The Beaver Bites Back?

Canadians have demonstrated a remarkable sense of unity about protection of their "cultural industries" during the continuing national debate over free trade. This study of the effect of American popular culture on Canada is therefore particularly relevant.

The contributing authors explore three aspects of American culture: its transmission by means of print and broadcast media and through live events in sport, entertainment, religious evangelism, and other public productions; its influence on Canadian popular culture; and the variety of Canadian responses. They suggest that the Canadian version of American popular culture is far more than a copy. Instead, it is frequently a creative response - often parodic in tone and subversive in intent - that gives public expression to Canadian sentiment and sensibility and provides protection from, and resistance to, American domination. Ironically, it may be in responding to American culture that Canadian sovereignty finds its most meaningful and potent articulation.

Specialists and scholars from a wide variety of disciplines, the contributors discuss a range of cultural forms and performances. Each example, while "made in Canada," is related to an American alternative but has a large Canadian audience. Taking a rich variety of perspectives on this complex relationship, The Beaver Bites Back? demands that Canadian popular culture be accorded its proper status.

The contributors are G. Stuart Adam, Michael M. Ames, Robert Knight Barney, Seth Feldman, Bruce Feldhusen, David H. Flaherty, Reid Gilbert, Andrew Lyons, Harriet Lyons, John MacAloon, Frank E. Manning, Thelma McCormack, Mary Jane Miller, Bernard Ostry, Charline Poirier, Paul Rutherford, Robert A. Stebbins, Michael Taft, Geoffrey Wall, and Andrew Wernick.