CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
8355
Partner Institution:
University of Calgary
Source Collection Title:
Robert Kroetsch fonds
Source Collection ID:
Source Collection Contributing Unit:
University of Calgary, Archives and Special Collections
Source Collection URI:
Source Collection Image URL:
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
Robt. Kroetsch & Rudy Wieb [sic], CBR "Canada AM" Show, May 6/76.
Title Source:
Transcribed from the artifact
Title Note:
Transcription of entire interview. Recording in envelope stamped with University of Lethbridge.
Language:
English
Production Context:
Classroom recording
Identifiers:
[28.3.2]
Rights
Rights:
In Copyright (InC)
Notes:
Enters Public Domain at the end of 2026
CREATORS
Name:
Kroetsch, Robert
Dates:
1927-2011
CONTRIBUTORS
Name:
Wiebe, Rudy
Dates:
1934-
Name:
McDonald, Marguerite
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Cassette
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/8 inch
Side:
A
Tape Brand:
Sony
Sound Quality:
Poor
Physical Condition:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
Duration:
T00:18:28
Size:
608.74 MB
Dates
Date:
1976-05-06
Type:
Performance Date
Notes:
Date taken from creation dates listed for item level descriptions in archival finding aid for the Robert Kroetsch fonds Item number 28.3.2
LOCATION
Address:
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Venue:
Canada AM / CBR Calgary
CONTENT
Notes:
Transcript of interview included in folder. The casette is enclosed in an envelope with the University of Lethbridge Department of English stamped on it
- The file contains a full transcription of the interview.
- Begins mid-sentence with introduction by Marguerite McDonald
- Robert Kroetsch and Wiebe are at a piano with Collie Banks, they didn’t know they were already being recorded.
- Rudy was a singer – he sings “Amazing Grace” then Robert Kroetsch sings “Wild, Wild Women”
- [00:03:07] interview on approach to prairie writing
- Beer parlours and prairie stories – Wiebe says there are only certain types of stories that you can hear at parlours
- Space and the prairies – W “space has everything in it” you just have to look
- Always in relationship with the landscape/earth and the prairies make you aware of this relationship
- W – man is vertical compared to flatness of prairies, man moves while landscape remains immutable
- K – why movement across prairies so important to novels
- K – doesn’t like generalizations about the prairies
- K – as writers we accept the prairies – earlier writers (Grove, Ross) trying to resist the prairies – trying to impose another cultural pattern onto it
- W – old writers had a sense that somehow the prairies had to be improved, whereas current writers now live and move within the prairie space and work with it
- W – When writing Big Bear travelled his prairie routes. Wiebe didn’t try to write notes during the journey, wanted to feel the experience
- K – did the same for Badlands – a week on Red Deer River
- Commenting on the quote about Canadian literature that “it’s by our lack of ghosts we’re haunted”: W – disagrees, gives examples of buffalo jumps which are over 4000 years old. He insists that we have ghosts, but it’s “by our ignorance that we’re haunted” because we don’t know or refuse the history.
- K – in writing, you look for a story that acts out inside of you
NOTES
RELATED WORKS