Mon, 26 Mar 2018 09:00:00 AST
Kevin Levangie joins host Kaarina Mikalson to talk about Doctor Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor who ran a blood transfusion service in Spain. Kevin tells us about Bethune's background, his radical politics, his art, and his work in Spain and China.
Show Notes:
Clips from the montage (in order of voices)
- Michael Enright, Rewind (CBC): http://www.cbc.ca/radio/rewind/norman-bethune-china-s-hero-1.2801190
- Lister Sinclair, Bethune (National Film Board) https://www.nfb.ca/film/bethune/
- Dr. Wilder Penfield, Bethune (National Film Board)
- George Hatem, “Norman Bethune’s Heroism in China.” 13 Sep. 1964. CBC Sunday Night (CBC) http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/norman-bethune-heroism-in-china
- Adrienne Clarkson: Interview with Shelagh Rogers on the CBC Radio show The Next Chapter
- Roderick Stewart, “New Norman Bethune biography draws complex picture.” 1 Dec. 1933. The Arts in Review (CBC) http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/stewart-talks-about-his-new-bethune-bio
- Ted Allan, Bethune (National Film Board)
- Nicholas Clermont in the clip “Controversy on the Set of Sutherland’s Bethune Film.” 4 Nov. 1988. Daily Network News (CBC) http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/controversy-on-the-set-of-sutherlands-b...
- Trailer for Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1990)
Bethune’s work
The best source for Bethune’s work is Larry Hannant’s Politics of Passion, but you can find it in a few other places online.
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“Wounds” by Norman Bethune. Politics of Passion. ed. Larry Hannant. University of Toronto Press, 1998, pages 324-7.
- Available online at Princeton: http://noosphere.princeton.edu/bethune.html
- “Apology for Not Writing Letters” by Norman Bethune. Politics of Passion, pages 160-5.
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“Red Moon.” Canadian Forum. 17.198 (July 1937): 118. Print. Norman Bethune,
- “Red Moon,” Politics of Passion, pages 114-5.
Work on Bethune
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Writing
- Clarkson, Adrienne. Norman Bethune.Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2009. Print.
- Stewart, Roderick and Jésus Majada. Bethune in Spain. Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014.
- Stewart, Roderick and Sharon Stewart. Phoenix: the Life of Norman Bethune. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011. Print.
- Hannant, Larry, ed. The Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune’s Writing and Art. Toronto: U of T Press, 1998. Print.
- Mao Tse-Tung, “In Memory of Norman Bethune” https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_25.htm
- Langley, Rod. Bethune: A Play. Vancouver: Talon Books, 1975. Print.
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Film
- Bethune: documentary, 1964, available to stream for free)on the National Film Board website: https://www.nfb.ca/film/bethune/
- Bethune: TV movie, 1977
- Bethune: The Making of a Hero: biopic, 1990
Bethune in Spain
- Heart of Spain, 1937 documentary about the Spanish Civil War and Bethune's blood transfusion work
- The Crime on the Road: published during the Spanish Civil War, this pamphlet includes Bethune's description of the refugees fleeing Malaga. It's available on our website in English and French.
Fascism in Canada
- Nadeau, Jean-François. The Canadian Fuhrer: The Life of Adrien Arcand. Trans. Bob Chodos, Eric Hamovitch and Susan Joanis. Toronto: James Lorimer, 2010
- "Maurice Duplessis." Canada's Human Rights History: https://historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/biographies/maurice-duplessis/
Communism in China
- Kevin confused Edgar Snow’s 1937 book Red Star Over China and Agnes Smedley’s texts, which include China’s Red Army Marches (1933, also published as Red Flood Over China) and China Fights Backs: An American Woman with the Eighth Route Army (1938)
Socialist Realism/Socialist Aesthetics
- Cecil-Smith, Edward. “Propaganda and Art.” Masses, January 1934, pp. 10-11.
- Lunacharsky, Anatoly. “Problems of the Soviet Theatre: On Socialist Realism, Literature and the Theatre.” International Literature, no. 3, 1933. pp. 88-96.
- Plekhanov, Georgy. “Art and Social Life.” 1912. Marxists Internet Archive, 2009.
- Plekhanov, Georgy. “Historical Materialism and the Arts.” 1899. Marxists Internet Archive, 2008
Credits:
Produced by Kaarina Mikalson
Hosted by Kevin Levangie and Kaarina Mikalson
Intro song: "Libertad" by Iriarte and Pesoa
Credit song: "Spanish Bombs" by The Clash