Bearing Witness: Bruce Cockburn’s Cultural Interventions in Central America

Albert Braz

doi:10.15210/interfaces.v19i2.16584

Albert Braz University of Alberta

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15210/interfaces.v19i2.16584

Resumo

Bruce Cockburn, who is one of Canada’s preeminent singer-songwriters, devoted his early work largely to the personal, notably the spiritual, even becoming known as “that Christian singer.” But largely in response to the brutal Central American wars of the 1980s, he gradually surmised that a living art cannot evade the political. The numerous songs that Cockburn wrote about those conflicts, which reflect his determination to become a witness rather than a mere bystander, have become testaments to his desire to document the suffering of multitudes of people that lacked the power (or opportunity) to articulate it.

Biografia do Autor

Albert Braz, University of Alberta

Albert Braz is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. He is the author of The False Traitor: Louis Riel in Canadian Culture (2003) and Apostate Englishman: Grey Owl the Writer and the Myths (2015) and the co-editor of an issue of the Canadian Review of Comparative Literature on Comparative Canadian Literature (2009) and of an issue of CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture on Indigenous Literatures (2011). He is the current president of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association.

Referências

BRAZ, Albert. Canada’s Hemisphere: Canadian Culture and the Question of Continental Identity. In: American Review of Canadian Studies 46.3 (2016), p. 349-61.

CARDENAL, Ernesto. Antología poética. Rosario, Argentina: Homo Sapiens, 2004.

---. Zero Hour and Other Documentary Poems. WALSH, Donald D. (Ed.). BORGESON, JR., Paul W.; COHEN, Jonathan; PRING-MILL, Robert; WALSH, Donald D. (Trans.). New York: New Directions, 1980.

CARDENAL, Ernesto; VALLÉ-GARAY, Pastor; EDITORS. A Conversation with Ernesto Cardenal. In: Gamut 6 (1984), p. 31-43.

COCKBURN, Bruce. The Mark of the Beast: A Notebook on Central America. In: Gamut 6 (1984), p. 10-19.

COCKBURN, Bruce; BRAKE, Justin. In Conversation with Bruce Cockburn. In: TheIndependent.ca. 7 Aug. 2015. Accessed 20 Mar. 2016. http://theindependent.ca/2015/08/07/in-conversation-with-bruce-cockburn

COCKBURN, Bruce; KING, Greg. Rumours of Glory: A Memoir. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2014.

DOYLE, Bryan. Praying Strings. Rev. of Rumours of Glory, by Bruce Cockburn and Greg King. In: Christian Century 131.22 (2014), p. 36-37.

FINKELSTEIN, Bernie. True North: A Life in the Music Business. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2012.

GLAVIN, Terry. The Betrayal of Nicaragua and the Canadians who Backed the Country. In: Maclean’s 25 Apr. 2018. Accessed 19 June 2019. https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-betrayal-of-nicaragua-and-the-canadians-who-backed-it

GRAVELAND, Bill. Bruce Cockburn Sings for Troops in Afghanistan, Gets Rocket Launcher. In: Global Research 12 Sept. 2009. Accessed 17 July 2015. http://www.globalresearch.ca/bruce-cockburn-sings-for-troops-in-afghanistan-gets-rocket-launcher/15185

GREEN, Mary Ellen. Bruce Cockburn: The Rocket Launcher. In: Monday Magazine 29 July 2013. Accessed 2 July 2015. http://www.mondaymag.com/entertainment/215919341.html?mobile=true

GRUENDING, Dennis. Gringo: Poems and Journals from Latin America. Moose Jaw: Coteau, 1983.

HARRIS, William Richard [Dean Harris]. Days and Nights in the Tropics. Toronto: Morang, 1905.

HERRERA VALLEJOS, Carmen. How Nicaragua’s Good Guys Turned Bad. In: New Internationalist 1 Aug. 2018. Accessed 20 June 2019. https://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2018/07/27/nicaragua-good-guys-turned-bad

JENNINGS, Nicholas. “An Artist under Fire.” Maclean’s 10 Feb. 1986. Accessed 29 May 2019. https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1986/2/10/an-artist-under-fire

KEREN, Michael. The Bystander’s Tale: Gil Courtemanche’s A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali and the Rwandan Genocide. In: Studies in Canadian Literature 34.2 (2009), p. 22-39.

---. Politics and Literature at the Turn of the Millennium. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2015.

KOFF, Clea. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. 2004. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2005.

LETSON, Doug. Page One: On the Americanization of Canada. In: Gamut International (1987), p. 6-7.

LETSON, Doug; ROMANO, Alfredo. Are You Afraid of the Blood? Review and Conversation with Sergio Ramirez. In: Gamut International (1987), p. 43-48.

MCFARLANE, Peter. Northern Shadows: Canadians and Central America. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1989.

OZEKI, Ruth. A Tale for the Time Being. New York: Penguin, 2013.

RICE, Timothy; GUTNIK, Tammy. What’s Canadian about Canadian Popular Music?: The Case of Bruce Cockburn. In: Taking a Stand: Essays in Honour of John Beckwith. MCGEE, Timothy J. (Ed). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995, p. 238-56.

ROBB, Peter. Bruce Cockburn Is Living in Frisco, Raising a Two-Year-Old and Writing His Memoirs. In: Ottawa Citizen 7 May 2014. Accessed 21 Mar. 2016. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Bruce+Cockburn+living+Frisco/9815544/story.html

ROMANO, Alfredo. Bye Bye Gringo: A Nicaraguan Notebook. In: Gamut International (1987), p. 75-82.

SMUCKER, Tom. Rolling Along: Three Decades of Bruce Cockburn’s Music. In: Commonweal 131.4 (2004), p. 21-22.

VETLESEN, Arne Johan. Genocide: A Case for the Responsibility of the Bystander. In: Journal of Peace Research 37.4 (2000), p. 519-32.

WAYMAN, Tom. The Chilean Elegies: 1. Salvador Allende. In: Money and Rain: Tom Wayman Live! Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1975, p. 117-38.

YOUNG, Kevin. Bruce Cockburn. In: Canadian Musician 29.2 (2007), p. 38-41.