The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian SovereigntyA misunderstood and sometimes maligned figure, Vincent Massey was one of Canada's most influential cultural policy-makers and art patrons. Best known as Canada's first native-born Governor General, he chaired the landmark Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences that led to the creation of the Canada Council. The Force of Culture examines Massey's notion of culture, its conflicted roots in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Canadian Protestant thought, and Massey's transformation into a champion of culture as a bastion of Canadian sovereignty. Karen Finlay's study goes beyond existing literature by examining the role of Massey's Methodist upbringing in instilling an education gospel as the bedrock of culture and the foundation of a national citizenry. The study also reassesses Massey's reputation as a supporter of the fine arts. Steeped in Methodism, his attitudes towards the arts were ambiguous. He never adopted a purely art-for-art's sake doctrine, but came to understand that the arts, without being moralizing, could serve a moral and cultural purpose: the expression and affirmation of national character and sovereignty. As well as charting Massey's evolving attitudes towards culture and the arts, Finlay attempts to redress the common charges of sexism, elitism, and anglophonism levelled against him. Finlay stresses Massey's contradictory views on issues relating to gender, race, and class, outweighed by the ongoing legacy of his belief in Canadian cultural diversity. Above all, Massey valorized the principles of excellence and diversity as twin antidotes to the anathema of conformity and cultural homogenization. The tenet Massey sought to honour, pertaining deeply to the collective and moral nature of humanism in Canada, Finlay argues, was community without uniformity. The Force of Culture shows that Massey was, in certain respects, a democratizer and even a populist, who believed that difference need not divide. Electronic Format Disclaimer: Images removed at the request of the rights holder. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 48
... to sovereignty. In the face of new challenges to sovereignty, Canadians should not be deluded into separating them. Mavor Moore Victoria, BC February 2002 Adapted from an address to the National Policy Conference of.
... Sovereignty Karen Finlay. Adapted from an address to the National Policy Conference of the Canadian Conference of the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, 29 November 2001 Preface My investigation of Vincent Massey's place in Canadian cultural.
... Conference of the branches of Methodism created a Committee on Education to work out the relationships among their colleges. This committee set up the Educational Society to raise money to help maintain the Methodist schools. The ...
... Conference in 1910, the church colleges were reported to be flourishing. The society's income was on the increase, and it took on many significant ventures. It committed itself, for example, to raising $400,000 for the founding of a ...
... conference and college, of preacher's pulpit and professor's chair, will ensure a bright succession of intelligent, faithful and godly ministers and laymen to carry on the highest work of Church and State.'42 In its commitment to ...
Other editions - View all
The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty Karen Finlay No preview available - 1999 |
The Force of Culture: Vincent Massey and Canadian Sovereignty Karen Finlay No preview available - 2004 |