The Department of
English & Film Studies
Winter 2014 Newsletter
Volume 7 | No. 2
2 - From the Chair’s Desk
3 - Undergraduate News
4 - Faculty News
6 - Sabbaticant
Report
8 - Graduate News
10 - Department Events
12 - Hot off the Press
Co-Editors:
Dr. Jing Jing Chang,
Assistant Professor
English & Film Studies
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Maggie Clark,
PhD Student
English & Film Studies
The EN&FS newsletter is
posted bi-annually on the
department websites:
www.wlu.ca/arts/english
and www.wlu.ca/arts/film.
Inquiries regarding this
or upcoming issues
(including submissions)
can be forwarded via
email to jchang@wlu.ca
or wlu.eng.film.newsletter@gmail.com
>> EN&FS faculty with recent publications, fiction and
non-fiction alike, present at the WLU Celebration of Authors
event. See page 5 for full list of department participants.
>> Laurier hosts celebrated writers in season flush with
literature-in-action. See page 11 for more.
From the Chair’s Desk
From the Chair’s Desk
Interrogations and Inspirations
A Season of Self-Reflection for Members of EN&FS
W
elcome to the spring edition of our 2014
newsletter. I say the word “spring” lightly,
since it seems that winter’s grip is still upon
us. Indeed, we are all looking forward to longer days
and warmer weather.
As always, and as the contents below reveal, EN&FS
has been busier than ever. Beyond our teaching, research, and service commitments, we have participated
in a number of events that have enriched the lives of
our community.
Significantly, we have celebrated several milestones.
On February 5 we celebrated all of our colleagues who
published books over the last two years. Eight authors
came together in the newly-renovated Fireplace Room
of the Laurier Library to present their books and engage in a lively presentation of their work. The variety of topics truly reveals the diversity of our faculty
and their research. The Edna Staebler Writer-in-Residence for 2014, Colleen Murphy, opened the event
with a lively introduction and overview of the authors’
works. Colleen is an award-winning playwright and
screenwriter, widely respected in theatrical circles, and
an internationally-acclaimed author of ten plays. It has
been a pleasure to have her at Laurier and to work with
her on various initiatives during this term.
We were also delighted to welcome our 2014 Visiting Writer, Elizabeth Hay, during March. In addition to
providing public lectures, Hay visited classes, hosted a
creative-writing workshop and joined a panel discussion with Colleen Murphy.
The EN&FS Brown Bag Lunch speaker series, organized by Dr. Jennifer Esmail, has also been very
successful, and has given us the opportunity to learn
much more about the research of our colleagues and
graduate students. The last such research talk was presented on Friday, March 14 by Dr. Maria DiCenzo,
and one final workshop, organized by Dr. Andrew
Bretz, allowed us this term to share and discuss how
we as educators can engage and experiment with various teaching and learning practices.
“Are the Arts in Crisis?” This was the big question
considered during our “Arts in Action” event (also organized by Dr. DiCenzo) on Thursday, March 6 in the
Concourse. Supported by CICDA, in collaboration with
the EN&FS department, this all-day event saw displays
from various departments and clubs in the Faculty of
Arts and created a “buzz” throughout the day.
This day included panels of faculty, students, and
alumni, each leading discussion on topics ranging from
the role of the arts in new emerging interdisciplinary
fields to career paths for arts graduates. I want to thank
Maria for all of the hard work that she and her team
put into this important initiative.
On the graduate student front, the annual TriUniversity Graduate Student Colloquium, which
took place on January 24, 2014 and was organized by
doctoral student Michael McCleary, was also a resounding success, as was the undergraduate film colloquium held on February 7, 2014 (see: opposite for
more details). I want to thank all of those participants
and organizers for helping to support the EN&FS department in such meaningful ways.
Again, our faculty members have been very productive, publishing books and articles, and giving conference papers. I want to thank all of you, students and
2 | Winter 2014
English & Film Studies
faculty, for continuing to contribute to such a vibrant
academic life in our department.
Once again, I would like to give a special thanks to
our co-editors, Dr. Jing Jing Chang and Maggie
Clark, for their exceptional work in producing this
newsletter. Also, I would like to thank all those who
make significant contributions every day to the successful running of EN&FS—our administrative officers and staff. Joanne Buchan and Donna Evers once
again deserve our appreciation for all their hard work.
Also, for their support as English undergraduate advisor and graduate director (respectively), I extend my
gratitude to Drs. Andrea Austin and Mariam Pirbhai, as well as our film studies coordinator, Dr. Russell
Kilbourn, who have devoted their time to advising and
helping students as well as participating and contributing to the academic affairs of the department.
If you are an alumnus reading this newsletter, we too
would like to hear from you. Do drop by if you are in the
area or send us a note. Keep in touch!
Best wishes for a successful conclusion to our winter
term,
Dr. Ute Lischke
Chair
Undergraduate News
T
he annual WLU Film Symposium,
which was held this year from 9:30a.m.
to 5:00p.m. on Friday, February 7 in
SBE 1210, gives undergraduate students the
opportunity to present research on a film topic of their choosing in an informal academic
environment. Presentations by students and
professors alike offered a non-competitive
setting that provided undergraduate students
at large an opportunity to engage in intellectual conversation about film.
Lunch, prizes, coffee, and tea were just some
of the benefits made possible through the generous support of the Council for the Intellectual
and Cultural Development of the Arts, EN&FS,
and WLU Film Society.
English & Film Studies
Winter 2014 | 3
Faculty News
Faculty News
Sandra Annett has been keeping busy (if not warm)
in the Winter 2014 term. On February 7, she presented her latest work, on haptic visuality in Japanese
and Korean animation, at the Toronto Film Seminar
held at TIFF Bell Lightbox. She also presented a refined version of this paper at the Society of Cinema
and Media Studies conference in Seattle on March 20.
Philippa Gates organized a conference panel with
Dominique Brégent-Heald of Memorial University for
the Society of Cinema and Media Studies conference held
in March in Seattle. The panel was titled “North American Borderlands and Identities” and featured four papers,
including her own on “Crossing the Borders of National
Identity and Genre: Chinese/Americans in American
Westerns.” She was also invited to talk about her research
Sylvia Bryce-Wunder’s article—“Glasgow, Anti-Ur- on “The History of Chinese American History in Ameribanism and the Scottish Literary Renaissance”—will can Film, 1920-1960” as part of the History Speakers’
be appearing in ScottishRenaissances, a special issue of Series at Laurier in April.
the European Journal of English Studies (eds. Wolfram R.
Keller, J. Derrick McClure and Kirsten Sandrock).
Russell Kilbourn’s recent publications include: “‘The Obligations of Memory’: Godard’s Underworld Journeys” in
Jing Jing Chang presented her research on the uncanny The Legacies of Jean-Luc Godard, edited by C. Stojanova, D.
film genre and film distribution in postwar Hong Kong Morrey (WLU Press, 2014); “The Question of Genre in
at the annual conferences for the Society of Cinema and Sebald’s Prose (Towards a Post-Memorial Literature of ResMedia Studies and the Association for Asian Studies, titution)” in A Literature of Restitution: Critical Essays on W.G.
held this March in Seattle and Philadelphia respectively. Sebald, edited by B. Hutchinson, V. Henitiuk (U of Manchester
P, 2013); “Camera Arriving at the Station: Cinematic Memory
Maria DiCenzo published “‘Our Freedom and Its as Cultural Memory” and ‘Ghost-towns: Cityscapes, MemoResults’: Measuring Progress in the Aftermath of ries and Critical Theory’ in a special issue of Societies, edited by
Suffrage” in Women’s History Review (2014), as part G. Gilloch and C. Lee (September 2013); “The Second Look,
of her SSHRC-funded research on feminist media in the Second Death: W.G. Sebald’s Orphic Adaptation of
Britain during the interwar period.
Hitchcock’s Vertigo” in Clues (January 2013); “Memory and
Film” in The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory, edited by W.
Tamas Dobozy’s article, “Dybek’s Diaspora”, ap- Buckland and E. Branigan (Routledge, 2013); “Memory and
peared in Mobile Narratives: Travel, Migration, and the Flashback in Film” in Oxford Bibliographies Online: Cinema
Transculturation, edited by Eleftheria Arapoglou, and Media Studies, edited by K. Gabbard (Oxford University
Mónika Fodor, and Jopi Nyman (New York: Rout- Press, July 2013); and “(No) Voice Out of the Whirlwind: The
ledge, 2014). He also participated in Canada Council Book of Job and the End of the World in A Serious Man, Take
Sponsored Readings from Siege 13, held at Vancouver Shelter, and The Tree of Life” in Adaptation (2014).
Island University, Cowichan Campus; University of
Victoria, Victoria, BC; and the OpenSpace Gallery, Ute Lischke was the program chair for the Aboriginal
Victoria BC, from March 5-7, 2014.
panels of the 22nd biennial conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS),
This term Jennifer Esmail has been involved in organ- which took place in Tampa, Florida from November 19izing some exciting departmental events, including the 23, 2013. The theme of the conference was “Canada in
EN&FS department’s monthly series of talks on re- the Hemisphere.” She also served as chair of and dissearch-in-progress and the visit of spoken word poet El cussant on several panels therein, and presented a paper
Jones to Laurier. She has also recently submitted essays titled “Hemispheric Intersections: Memory and Storythat will be appearing in print later this year, including telling in Indigenous Film in Canada.” She also served
an article on the partnerships between blind people and as a judge for the panel of the Edna Staebler Award for
their dogs in Victorian England and an encyclopedia ar- Creative Non-Fiction, which chose Carol Shaben’s Into
ticle on disability in Victorian literature.
the Abyss as this year’s winner.
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English & Film Studies
Glen Norton recently published “The ‘Hidden Fire’
of Inwardness: Cavell, Godard and Modernism” in
The Legacies of Jean-Luc Godard (WLU Press), as well
as a review of Hunter Vaughan’s Where Film Meets
Philosophy: Godard, Resnais, and Experiments in Cinematic
Thinking in The New Review of Film and Television Studies. His assessment of the influence of Marcel Sacotte’s book La Prostitution on Godard’s Vivre sa vie
was also commissioned for publication in Reading with
Jean-Luc Godard, forthcoming from Caboose Press. In
May, he will present a paper, “Assessing the Role of
Lived Temporality in Classical Realist Film Theory”,
at “Thinking Reality and Time Through Film”, an international conference on philosophy and film hosted by the Center of Philosophy of the University of
Lisbon, Portugal.
Mariam Pirbhai’s article, “The Poetics and Politics of
Snow: Re-Orienting Discourses of Gendered Violence
and Spousal Sponsorship in Anita Rau Badami’s Tell It
to the Trees”, will be published in the upcoming issue of
The Journal of Canadian Literature. Pirbhai also presented
her paper, “New Critical Mappings of Dominion and
State: the Komagata Maru and South Asian Canadian
Revisionist Historiographic Practice”, at the Canadian
Association of Cultural Studies conference, “Dispersions”, held at Laurier from January 16-19, 2014.
At the “Film and History” conference in Madison, Wisconsin, Katherine Spring presented a paper about the
legal status of foreign copyrights of film music in the
1930s. She also delivered invited talks at the University
of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Music weekly colloquium series and the Kitchener Public Library’s “Ideas and
Issues” lecture series.
Anne Russell has published “‘Playing the Men’: Ellen Tree, Fanny Kemble, and Theatrical Constructions of Gender” in Borrowers and Lenders: A Journal
of Shakespeare Appropriation (Spring/Summer 2013).
She has also published a review of Elizabeth Cooke
Hoby Russell, The Writings of An English Sappho, ed.
Patricia Philippy (with translations from Greek and
Latin by Jaime Goodrich) in Renaissance and Reformation (Summer 2013).
At the WLU Celebration of
Authors, held on Wednesday,
February 5 in the Laurier
Library, writers from the EN&FS
department demonstrated a
range of literary engagements
by reading from recent works of
fiction, reflection, and criticism:
Tamas Dobozy (Siege 13);
Jennifer Esmail (Reading Victorian
Deafness); Russell Kilbourn and
Eleanor Ty (The Memory Effect:
The Remediation of Memory in
Literature and Film); Ute Lischke,
et al. (Indigenous Voices and Spirit
Memory); Tanis MacDonald
(The Daughter’s Way); Mariam
Pirbhai (Critical Perspectives on
Indo-Caribbean Women’s Literature);
Katherine Spring (Saying It With
Songs: Popular Music and the Coming
of Sound to Hollywood Cinema);
and Robin Waugh (The Genre of
Medieval Patience Literature).
English & Film Studies
Winter 2014 | 5
Sabbaticant Report
F
or two weeks in late autumn of 2013, Dr.
Katherine Spring travelled to Hong Kong to
conduct research on how film composers are
using digital technology to augment their craft. Doctoral candidate Anders Bergstrom joined her for
Sabbaticant Report
Hong
Kong
Delights
one week of the two-week trip. Their research included viewings of rare films at the Hong Kong Film
Archive and interviews with filmmakers, composers,
and local scholars. The trip was funded by a SSHRC
Insight Development Grant.
Opposite: Counter-clockwise
from the top, Dr. Katherine
Spring enjoys a lush boulevard on
Hong Kong Island; prepares for a
sunless day in the Hong Kong Film
Archive; meets with Li Cheuk-to,
the ebullient artistic director of
the Hong Kong International Film
Festival; and surveys Hong Kong
Island from across the water (the
prominent building on the right
is Two International Finance
Centre, similar in height to the
original World Trade Centre).
Right: From top to bottom, Dr.
Spring enjoys a choice dessert,
osmanthus jelly with wolf berries;
a nighttime view of Hong Kong
Island; and time with composer
Tommy Wai.
6 | Winter
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2014 English & Film Studies
English & Film Studies
Winter 2014 | 7
Graduate Student News
Amid dissertation research and writing, Anton Bergstrom
presented a paper titled “The Self Estranged in Donne’s Lincoln’s Inn Sermon on Job 19:26” at the Tri-University Graduate Student Symposium, held at Laurier on January 24.
Maggie Clark saw two short stories published in Fall 2013,
“The Aftermath” in Clarkesworld and “We Who Are About
to Watch You Die Salute You” in Analog, before successfully
completing her CAE in December. She has two short stories
forthcoming this spring, “A Gift in Time” in Clarkesworld and
“Game of Primes” in GigaNotoSaurus, during which period she
will be working towards her SAE. She also received an Ontario
Graduate Scholarship for her forthcoming doctoral year.
Graduate Student News
celebrating the success of one outstanding TA or IA on
campus. He also served as the EN&FS event coordinator for this year’s Tri-University Graduate Symposium.
Murrielle Michaud will be presenting her paper, “Medieval Genre-Bending: Proto-Feminist Narrative Disguised as Hagiography in the Oxford, Bodleian Library
MS Douce 114”, at the 2014 ACCUTE conference, held
at Brock University this May for Congress 2014.
In January, Alexis Motuz spoke at McMaster University to the third-year “Arts and Science Inquiry” class on
the theme of creativity. She spoke specifically about her
experiences in graduate school and the importance of
Susan Hroncek has been accepted to present her paper, creativity both within academia and while negotiating a
titled “Dr. Jekyll’s Alchemy: Science and the Hermetic Art work-life balance. She is also volunteering as a mentor to
in Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, at a student in this class. She continues to enjoy working as
the NeMLA 2014 conference in Harrisburg, PA, and she a graduate tutor at Laurier’s Writing Centre.
will present a second paper, titled “Practical Magic: Scientific and Occult Boundaries in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll J. Coplen Rose recently received the Dr W. J. Villaume
and Mr. Hyde and The Beetle” at this year’s ACCUTE confer- Scholarship for his international research and scholastic sucence, to be held at Brock University. She also took part in cess. The scholarship is tied to his research in contemporary
this year’s 3MT competition on March 4.
South African drama, upon which his dissertation is based.
He has also been accepted to present at the 40th Annual
Shannon Maguire’s article, “A Catalogue of Failures: Error African Literature Association conference in Johannesburg.
and Processual Utopia in Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook”, While delighted with this opportunity, Coplen will be focusappears in Doris Lessing Studies (Fall-Winter 2013/14). This ing on completing a draft of his final research chapter and is
April, she also successfully completed her CAE in Canadian hoping to participate via electronic media instead.
literature. In May, Shannon will attend Congress for the Humanities, where she will present a paper, “Queer Hospitality and Ada Sharpe was awarded a SSHRC postdoctoral grant
Translation in Erín Moure’s O Resplandor”, for the Association beginning September 2014 for her project, “The Minfor Canadian and Québec Literatures. She will also chair two iature Domain: Place-Making and the Amateur Arts in
member-organized sessions at Congress: “With/out Sounds: British Women’s Writing, 1790-1825.” She will hold her
Technologies of Resistance in Canadian Poetry of the 1960s postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University under the
and 1970s” for ACCUTE, and “Without Margins: Multilingual supervision of Dr. Deirdre Lynch.
Poetics, Indigeneity, and Citizenship” for ACQL. On the creative front, Shannon was an invited presenter at the Paul Dutton Brooke Southgate presented this April at the Popular
Tribute Night, alongside the likes of Anne Michaels, Michael Culture Association and American Cultural AssociaSnow, and Paul himself on March 4. A poem from her first col- tion joint national conference. Her paper, “The Case of
lection, fur(l) parachute, was selected for Best American Experimental Gothicism and the Detective Heroine in Urban Fantasy
Writing 2014 (forthcoming from OmniDawn).
Fiction”, was accepted as part of the panel “Gothic in
American Fiction”. The conference was a perfect fit for
Michael McCleary is this year’s recipient of the 2014 her American literature and genre studies focus, and she
Teaching Assistant Award of Excellence, a Laurier accolade was happy to head “home” to Chicago to participate.
8 | Winter 2014
English & Film Studies
Alec Follett, University of Guelph: “Working Bodies in and out Anton Bergstrom, Laurier: “The
of Place: The Migrant Workers’ Experience and Environmental Self Estranged in Donne’s Lincoln’s
Sustainability in Alistair McLeod’s No Great Mischief”
Inn Sermon on Job 19:26”
Alexandra Orlando, Laurier: “Hooks, Alexandra Wight, University of Guelph: “The Body as a
Needles, and Whips: Japanese Male Bioregion: An Examination of the Relationship Between
Sexuality in the Films of Takeshi Miike” Earth and Self in Gary Snyder’s Poetry”
Ron East, University of Guelph: “Imagination
Claire Meldrum, Laurier: “This Breast, It’s
and the Composition of Reality”
Me: Agency and Self-Conception in Frances
Jennifer Schamehorn, University of Guelph: “Janet
Burney’s Mastectomy Narrative”
Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller’s The Dark Pool and Dr. Natalie Alvarez, Brock University: “Managing
the 40 Part Motet: Soundscapes as Sensory Extensions Affect in Alberta’s Mock Afghan Villages: Simulating
Jason Swiderski, Laurier: “That
the Maelstrom of War”
Digital Pill: Technological Dependency Kimber Sider, University of Guelph: “Human/Equine
and Perception in Limitless”
Improv: Training Humans in Embodied Knowledge”
Tri-university Symposium explores bodies,
the “self” in literature and film
O
n January 24, GSEFSA hosted the second and very
successful Tri-University Graduate Student Symposium. This year we had attendees provide papers
exploring such diverse topics as digital cinema, contemporary
works of installation art, human/equine performance as a
mode of improv performance, and John Donne’s poetic estrangement. We were also very pleased to have engaged Dr.
Natalie Alvarez of Brock University to provide this year’s keynote address, titled “Managing Affect in Alberta’s Mock Afghan Villages: Simulating the Maelstrom of War.”
The Tri-University Graduate Symposium is specifically designed to showcase and highlight the work completed by both master’s and doctoral students, while
offering a platform from which to explore or challenge
current research in the fields of literary, theatre, new
media, film and/or cultural studies. As such, the symposium offers an opportunity to engage in cordial and
supportive debate with others who will in turn offer complementary perspectives and constructive
criticism. Above all, the aim is to construct a collegial and supportive atmosphere in which students can
participate in the cross-pollination and cultivation of
graduate-level research, while also fostering a connection with other tri-university students who are working
within similar disciplines and areas of interest.
In this regard, the Tri-University Graduate Symposium
was a great success. We had both returning and new students attend and participate, delivering a wide array of
well-researched and critically relevant works. Our guest
speaker, Dr. Natalie Alvarez, even commented that she
was impressed with the level and the quality of research
the students of the symposium presented. As such,
GSEFSA is extremely pleased with the calibre of both
the papers and the success of the symposium overall,
and thanks Kimber Sider, Joanne Buchan, Dr. Mariam
Pirbhai, Dr. Russell Kilbourn, Dr. Ute Lischke, and
Dr. Natalie Alvarez for making this event possible. Next
year we’re looking forward to travelling to the University
of Guelph for the symposium’s third annual iteration.
English & Film Studies
Michael McCleary
Doctoral student
Winter 2014 | 9
Department Events
Arts in Action
I
n collaboration with the Council for the
Intellectual and Cultural Development
of the Arts (CICDA), EN&FS hosted
an “Arts in Action” day on Thursday, March
6, in the Concourse. The goal was to assert
the value and importance of the arts, not only
in education, but also in our lives and in society more generally. The idea for the event
grew out of the need to address the growing
pressure students in the arts face from their
parents, peers, and the media to make educational choices directed towards success in the
job market—namely, through STEM subjects.
The event included panels of faculty from
across the university and alumni working in a
variety of fields, all of whom spoke to the relevance and demand for the skills arts students
bring to all sectors of the labour market. The
event provided students with an opportunity
to learn more about departments and programs in the Faculty of Arts, to explore the
many resources available (e.g. Career Services
and the Writing Centre) and to get to know
the exciting array of student clubs on campus.
Dr. Maria DiCenzo
Professor
Above: Dr. Sandra Annett helms a table
of materials attesting to the scope of course
offerings in the EN&FS department.
Below: Dr. Maria DiCenzo coordinates
panels of humanities scholars, including
EN&FS’s Dr. Robin Waugh and Dr. Tanis
MacDonald (not in photo), who discussed the
far-reaching relevance of studies in the arts.
10 | Winter 2014
English & Film Studies
HAY
DAYS
and Moments with Murphy
Laurier hosts celebrated author Elizabeth Hay and
award-winning playwright Colleen Murphy in
academic season rife with literature-in-action
T
his term the Laurier Reads program, coordinated by Dr. Tanis
MacDonald, welcomed Elizabeth Hay, author of Late Nights on Air,
into the intellectual life of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The group gathered
three times over February and March to
discuss Hay’s novel in anticipation of her
on-campus presence in late March.
During her time at Laurier, Hay guided a creative writing workshop and presented a public lecture and Q&A session
featuring readings from her latest novel,
Alone in the Classroom. She also participated in both a panel discussion (on Northern themes in science and literature) and
a public dialogue (on the historical, political, genre-specific, and psychological
issues emergent from literary lives) with
Governor-General-Award-winning
playwright Colleen Murphy.
Murphy, the 2014 Edna Staebler
Writer-in-Residence, had her own
busy schedule this term; the author of
ten plays, including The Goodbye Bird
and Armstrong’s War, she has been splitting her time during this three-month
residency between personal work and
community programming, including
student consults, public readings, and
lectures. All events with both authors
were well-attended, a testament to the
lively state of literature at Laurier.
Department Events
New collaborative
heights for Laurier
Free Film Series
I
n partnership with the Office
of Aboriginal Initiatives, the
WLU Film Society, the Dean
of Arts Office, and the Department of Religion and Culture,
EN&FS forwarded a six-part free
film series this winter term, running biweekly at 7p.m. out of
Bricker Academic 201.
According to EN&FS collaborator Dr. Russell Kilbourn, “The
films themselves are an eclectic mix
of art and commercial film, documentary and biopic—together representing the variety of cinematic
perspectives on Aboriginal issues
and identities.”
Dr. Jenny Kerber presented
Frozen River on January 24, while Dr.
Kilbourn presented The Journals of
Knud Rasmussen on March 14.
From top to bottom:
Laurier’s 2014 Edna
Staebler Writer-inResidence, Colleen
Murphy, and this year’s
Visiting Writer (March
17-21), Elizabeth Hay.
English & Film Studies
Winter 2014 | 11
Hot off the Press
Robin Waugh and Peter V. Loewen, eds., Mary
Magdalene in Medieval Culture (Routledge, 2014)
T
his innovative and multidisciplinary collection visits
representations and interpretations of Mary Magdalene
in the medieval and early modern periods, questioning
major scholarly assumptions behind the examination of female
saints and their depictions in medieval artwork, literature, and
music. Mary Magdalene’s many and various characterizations,
from reformed prostitute to conversion-figure to devotee of
Christ to “apostle to the apostles” to spiritual advisor to the
Prince of Marseilles to hermit in the desert (to list just a few examples), mean that the many conflicted representations of Mary
Magdalene apply to a staggering variety of cultural material, including art, liturgy, music, literature, theology, hagiography, and
the historical record.
This volume employs a broad spectrum of theoretical methodologies in order to present poststructuralist, postcolonial,
postmodernist, hagiographic, and feminist readings of the figure of Mary Magdalene, addressing and interrogating her conflicting roles and the precise relationship between her sacred
and secular representations.
Ute Lischke, et al., Indigenous Voices and Spirit Memory,
(Aboriginal Issues Press, 2013)
I
ndigenous Voices & Spirit Memory is one of the first in a series of
publications by Aboriginal Issues Press that comes out of collaboration with First Nations and Métis communities on their research
issues. This collection explores the meaning and importance of traditional knowledge passed from generation to generation. It is the core
that unites Mindscape and Landscape. The book contains powerful
examples of the significance of stories and storytelling. These stories
contain voices and spirit memory from Indigenous film, documentaries, literature, mapping, humour and genealogy.
The peoples along Lake Huron have been particularly affected by
international boundaries, which have not taken into account their own
traditional territories. The Historic Saugeen Métis hosted and contributed to a symposium and workshop on these events in the summers
of 2011 and 2012. Indigenous people on both sides of the current
international border are still working on issues of sovereignty, as well
as issues arising since 1815, both present and historical. Now, they are
also writing about it.
12 | Winter 2014
English & Film Studies