The Spaces and Places of Canadian Popular Culture

Book excerpt: "How can we identify popular culture that is Canadian? This book aims to explore this question in consideration of the spaces and places of Canadian popular culture to make it more thinkable for students and scholars. The collection explores Canada's place within both the national and transnational production of popular culture. The aim is to explore the role of identity (e.g., race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender) as it significantly affects the popular culture that emerges from a variety of Canadian geographies. As an interdisciplinary collection, the chapters will speak to the artifacts, music, film, podcasts, television, comic books, social media, video games, and other media that reflect the array of culture(s) that exist under the umbrella of Canadian popular culture. The 32 chapters bring together discussions of mainstream popular culture, for example, the importance of icons such as Drake and Tegan and Sara, the place of Aboriginal identity, considerations of the popular culture ubiquity of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The book also aims to uncover the significance of whiteness, absent nationalism, and class representations in media and popular television shows, such as Schitt's Creek."--