Shaping an Image of Europe - Half Way Over Iceland (George Bowering's "Discoloured Metal")

• Main Author: Tutek, Nikola
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Canadian short fiction; Bowering; Canada and Europe; literary and cultural studies approach; HUMANISTIČKE ZNANOSTI. Filologija; HUMANISTIC SCIENCES. Philology; Canada; Iceland
• Online Access: https://www.unirepository.svkri.uniri.hr/islandora/object/ffri:3508; https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:186:875916; https://www.unirepository.svkri.uniri.hr/islandora/object/ffri:3508/datastream/FILE0

This paper deals with George Bowering’s short story “Discoloured Metal” from his 1994 collection of short prose The Rain Barrel. Analysis of the short story is focused on four main points: a possible approach to shaped short prose, cultural issues regarding Canadian appreciation of Europe, the position of Iceland as a ‘place in between’ (Iceland is mentioned in the story it important role for the narration), and, how do the notions of Canada-Iceland-Europe function in a multimodal, shaped short prose on the level of semantics of the text. In the end of the paper there are possible conclusions on how Iceland as a neutral territory, a place to refill (not just kerosene), functions in Bowering’s short story (literary approach), and how does that reflect the perception of Iceland and Europe in Canada (cultural studies).