Hockey on the Moon Imagination and Canada’s Game

Fantasy and reality come together in sports and Jamie Dopp argues that nowhere is this blurring of the borders of reality more evident than in Canadian hockey. Using imagination as a unifying theme, Dopp offers in-depth analyses of key texts of hockey literature, with a focus on how these texts reveal the imaginative possibilities of the game. Popular texts like Stompin’ Tom Connors’ “The Hockey Song,” Scott Young’s Scrubs on Skates trilogy, and Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater, as well as important literary texts like Bill Gaston’s The Good Body, Cara Hedley’s Twenty Miles, and Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse are examined. Dopp’s analysis draws on literary history and methods and explores broader topics such as the role of imagination in human culture, the significance of play, the evolution of sport in Canada and elsewhere, the history of Canada, and the history and social significance of hockey.

“Dopp looks closely at hockey myths but not solely to debunk them. Hockey on the Moon offers a conversation in the best sense. This is hockey talk that works across the aisle.”

—Jason Blake, author of Canadian Hockey Literature

About the Author

Jamie Dopp is an associate professor of Canadian literature at the University of Victoria. He has co-edited three collections of essays on sports literature: Now is the Winter: Thinking about Hockey with Richard Harrison; and Writing the Body in Motion: A Critical Anthology on Canadian Sport Literature and Not Hockey: Critical Essays on Canada’s Other Sport Literature with Angie Abdou.

Table of Contents

1. Acknowledgements
2. Introduction
3. 1. Stompin’ Tom Versus Big Al: Two Imaginative Versions of the Game
4. 2. The Fighting Soul of Hockey in Ralph Connor’s Glengarry School Days
5. 3. Hugh MacLennan and the Two Solitudes of Hockey
6. 4. Boys on the Defensive: The Hockey Myth in Scott Young
7. 5. Belief and Doubt in Roch Carrier’s “The Hockey Sweater”
8. 6. Haunted by Bill Spunska: Roy MacGregor’s The Last Season
9. 7. Blarney’s Version: The Comic Spirit of Hockey in Paul Quarrington’s King Leary
10. 8. Hockey as a Gateway to the Underworld in Wayne Johnston’s The Divine Ryans
11. 9. Playing with the Hero in Richard Harrison’s Hero of the Play
12. 10. Hockey, Zen, and the Art of Bill Gaston’s The Good Body
13. 11. Cara Hedley’s Twenty Miles and the Challenge of the Hockey Barbie
14. 12. The Faustian Bargain of the Athlete-Hero in Randall Maggs’s Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems
15. 13. Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse: Reimagining the Home Game
16. Conclusion: Return to the Moon
17. Publication Credits
18. Index

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). It may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that the original author is credited.