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ISBN 1-894773-03-9
$29.95 CDN $17.95 US
328
pages - 70 duotone illustrations - paper -
7.5 x 9"
Canadiana - Cultural Anthropology - Religion -
History
Available November 28, 2003
Photos for publicity purposes are
available.
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Mary of Canada
The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture, Spirituality,
History, and Geography
Author: Joan
Skogan
Introduction: Kim Echlin
Mary of Canada lands in the Globe and Mail’s
top 100 books of the past 12 months
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this book from The Banff Centre
"In language original
in structure and rich in imagery, and with meticulous,
far-reaching research, Skogan's unique vision reveals
that the ancient, worldwide idea of Mary has penetrated,
sometimes unwittingly, into every nook and cranny of
Canada. This surprising book is one to be grateful for."
—
Sharon Butala
"Chronicling the
presence of the Virgin Mary in Canada, Joan Skogan finds
that she saturates the country, from an image that came
in with Jacques Cartier to the prayer object of B.C.
fishermen. Her book is accessible, non-academic, ranges
over geography and literature (Diane Schoemperlen,
Margaret Atwood, Katherine Govier and other literary
Madonnas) and is 'full of tender acts of mercy,
gleanings from a millennium of history and brilliant
flashes of insight, which taken together add up to
sacred meaning.'"
— Wayne Grady, The Globe and Mail
Mary of Canada: The Virgin Mary in Canadian Culture,
Spirituality, History, and Geography is a compelling exploration
of the Virgin Mary in Canada, ranging widely through time and
history. Canada’s culture is distinguished by the Virgin Mary’s
astonishingly frequent presence — her roots in Canadian soil are
deep. Rich references delve into literature, history, art, and
geography. In locating Mary in this country, Joan Skogan
observes the ways she transforms to answer Canadian needs. From
Virgin Mary sightings on frosted windows to Rideau Hall, from thrift
shop icons to the National Gallery, from Our Lady Peace rock band to
traditional prayer, Mary lives in Canada.
Dense, poetic, and lovingly hewn, Skogan's work, based on years of
extensive research, brings the Virgin Mary to Canadian shores.
Illustrations, varying from modern art to pop culture
representations, offer visual context. Mary of Canada is an
achievement that embraces Canada's spirituality from sea to sea.
"Joan Skogan makes a pilgrimage through our culture and history
in this quest for the Virgin Mary in Canada. We may have been
unaware of the Virgin’s presence in our midst but Skogan shows us
how thoroughly Mary’s name threads through our geography and our
stories. With an historian’s attention to research and a pilgrim’s
receptivity, she finds our Canadian Virgin Mary in both unexpected
and traditional places: gazing from a Renaissance painting at the
Art Gallery of Ontario; waiting in a roadside shrine in Vegreville,
Alberta; perched on the dashboard of a car that has run out of gas
on a northern highway. Mary of Canada is a work of
non-fiction, but like art, it has the capacity to teach us to see
anew what has always been before our eyes. We learn how the Canadian
Mary has lived among our ancestors, and how she embraces our current
disillusion and aloneness and need for love — a need as urgent as
our need for sleep or water. It is Skogan’s particular genius that
has also discovered in Mary of Canada a deep fondness for
irony and a joyous laughter at the antic human spirit."
- Kim Echlin, Introduction
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