The Art of Being Canadian

In the third chapter of Sherrill Grace's 'On the art of Being Canadian', the author introduces and discusses the act of inventing iconic cultural figures figures in Canada. Individuals in Canadian history who have achieved iconic status, Grace lays out, have achieved this status through a 'critical mass of artistic invention'. An individual is iconized not simply because of what they contributed culturally in their lifetime, but because of how they are invented and reinvented through the work of other artists through film, music, theater, poetry and other mediums. In certain cases, some individuals, though they were considered villains in their own age (Louis Riel), arrive at iconic status nevertheless through this process of obsessive invention. Others, though they were very nearly culturally forgotten (Mina Benson Hubbard), have also become icons after certain artists or groups of artists, generations later, develop interest in inventing their stories through new mediums, bringing new relevancy to the acts, work and stories of these individuals.

Though I agree that this process of invention does indeed play an important role in shaping many Canadian's legacies to an iconic ranking, I think that Grace's theory falls short in that it makes a large, snobbish, though not ill-intended, presumption. The four examples she provides are all individuals who, though most certainly iconic, are revered primarily in specific academic, intellectual, artistic and creative circles. I feel as though more living Canadian's would be unfamiliar with these four then those familiar with their names, let alone legacies. Grace does not draw distinction between an 'icon in Canada' and a 'Canadian icon'. In a nation so proudly diverse, I believe that it is archaic and condescending to ascribe iconic acclaim to individuals whose legacies are invented primarily in circles that have a certain intellectual privilege. Though she does reference some specific regional and cultural inventions (for example, a community theatre piece in Labrador performed in honour of Hubbard), she presumes, by and large, that only when invented in intellectual, creative circles, can individuals become icons and fails to consider that the public cultural consciousness is not always, or perhaps very rarely, informed by said circles.

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