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Jonathan F. Vance, A History of Canadian Culture (Don Mills: Oxford University Press 2009)
Jonathan F. Vance's A History of Canadian Culture is an ambitious proj- ect to account for the emergence, con- solidation, and sponsorship of the arts in Canada from pre-Confederation to the present. In his introduction, Vance de- fines "culture" as a "synonym for the arts" and acknowledges that this is a limited definition, albeit one that allows him to cover a lot of ground. This book extends beyond the arts as they are usually under- stood - the literary, visual, and perform- ing arts - to also study architecture and its patronage in Canada. This interest in state-sponsored buildings and archi- tectural styles as part of larger govern- mental arts programs and policies adds a richness to the discussion that also high- lights the differences between ephemeral artistic performances and the solid en- durance of buildings. Another way that Vance restricts this vast topic to reason- able proportions is to focus more on the institutions of culture, and particularly on cultural funding by various state and arms-length institutions, than on the cultural production or artists them- selves. As a result, the overarching thrust of this book is that Canadian culture should be understood as part of nation- building projects as defined by vari- ous state institutions and governments. While the author acknowledges that such a study will have to leave out some iconic and much-loved cultural producers (Neil Young, Mr. Dress-Up), Vance's focus on the history of institutions of nationalist culture rather than cultural history itself means that whole segments of indepen- dent, internationalist, radical, and dissi- dent Canadian culture do not make it in to this study, and neither does the role of the arts in contesting the state or offering alternate visions of the nation.
The first two chapters cover pre-con- tact Aboriginal culture and European contact respectively, and Vance is par- ticularly strong in detailing the artistic and artisanal practices of First Peoples across what is now Canada. While there is not necessarily new material here, these opening chapters offer a balance between detail and concision to suggest a larger picture of...