SELECTED THESES ON THE CIRCUMPOLAR ARCTIC

Images, whether landscape paintings or photographs, affect southern Canadians' cultural and political perceptions about the high eastern Arctic. Landscape imagery of the region has influenced the popular media's imagination so much that a critical eye is rarely applied to historical and contemporary images. Perceptions of the Arctic landscape are derived from many influences. Landscape theory, theories of nationalism, as well as ideas about nature and wilderness reflect how the landscape can be interpreted. Direct links can be demonstrated between historic landscape paintings, the revolutionizing effect of photography, the impact of members of the Group of Seven on images of Canadian nationalism, and contemporary tourism advertising. Images of the high eastern Arctic landscape combine to form a collective memory involving a cultural and ideological hybridization of ideas that privileges a romantic perception. The purpose of this thesis is to acknowledge the romantic perception as constructed and reinforced and not privilege it to the exclusion of others.'