"all alongingly the way": Ontology and Longing in bpNichol's The Martyrology

Date
2016-11
Authors
Desjarlais, Jeremy Michael
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Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina
Abstract

bpNichol’s (1944-1988) long poem, The Martyrology (published between 1972 and, posthumously, 1993), is a work that is comprised of text, illustrations, and musical notations. Its sheer length, both in time of composition and page range, as well as its reach, in its thematic inclusion and incorporated written styles, constitute its demanding and comprehensive form. Critics have neglected to examine the poem as a work preoccupied with the philosophy of ontology—the study of being—through a literary mode of longing. Instead, The Martyrology is treated as a work that is substantiated by history and mythology, as opposed to the ubiquitous theme of the existence of personal and poetic selfhood. The efforts of this thesis are dedicated to identifying The Martyrology as an ontological long poem—or, a poem that longs for its ontology—through the following operations of being: journeying, semiotics, and corporeality. In combination, these three facets of the poem assemble a more appropriate and totalizing understanding of Nichol’s text. The Martyrology’s language is of chief concern to this thesis—repetition, puns, etymology, spacing, enjambment, and orthographic convention and deviation are all examined in an effort to consider and claim an ontological perspective for this poem. Continually, all 9 volumes of the poem rely on language that is expressive of journeying, semiotics, and corporeality in the formulation of linguistic and poetic identity. The Martyrology, then, longs to investigate its ontological impetus to long.

Description
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English, University of Regina. iv, 102 p.
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