Literature in English, North America Commons^™

Outside, Inside By Michael Penny, Mark Byers

The Goose

Review of Michael Penny's Outside, Inside.

The Dove In Bathurst Station By Patricia Westerhof, Matthew Zantingh

The Goose

Review of Patricia Westerhof's The Dove in Bathurst Station.

Imperiling Our Children: An Interview With Fred Stenson About Who By Fire, Jon Gordon

The Goose

This interview with Alberta novelist Fred Stenson focuses on his most recent novel, Who By Fire. The discussion examines the role of environmentalists and the legal system in responding to the oil and gas industry in Alberta, as well as other issues connected to Stenson's work.

After Alice By Karen Hofmann, Dania Tomlinson

The Goose

Book review of Karen Hofmann's After Alice.

Invisible Dogs By Barry Dempster, David Huebert

The Goose

Review of Barry Dempster's Invisible Dogs.

Pastoral By André Alexis, Alec Follett

The Goose

Review of Pastoral by André Alexis.

Journey With No Maps: A Life Of P.K. Page By Sandra Djwa, Mckay Mcfadden

The Goose

Review of Journey With No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page by Sandra Djwa.

Conversations With A Dead Man: The Legacy Of Duncan Campbell Scott By Mark Abley, Rebecca Phillips

The Goose

This review explores Mark Abley's book on the legacy of Duncan Campbell Scott, the poet/bureaucrat responsible for the development and implementation of Canada's failed residential schools policy for indigenous children. The book places Scott in the context of his time while examining the results of his agency's policies.

Sybil Unrest By Larissa Lai And Rita Wong, Emily Mcgiffin

The Goose

Review of Sybil Unrest by Larissa Lai and Rita Wong.

In The Interval Of The Wave: Prince Edward Island Women's Nineteenth- And Early Twentieth-Century Life Writing By Mary Mcdonald-Rissanen, Joshua Bartlett

The Goose

Review of In the Interval of the Wave: Prince Edward Island Women's Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Life Writing by Mary McDonald-Rissanen.

In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage By Jay Ruzesky, Jennifer Schell

The Goose

Review of In Antarctica: An Amundsen Pilgrimage by Jay Ruzesky.

Rewriting The Break Event: Mennonites And Migration In Canadian Literature By Robert Zacharias, Jenny Kerber

The Goose

Review of Rewriting the Break Event: Mennonites and Migration in Canadian Literature by Robert Zacharias.

Sheridan Reads: The Book Of Negroes By Lawrence Hill, Sheridan Faculty Of Humanities And Social Sciences

2015 Creative Campus Series

Sheridan Reads is the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences’ signature contribution to Sheridan’s Creative Campus initiative, bringing students, staff and faculty together with community groups, public libraries and service organizations. The 2015 Sheridan Reads selection was Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill.

Lawrence Hill delivered the inaugural Sheridan Creative Campus Series Distinguished Speaker address on January 19, 2015: “Mining Creativity: Perspectives from a Novelist and Screenwriter.”

Other Sheridan Reads events included:

Book Club Conversations: February 10-12, 2015

These were informal, open conversations where participants exchanged opinions and shared perspectives on the novel from a variety of personal, cultural, …

Supplying Salt And Light By Lorna Goodison, Pamela Herron

Pamela Herron

Review of Supplying Salt and Light by Lorna Goodison.

The Novel Of Sentiment In A Short Story: Reflections On Teaching “Theresa”, Adam Kotlarczyk

Faculty Publications & Research

I introduced “Theresa” in between units on “The Age of Reason” and “American Romanticism.” Thus it was foregrounded by works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” and followed by stories by Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe. Strictly speaking, this puts “Theresa” slightly out of sequence; its serialization in 1828 precedes by at least ten years the works of Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving that we study. Despite this, the text functioned well as a transitional piece, although I would consider moving it deeper into the Romantic unit. The exotic setting, relative to our other …

Features Of Independence: Teaching “Theresa - A Haytien Tale”, Michael P. Dean

Faculty Publications & Research

One of the core beliefs of the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) states that we believe that “diverse perspectives enrich understanding and inspire discovery and creativity,” and in keeping with that aim, I chose to participate in the Just Teach One: Early African American Print project. As a school primarily focused on STEM subjects, IMSA still offers a robust English curriculum that values and supports a diverse literary canon, and our incoming sophomores are asked to complete a two-part Literary Explorations course that features America texts from colonial era up to the 21^st century.

Neurodiversity’S Lingua Franca?: The Wild Iris, Autobiography Of Red, And The Breakdown Of Cognitive Barriers Through Poetic Language, Dani Alexis Ryskamp

The Hilltop Review

Persons with mental and emotional disabilities, including self-advocates in the fledgling "neurodiversity" movement, often find themselves at a loss to communicate effectively with the "neurotypical," abled majority when experiences of language differ dramatically across typical and atypical populations. This paper explores the possibility of poetic language as a "lingua franca" permitting communication of neurodiverse experiences. It does so by examining examples of animism, synesthesia, and metonymy in Louise Gluck's The Wild Iris and Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red - poetic elements that also appear frequently in the writing of activists with depression, autism, and other neuroatypical conditions. I argue that, …

Tale Of The Whale, Joel Schlaudt

Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature

In his critique of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, A.N. Deacon accurately captures one of the main tenets if not the central theme of the book; however, he also makes several claims about the novel that do not seem to fit with the evidence seen in the actual story. For example, Deacon holds that Melville is attempting to show that the power and attributes of Moby Dick are the source, symbolically, of truth and meaning. However, this is not the impression we get when we look closely at the work itself and note Melville’s treatment of the subject. Furthermore, Deacon …

“In Fellowship Of Death”: Animals And Nonhuman Nature In Irving Layton’S Ecopoetics, Jacob Bachinger

The Goose

Irving Layton is not usually considered a “nature poet,” yet his work often features careful observations of nonhuman nature. Jacob Bachinger’s ecocritical reading of a few of Irving Layton's most frequently anthologized poems examines the underappreciated ecopoetic aspect of his work. Bachinger pays specific attention to a recurring theme in many of Layton's best known poems, such as “The Bull Calf” and “A Tall Man Executes a Jig”—the poet’s examination of a dead or dying animal. Layton’s examination of the deaths of these animals exists on a continuum in which the poet moves from an antipastoral to a postpastoral position.

I Would Prefer Not To Help You, Christen Dunn

Aidenn: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal of American Literature

Bartleby, the Scrivener recounts a story of a scrivener who would prefer not to do anything, whether that be parts of his job, changing his location, or eating his dinner. The narrator’s reaction to Bartleby’s lazy desires seem to be admirable, but his selfish motivation and false compassion are evident. The way the narrator views and treats Bartleby is consistent with the standards of philanthropy of the wealthy during the mid-nineteenth century. The narrator truly believes he has helped Bartleby to the best of his ability, yet fails to connect with Bartleby outside of offering him money and future assistance …