Canadian Wetlands (Book)

Places and People

In Canadian Wetlands, Rod Giblett critiques the Canadian canon's popular representation of wetlands and proposes alternatives by highlighting the work of recent and contemporary Canadian authors, such as Douglas Lochhead and Harry Thurston, and by entering into dialogue with American writers.

Edition

In Canadian Wetlands, Rod Giblett reads the Canadian canon against the grain, critiquing its popular representation of wetlands and proposing alternatives by highlighting the work of recent and contemporary Canadian authors, such as Douglas Lochhead and Harry Thurston, and by entering into dialogue with American writers. The book will engender mutual respect between researchers for the contribution that different disciplinary approaches can and do make to the study and conservation of wetlands internationally. 

Rod Giblett is associate professor in the School of Communications and Arts at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

Chapter 1: Canadian wetlands culture: Past and present

Chapter 2: Wetlands in anglophone pioneer settler literature and nature writing of the Canadian canon 

Chapter 3: ‘In the Acadian land’ of Evangeline: The marshlands of Grand Pré, the wetlands of the Bay of Fundy and Longfellow’s literary legacy 

Chapter 4: ‘The marsh lies rich and wanton’: The Tantramar Marshes, Charles G. D. Roberts and Douglas Lochhead 

Chapter 5: ‘Noisome marsh’ and ‘incurable marshes’: Wainfleet Bog, Point Pelee Marshes and the falls on the Niagara Peninsula 

Chapter 6: ‘A swampy flat’: Vancouver and the wetlands of the Fraser River delta 

Chapter 7: A city ‘set in malarial lakeside swamps’: Toronto and Ashbridge’s Bay Marsh 

Chapter 8: ‘Land and water disputed empire’: Holland Marsh, John Muir and Henry David Thoreau 

Chapter 9: ‘Quaking morass’: The marshes of Manitoba, Frederick Philip Grove and Aldo Leopold 

Chapter 10: ‘Smelling the Old Marsh, I knew I was home’: Harry Thurston’s marshes of Nova Scotia and the future of Canadian wetlands culture

'Giblett’s analysis is invaluable to the conservation efforts of wetlanders in Canada and abroad.'

Simon Greenland-Smith, Canadian Geographer
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