"The stillness is the time before the change" – celebrating the Canadian North and Northern environment in Elizabeth Hay's Late Nights on Air

Marta Wójcik

Abstract


A great deal of Elizabeth Hay's novel entitled Late Nights on Air takes place in Yellowknife, a town in the Northwest Territories of Canada, situated on the edge of the Arctic Circle. In 1974 Judge Thomas Berger came there to hold an inquiry concerning the environmental implications of the proposed gas pipeline. Although Berger is not a protagonist of the story, his inquiry becomes one of its focal points. This article addresses the book's portrayal of the Canadian North and Northern environment. It focuses on the North as one of the protagonists, which becomes increasingly endangered by economic development.

Full Text:

PDF

References


Berger T. R. (1977): Northern Frontier, Northern Homeland: the Report of the

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, Volume 2. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and

Services Canada. Retrieved from http://yukondigitallibrary.ca/digitalbook/northernfrontiersocialimpactenvironment alimpact/ (last accessed on 5 April 2014).

Buell L., Heise U. K. & Thornber K. (2011): Literature and Environment. Annual

Review of Environment and Resources. 36.1: 417-440. Retrieved from

http://environment.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Buell_Heise_Thornber_ARER_

_Lit_and_Envt.pdf (last accessed on 6 January 2014).

Hay E. (2009): Late Nights on Air. London: MacLehose. (Original work published

.

Jones J. (2013): Mackenzie Valley's new price tag: $20-billion (and rising). The Globe

and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/mackenzie-valleys-new-price-tag-20-

billion-and-rising/article16095114/ (last accessed on 6 January 2014).

Marsh J. (2002): Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. In The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Retrieved from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/mackenzie-

valley-pipeline/ (last accessed on 6 January 2014).

McMillan A. D., Yellowhorn E. (2004): First Peoples in Canada. Vancouver: Douglas

& McIntyre.

Principles of Environmental Justice. (1996): In Environmental Justice/Environmental

Racism. Retrieved from http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html (last accessed on 6

January 2014).

Rosenthal C. (2009): Locations of North in Canadian Literature and Culture. Zeitshrift

fur Kanada-Studien. 29.2: 25-38. Retrieved from http://www.kanada-

studien.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/02_Rosenthal_North.pdf (last accessed

on 6 January 2014).




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2014.38.1.101
Date of publication: 2015-05-20 17:37:11
Date of submission: 2015-04-22 01:42:55


Statistics


Total abstract view - 925
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 415

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2015 Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.