Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Apocalypse and Alchemy by B.W. PoweB.W. Powe. Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye: Apocalypse and Alchemy. University of Toronto Press. xii, 354. $32.95

2016 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-360
Author(s):  
Claude Le Fustec
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
John Durham Peters

Background This article1 presents a reworked keynote address given at the “Many McLuhans” conference held at the University of Toronto in September 2018 on the occasion of UNESCO recognizing Marshall McLuhan’s library as part of its Memory of the World program.Analysis  The article explores McLuhan as a reader and suggests that his greatest work might have been what he read rather than what he wrote. Conclusion and implications  The library, as a genre, is one of the great media forms of modernity and antiquity and a marker of the fragility and majesty of the things that humans do with their large brains. Contexte  Cet article consiste en la révision d’un discours principal donné au colloque « Many McLuhans » tenu en septembre 2018 à l’Université de Toronto, à l’occasion de la reconnaissance de la bibliothèque de Marshall McLuhan par l’UNESCO dans le contexte de son programme Mémoire du monde.Analyse  L’article explore McLuhan en tant que lecteur et suggère que sa plus grande œuvre consiste en ce qu’il a lu plutôt qu’en ce qu’il a écrit.Conclusions et implications La bibliothèque, en tant que genre, est une des grandes formes médiatiques de l’Antiquité et de la modernité et une instance de la fragilité et de la majesté de ce que font les humains avec leurs grands cerveaux.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Galey

Background  Marshall McLuhan was not only a prolific reader but also an expert annotator of his own books. Taking as a case study McLuhan’s copies of James Joyce’s Ulyssesin the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, this article asks what we can learn about McLuhan’s reading from close analysis of his own books.Analysis  The article begins with a discussion of McLuhan’s media theory as “applied Joyce,” with particular reference to Ulysses, and then turns to an overview of the annotation techniques and strategies visible in McLuhan’s copies of the novel.Conclusion and implications  The conclusion considers McLuhan’s own books as hybrid artifacts that challenge us to rethink rigid distinctions between print and manuscript cultures.Contexte  Marshall McLuhan, en plus d’être un lecteur assidu, était un annotateur expert de ses propres livres. Par exemple, McLuhan a annoté des exemplaires d’Ulyssede James Joyce qui se trouvent maintenant dans la Bibliothèque de livres rares Thomas Fisher à l’Université de Toronto. Au moyen d’une étude de cas de ces exemplaires, l’article actuel examine ce qu’on peut apprendre à partir d’une analyse attentive du processus de lecture de McLuhan.Analyse  L’article commence par envisager la théorie des médias de McLuhan comme étant du « Joyce appliqué », mettant un accent particulier sur l’influence d’Ulyssesur le penseur. L’article continue par un examen des techniques et stratégies d’annotation utilisées par McLuhan dans ses exemplaires de ce roman.Conclusions et implications  La conclusion considère les livres de McLuhan comme des artéfacts hybrides nous invitant à mettre en question les distinctions rigides entre culture de l’imprimé et culture du manuscrit.


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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document