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Performing Arts History & Criticism

Joyce Wieland's 'The Far Shore'

by (author) Johanne Sloan

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
May 2010
Category
History & Criticism, Canadian
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442641273
    Publish Date
    May 2010
    List Price
    $51.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442610606
    Publish Date
    May 2010
    List Price
    $30.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442699014
    Publish Date
    May 2010
    List Price
    $21.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442686786
    Publish Date
    Dec 2010
    List Price
    $54.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

The Far Shore (1976), made under the direction of celebrated visual artist and experimental filmmaker Joyce Wieland, is one of Canada's most innovative contributions to cinema. The film borrows elements from the life of Canadian painter Tom Thomson, who is represented by the character of Tom McLeod. The main character, however, is not Tom, but the fictional creation of Eulalie de Chicoutimi, the married Québécoise woman who loves him. Using Eulalie's perspective, Wieland was able to re-frame Thomson's life and story as a romantic melodrama while infusing it with subversive commentary on gender, nature and nationalism, and ultimately, on the value of art.

Here, Wieland specialist Johanne Sloan offers a fascinating new perspective on The Far Shore, making it more accessible by discussing Wieland's utopian fusion of art and politics, the importance of landscape within Canadian culture, and the on-going struggle over the meaning of the natural environment.

About the author

Johanne Sloan is professor of art history, Concordia University, and editor of Urban Enigmas: Montreal, Toronto, and the Problem of Comparing Cities.

Johanne Sloan's profile page