Robert Bringhurst

Robert Bringhurst
Born (1946-10-16) October 16, 1946
Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Residence Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality Canadian[1]
Occupation Poet, typographer, writer
Spouse(s) Jan Zwicky

Robert Bringhurst OC[2] (born 16 October 1946) is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. Bringhurst has translated substantial works from Haida and Navajo, as well as classical Greek and Arabic. He wrote The Elements of Typographic Style – a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in June 2013.[2]

He lives on Quadra Island, near Campbell River, British Columbia (approximately 170 km northwest of Vancouver) with his wife Jan Zwicky, a poet and philosopher.

Life

Born in Los Angeles, California, he was raised in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Alberta, and British Columbia. Bringhurst studied architecture, linguistics, and physics at MIT, and comparative literature and philosophy at the University of Utah. He holds a BA from Indiana University, and a MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia. In 2006, he was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Fraser Valley.[3]

Bringhurst taught literature, art history and history of typography at several universities and held fellowships from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the American Philosophical Society, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Literary career

His 1992 publication, The Elements of Typographic Style was praised as “the finest book ever written about typography” by type designers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones.[4] A collection of his poetry, The Beauty of the Weapons was shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award in 1982, and A Story as Sharp as a Knife, his work on Haida symbolism, was nominated for a Governor General’s Award in 2000. Bringhurst won the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence in 2005, an award which recognizes British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the Province.

Work in Haida

Bringhurst has a strong interest in linguistics, translating works from classical Greek, Arabic, Navajo, and, most significantly, Haida. His interest in Haida culture stems from his friendship and close association with the influential Haida artist Bill Reid, with whom he wrote The Raven Steals the Light in 1984, among several other significant collaborations. It was this friendship that in 1987 “started Bringhurst on the philanthropic endeavour of recording the Haida canon”.[5] The result of this labour was a trilogy of works collectively titled Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers. The essays in its first volume, A Story As Sharp As Knife, and particularly its ninth chapter, "The Prosody of Meaning," constitute an important contribution to the understanding of the poetics of oral literatures.

His translations from Haida have been viewed as an attempt to preserve the Haida culture, which in 1991 was considered part of a group "likely to be lost unless strong efforts are made very quickly to perpetuate them".[6] The Haida translation has caused some controversy. Bringhurst was accused of academic exploitation and cultural appropriation.[7] In 2001, the CBC radio program Ideas aired a two part series called “Land to Stand On.” The series' first episode featured “a string of Haida claiming [...] that Bringhurst's work is ‘about keeping us in our place,’ written ‘without asking us,’" and "replete with ‘serious errors twisting it into the poetry that he wants’”.[5]

In 1999, the Globe and Mail published a report on the Haida reaction to A Story As Sharp As A Knife by Adele Weder.[8] Weder's piece was later criticized for citing only two Haida sources, claiming they could speak for the entire Haida community, and was described as an "inflammatory article ... not likely to be mistaken for exemplary journalism".[9] The Globe and Mail published Bringhurst's response,[10] which was later called "considerably more measured".[11]

In 2001, Jeff Leer reviewed A Story As Sharp As A Knife saying Bringhurst has neither formal linguistic education[12] nor significant experience with spoken Haida,[13] and doubting Bringhurst's ability to translate from Haida. Leer's review compared Bringhurst's work unfavourably to Enrico's Skidegate Haida Myths and Histories, and referred to the Weder review as an authoritative source. Leer's publisher, the International Journal of American Linguistics, retracted the review and apologized to Bringhurst for publishing:

some unfounded statements from another author that might be read to impugn Prof. Bringhurst's qualifications or integrity. The Journal's sole intention in publishing the book review was to bring an important work by a well-respected scholar to the attention of its readers. [...] it was not the Journal's intent to transmit erroneous perceptions of Prof. Bringhurst's training or scholarship.[14]

Most academic discussion and recognition of Bringhurst's work in Haida has been positive. Linguist Dell Hymes wrote a review of the Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers trilogy (of which A Story As Sharp As A Knife is part) in Language in Society,[15] praising the trilogy. He said it "should become a classic reference point"[16] for Haida scholars in the future. In 2004, Bringhurst won the Edward Sapir Prize for Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers.[17] The committee giving the award was headed by Leanne Hinton, an expert in American Indian languages, and chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.[18]

Bringhurst has been defended by Margaret Atwood, who says that “territorial squabbling cannot obscure the fact that Bringhurst’s achievement is gigantic as well as heroic”, and that far from appropriating native voices, Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers “restores to life two exceptional poets we ought to know”.[19] The CBC documentary was attacked in print for relying "entirely on the fallacy, convenient to the producers, that Bringhurst had not consulted with any Haida".[5] Bringhurst with the help of Bill Reid had spent the better part of the previous decade working with members of the Haida community.[5] People from other indigenous Canadian communities, such as late Cree elder Wilna Hodgson, CM, SOM,[20] have also defended Bringhurst. In a letter to the editor of Books In Canada, she called A Story As Sharp As A Knife "a gift to First Nation people across [Canada]", and a true "masterpiece in the growing genre of spoken texts". In her opinion, Bringhurst's "efforts are clearly informed with the kind of integrity that all translators might strive to emulate".[21]

Bringhurst says that "culture is not genetic" and that he pays respect to Native American languages like Haida by allowing works from those languages to be appreciated as art by as wide an audience as possible.[22] He says he always intended his translations to be "[exercises] in literary history, not in the interpretation of present-day Haida culture".[5]

Bibliography

Poetry

Prose

Translation

Edited works

Commentary

Notes

  1. ↑ "Wong (1999)."
  2. 1 2 Appointments to the Order of Canada (2013).
  3. ↑ Russell (2006).
  4. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions".
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Richler (2001).
  6. ↑ Kinkade (1991).
  7. ↑ Bradley (2007).
  8. ↑ Weder (1999).
  9. ↑ Bradley (2007) 895.
  10. ↑ Bringhurst "Since when" (1999).
  11. ↑ Bradley (2007) 896.
  12. ↑ Leer (2000).
  13. ↑ Leer (2000), 576.
  14. ↑ "An Apology" (2001).
  15. ↑ Hymes (2003).
  16. ↑ Hymes (2003), 750.
  17. ↑ "Edward Sapir Book Prize" (2004).
  18. ↑ "Edward Sapir Prize" (2005).
  19. ↑ Atwood (2004).
  20. ↑ Past Recipients (2012).
  21. ↑ Hodgson (2000).
  22. ↑ "Prize Winning Poet" (2011).

References


  • "An Apology: A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classic Haida Mythtellers and Their World". International Journal of American Linguistics (University of Chicago Press) 67 (2): Unpaginated front matter. April 2001. JSTOR 1265884. 
  • "Appointments to the Order of Canada". The Governor General of Canada, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston. June 28, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013. 
  • Atwood, Margaret (February 28, 2004). "Uncovered: An American Iliad". The Times (London). pp. Review 10–11. 
  • Bradley, Nicholas R. (Summer 2007). "Remembering Offence: Robert Bringhurst and the Ethical Challenge of Cultural Appropration". University of Toronto Quarterly (University of Toronto Press) 76 (3): 890–912. doi:10.3138/utq.76.3.890. 
  • Bringhurst, Robert (November 22, 1999). "Since when has culture been about genetics?". Globe and Mail. pp. R3. 
  • "Edward Sapir Book Prize". Society for Linguistic Anthropology. 2004. Retrieved October 26, 2012. 
  • "The Edward Sapir Prize". Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter 24 (1): 5. 2005. 
  • "Frequently Asked Questions". Hoefler & Frere-Jones. Retrieved October 26, 2012. 
  • Hodgson, Wilna (2000). "Letters to the Editor: Sharp Knives". Books in Canada (Canadian Reviewer of Books) 29 (1): 4. 
  • Hymes, Dell (November 2003). "Review: Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers". Language in Society (Cambridge University Press) 32 (5): 747–751. doi:10.1017/s0047404503305056. 
  • Kinkade, Dale (1991). R.H. Robins and E.M. Uhlenbeck, eds. Endangered Languages. Berg Publishers. pp. 157–176. 
  • Leer, Jeff (October 2000). "Review of A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classic Haida Mythtellers and Their World by Robert Bringhurst". International Journal of American Linguistics (University of Chicago Press) 66 (4): 565–578. doi:10.1086/466443. 
  • "Listening for the Heartbeat of Being". McGill-Queen's University Press. McGill-Queen's University Press. November 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015. 
  • "Prize-Winning Poet". As It Happens (CBC Radio). April 22, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2012. 
  • Richler, Noah (November 8, 2001). "Where Two Culture Meet, Complainers Arise: The Charge That Robert Bringhurst Is Appropriating Haida Myths is Absurd". National Post. pp. A21. 
  • Russell, Anne (June 12, 2006). "UCFV honorary doctorate: Robert Bringhurst". University of the Fraser Valley. Retrieved October 26, 2012. 
  • Weder, Adele (November 15, 1999). "The Myths and the White Man". Globe and Mail. pp. R1. 
  • Wong, Sandee (January 21, 1999). "Western's writer-in-residence provides safe environment for budding authors". Western News (The University of Western Ontario). Retrieved November 26, 2012. 


External links

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