Leonard
Cohen, who is remembered as the remarkable literary
persona of the 1960s whose two novels were to sell a
million copies each, and as the poet who was named
the winner of the Governor General's Award (although
he declined to accept the honor), is also recognized
for the songs he has recorded over a period of more
than twenty years from the first album, Songs
of Leonard Cohen, to Famous
Blue Raincoat (recorded by
Jennifer Warnes).
Bruce
Cockburn's recording career spans twenty-eight years
and twenty-three albums, the latest being the Juno
Award winner (2000), Breakfast
In New Orleans, Dinner In Timbuktu.
His lyric writing, woven together with a thread of
integrity and intelligence, is exceptional. His songs
are political, mystical, religious: many the result
of his travels and activism. Cockburn is also
honorary chair of Friends of the Earth.
These two
artists, so different in style and temperament, are
brought together in one work in order to compare and
examine the way in which they approach the question
of love and desire--in their art and in their life.
Nonnekes
contends that, despite widely different routes, both
of these artists arrive at a similar place in their
desire: the love provided by communion with the
feminine other. From a psychoanalytic perspective,
especially Lacan and Kristeva, as well as one
informed by an encounter with the critical theory of
Benjamin, Nonnekes proposes two subjects, one called
I, from Cohen's work, and one called S, from
Cockburn's work, and follows the journeys of each of
these subjects as they yearn for love. From Cohen's
1966 novel, Beautiful Losers,
through to his 1992 album, The
Future, and from Cockburn's
1970 album, Bruce Cockburn,
through to his 1997 album, Charity
of Night, Nonnekes inquires
into the fate of love for the masculine subject in a
world where the dreams of desire encounter both ruin
and promise.
Table
of Contents
Paul
Nonnekes, Ph.D., teaches Cultural Studies in the
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Red
Deer College, Alberta.
192 pages,
photographs, bibliography, index
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-176-3 $19.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55614-177-1 $48.99
Music / Cultural Studies
November 2000
