"My name is Joe, and I AM Canadian!" How did a beer ad become a
national anthem? When did Olympic opening ceremonies become an
advertisement for national superiority? What do toques and canoes have
to do with nationalism? Canadian couch potatoes need wonder no longer.
This book by award-winning Toronto-based author, media theorist,
filmmaker and professor Marusya Bociurkiw examines how affect
(passionate sites of feeling) and consumerism work together to produce
shows like Canada A Peoples' History, North of 60, and television
coverage of the 2010 Olympics. As Canadian TV expert Michelle Byers
writes, "Providing anecdotes that most readers will be very familiar
with, Bociurkiw's analysis situates us firmly within the context of

There are the obvious stupidities.

In an era where vintage is cool and big government is not, the new Winnipeg Jets logo foolishly discards a popular classic and chooses instead something that looks like it belongs on an Air Canada safety brochure.

While hockey teams in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal labour to give everything a retro, classic feel (all five teams regularly wear jerseys that date back to the 60s, 70s and 80s), the old/new Winnipeg franchise has elected to abandon a look that maintained its popularity throughout the club's 15-year absence. Clever.

"My name is Joe, and I AM Canadian!" How did a beer ad featuring an unassuming guy in a plaid shirt become a national anthem? This book about Canadian TV examines how affect and consumption work together, producing national practices framed by the television screen. Drawing on the new field of affect theory, Feeling Canadian: Television, Nationalism, and Affect tracks the ways that ideas about the Canadian nation flow from screen to audience and then from body to body.

A conference featuring: