Thomas Hynes’s We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night (2017), narrated by the social outcaste Johnny, in an international “heroin realism” tradition. Hynes, styled as Canada’s “bad boy” author, thus evoking his emotional ties to his protagonist, situates Johnny on the margi...
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ftamickiewiczojs:oai:ojs.pressto.amu.edu.pl:article/33549 2023-07-30T04:05:02+02:00 Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism Polley, Jason S. 2020-12-01 application/pdf http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020 eng eng Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020/29081 http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020 Prawa autorskie (c) 2020 Jason S. Polley Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Vol. 55 No. s2 (2020): Special issue: Dialogues, reinterpretations, critical repositionings in literary and cultural discourses of 21st century Canada; 403-426 Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Tom 55 Nr s2 (2020): Special issue: Dialogues, reinterpretations, critical repositionings in literary and cultural discourses of 21st century Canada; 403-426 2082-5102 0081-6272 Joel Thomas Hynes Canadiana Newfoundland Atlantic-Canadian literature heroin realism psychic turmoil info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Peer-reviewed articles 2020 ftamickiewiczojs 2023-07-18T04:18:17Z The essay locates Joel Thomas Hynes’s We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night (2017), narrated by the social outcaste Johnny, in an international “heroin realism” tradition. Hynes, styled as Canada’s “bad boy” author, thus evoking his emotional ties to his protagonist, situates Johnny on the margins of Canada: in Newfoundland, which has been systemically disenfranchised from Canada’s centre beside the rest of Atlantic Canada for over a century, as novels by Michael Crummey, Lisa Moore, David Adams Richards, Alistair MacLeod, and Hugh MacLennan show. The regionally representative Johnny complicates romantic figurations of Canada, which prides itself on progressiveness and equal opportunity, and which is globally envisaged as a beacon of mobility and community. Characters like Johnny do not fit into mythical Canada, whether in its pan-Canadian variety, where the East Coast is mythologized as an ocean oasis of what Herb Wyile calls “commercial antimodernism,” or in its depressive, alcoholic Atlantic-Canadian version. Limited by his social positioning, ot unlike Rose in Alice Munro’s collection The Beggar Maid (1978), Johnny cannot actualise the mobility Canadiana advertises – this despite his inculcation of this seductive delusion via books. He instead experiences what bell hooks calls “psychic turmoil”: the discomfiture of simultaneously occupying two distinct yet continuous narratives. Johnny’s regional narrative, then, not only translates to Rose’s national one, as well as to the spirit of the Beats, of road novelists, and of Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo, but also to the international dimensions of other personages in “heroin realism.” Writers like Joel Thomas Hynes, Harry Crews, Denis Johnson, Antonio Lobo Antunes, Jeet Thayil, Eimear McBride, and Niall Griffiths work to deconstruct romantic idealizations. The figures of heroin realism, like Johnny, are those characters who are neither commoditized by class relations nor by national narratives. Article in Journal/Newspaper Newfoundland Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: PRESSto Canada Macleod ENVELOPE(-61.966,-61.966,-64.091,-64.091) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań: PRESSto |
op_collection_id |
ftamickiewiczojs |
language |
English |
topic |
Joel Thomas Hynes Canadiana Newfoundland Atlantic-Canadian literature heroin realism psychic turmoil |
spellingShingle |
Joel Thomas Hynes Canadiana Newfoundland Atlantic-Canadian literature heroin realism psychic turmoil Polley, Jason S. Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
topic_facet |
Joel Thomas Hynes Canadiana Newfoundland Atlantic-Canadian literature heroin realism psychic turmoil |
description |
The essay locates Joel Thomas Hynes’s We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night (2017), narrated by the social outcaste Johnny, in an international “heroin realism” tradition. Hynes, styled as Canada’s “bad boy” author, thus evoking his emotional ties to his protagonist, situates Johnny on the margins of Canada: in Newfoundland, which has been systemically disenfranchised from Canada’s centre beside the rest of Atlantic Canada for over a century, as novels by Michael Crummey, Lisa Moore, David Adams Richards, Alistair MacLeod, and Hugh MacLennan show. The regionally representative Johnny complicates romantic figurations of Canada, which prides itself on progressiveness and equal opportunity, and which is globally envisaged as a beacon of mobility and community. Characters like Johnny do not fit into mythical Canada, whether in its pan-Canadian variety, where the East Coast is mythologized as an ocean oasis of what Herb Wyile calls “commercial antimodernism,” or in its depressive, alcoholic Atlantic-Canadian version. Limited by his social positioning, ot unlike Rose in Alice Munro’s collection The Beggar Maid (1978), Johnny cannot actualise the mobility Canadiana advertises – this despite his inculcation of this seductive delusion via books. He instead experiences what bell hooks calls “psychic turmoil”: the discomfiture of simultaneously occupying two distinct yet continuous narratives. Johnny’s regional narrative, then, not only translates to Rose’s national one, as well as to the spirit of the Beats, of road novelists, and of Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo, but also to the international dimensions of other personages in “heroin realism.” Writers like Joel Thomas Hynes, Harry Crews, Denis Johnson, Antonio Lobo Antunes, Jeet Thayil, Eimear McBride, and Niall Griffiths work to deconstruct romantic idealizations. The figures of heroin realism, like Johnny, are those characters who are neither commoditized by class relations nor by national narratives. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Polley, Jason S. |
author_facet |
Polley, Jason S. |
author_sort |
Polley, Jason S. |
title |
Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
title_short |
Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
title_full |
Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
title_fullStr |
Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
title_full_unstemmed |
Oh Canadiana? Atlantic Canada, Joel Thomas Hynes, and Heroin Realism |
title_sort |
oh canadiana? atlantic canada, joel thomas hynes, and heroin realism |
publisher |
Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.966,-61.966,-64.091,-64.091) |
geographic |
Canada Macleod |
geographic_facet |
Canada Macleod |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_source |
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Vol. 55 No. s2 (2020): Special issue: Dialogues, reinterpretations, critical repositionings in literary and cultural discourses of 21st century Canada; 403-426 Studia Anglica Posnaniensia; Tom 55 Nr s2 (2020): Special issue: Dialogues, reinterpretations, critical repositionings in literary and cultural discourses of 21st century Canada; 403-426 2082-5102 0081-6272 |
op_relation |
http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020/29081 http://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/stap/article/view/stap-2020-0020 |
op_rights |
Prawa autorskie (c) 2020 Jason S. Polley |
_version_ |
1772816739294248960 |