Arts and Literature in Canada:Views from Abroad, Les arts et la ...

IJCS/RIÉCLandscape seems most suited to an investigation of perspective, as it onlyexists as a portion of the earth perceived and apperceived in a certain way. 6Studies of environmental perception confirm that “‘[l]andscape’ ... is aconstruct of the mind” (Yi-Fu Tuan 1979: 6), the construction depending on aperson's individual disposition as well as the pervasive notions of his/hersocial and cultural environment. 7 The perception of landscape as landscapealso demands a particular outlook of the corporeal eye; it is “a view or prospectof natural inland scenery, such as can be taken in at a glance from one point ofview” (OED). The pertinence of this definition to painting is obvious, yet thesame visual criterion seems to differentiate the poetry of landscape from thepoetry of nature. In many examples of English Romantic poetry, for instance,the use of the word “landscape” is conspicuously tied to precisely localizedviewpoints, as in Wordsworth's “Tintern Abbey”: “The day is come when Iagain repose/Here, under this dark sycamore.”Landscape emerges as a subject where visual and mental perspectives coalescein an almost exemplary fashion. In Anglo-Canadian landscape poetry, visualperspectives serve as correlatives to individual as well as cultural views of theland.It is a commonplace of Canadian Studies that Canadian culture has beenshaped by the experience of the country's geography and natural world, andCanadian landscapes have been a prime subject of both Canadian painting andpoetry. Gaile McGregor's The Wacousta Syndrome (1985) is one of manystudies to define the Canadian landscape experience as one of a “beleagueredhuman psyche attempting to preserve its integrity in the face of an alien,encompassing nature” (5). McGregor cites visual perspective in Canadianlandscape painting as evidence of this view. The basic orientation in thesepaintings is an “anti-panoramic” one, with a notable tendency for indistinctbackgrounds, horizons that are “raised or hidden by features in the fore-tomiddleground,” low viewpoints, and other techniques that delimit the sense ofa painting's spatial depth (17f.).These observations can be reformulated in terms of a theory developed by theBritish geographer Jay Appleton (1975): a person's capacity to feelcomfortable in and appreciate a landscape depends on the degree to which thelandscape's hazard potential is diminished by its potential for prospect andrefuge—seeing without being seen. 8 According to Appleton, unrestrictedpanoramas and vistas constitute powerful factors of prospect (85ff.).Basically, the opportunity for prospect diminishes the environment hazard, butan excess of prospect makes for a negative experience—the surveyable landbecomes a landscape of “exposure” (151). In light of this theory, the Canadianpainters' handling of perspective (as described by McGregor) may beinterpreted as a strategy for reducing the excess of prospect that so manyCanadian landscapes present.10