2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Consumer Culture in Atlantic Canada: Critical and Aesthetic Responses
| Project/Area Number |
18K00393
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
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| Research Institution | Chukyo University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | Atlantic Canada / regionalism / consumerism / consumer culture |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research project explored the responses of contemporary Atlantic Canadian writers to North American consumer culture. The research emphasized responses between the 1990s and 2010s, including writers Paul Bowdring (1946-2019), Carol Bruneau (1956-), George Elliott Clarke (1960-), Lynne Coady (1970-), Kenneth J. Harvey (1962-), Edward Riche (1961-) and Michael Winter (1965-), Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes. The research examined three main themes: first, it addressed writers’ direct critical responses to consumer culture. Second, it addressed the ways these writers showed practices of consumption to be connected with social identities (region, class, race and gender) and social trends, such as the invasion of private life by commerce and the threats to the environment posed by consumer waste. Finally, the research addressed aesthetic strategies adopted by writers to conceptualize practices of consumption in everyday life, including questions of style, symbolism, and genre.
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| Free Research Field |
Canadian Literature - Regionalism
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
This research broadens our understanding of the role of consumption in the construction of social identities of class, race, gender and region. Examining the responses of writers to the increasing commercialization of everyday life, it also addresses discussions of literature in a commercial order.
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