Prologue: The Juncture of Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye in 1946

Author(s):  
Richard Cavell

Canadian cinema has evolved precariously between the myth of its encounter with an implacable nature and the sense that it is the product of a deterministic technology. Both positions derive from the Canadian intellectual tradition, particularly as articulated by Northrop Frye and Marshall McLuhan. Frye stands behind Bruce Elder’s work on film philosophy, which, paired with Frye’s notion that movies derive from melodrama, provides a productive framework for understanding the work of both Guy Maddin and John Greyson. Similarly, McLuhan’s writings on technology inform the work of David Cronenberg and Joyce Wieland, while Atom Egoyan has taken up McLuhan’s notion of the global village. Complicating these influences has been Canada’s proximity to the most powerful film empire on earth, which has tended to push it toward documentary film—as in the work of John Grierson—and away from the commercially oriented products generated south of the border.


2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Babe

Abstract: Reviewing the communication writings of five English-language theorists, namely, H. A. Innis, George Grant, Northrop Frye, C. B. Macpherson, and Marshall McLuhan, the article proposes that, foundationally, Canadian communication thought is dialectical, critical, holistic, ontological, oriented to political economy, and concerns mediation and dynamic change. Running through the thought of these five theorists is some variation of the basic time-space dialectic first formulated by Harold Adams Innis. Canadian communication thought is distinct from the American discourse and raises issues that ought to be of continuing concern for the new millennium. Résumé: Passant en revue les écrits en communication de cinq théoriciens anglophones, c'est-à-dire, H. A. Innis, George Grant, Northrop Frye, C. B. Macpherson et Marshall McLuhan, cet article propose que, à ses fondements, la pensée canadienne en communication est dialectique, critique, holistique, ontologique, orientée vers l'économie politique et portée vers la médiation et le changement dynamique. Présentes dans la pensée de ces cinq théoriciens, il y a des variations sur la dialectique fondamentale temps-espace d'abord formulée par Harold Adams Innis. La pensée canadienne en communication est distincte de l'américaine et soulève des questions qui devraient continuer à nous stimuler dans le nouveau millénaire.


1991 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
John Hoffman ◽  
Robert Pritchard ◽  
Bob Rae
Keyword(s):  

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