English Studies at the University Of Toronto Department of English/Faculty of Arts and Science Editor: P. Coles Assistant Editor: M. Perry Autumn 2010 Volume 2, Issue 1 Welcome Back to the Department of English Autumn 2010 Inside this issue: By Alan Bewell we do in English and where awarded annually by the Welcome Back 1 we need to go in the future. Canada Council to allow The past year has been one They have also reaffirmed the recipients to continue to The Annual Creative Writing 1 of tremendous challenges. Showcase tremendous role that English contribute to the cultural Here, as elsewhere, the The 2010 Alexander Lectures 2 studies can play in Canadian and intellectual heritage of problems raised by economic society and the value of an Canada. Also Professor An ACCUTE Sense of Relief 3 uncertainty have been front English degree. Over the Daniel Heath Justice was Bent on Yoga 4 and centre, and this situation past year, we have continued awarded the 2010 Ludwik has required us to find new Tributes and Tidings 6 our work of community and Estelle Jus Memorial and creative ways of achiev- Celebrating the newest 7 building, particularly with Human Rights Prize, while ing our educational and re- Anthology of Canadian Literature our alumni. Last year we Professor Paul Stevens re- in English search objectives. This has co-sponsored a number of ceived a President’s Teach- been “the year of reviews.” John Baird 8 very successful Backpack to ing Award, which is the In the Fall, our graduate Linda Hutcheon 10 Briefcase events, which highest award for teaching at program was reviewed by brought current undergradu- the University of Toronto. Magdalene Redekop 12 the Ontario Council of ate and graduate students in This issue of the English Venice 2010 14 Graduate Schools (OCGS), contact with successful Studies at the University of and, perhaps not surpris- Stranded in Venice 15 alumni. It was such a success Toronto aims to provide you ingly, we did extraordinarily 18 that we are doing another with a sense of the exciting Fall Campus Day well. This was also the year series of “B2B” events this things currently going on in Faculty Accolades 18 in which we were asked by year. the Department of English. the Dean of Arts and Science “Monsters in Myth and the 19 I hope you enjoy it. Media” to come up with a five-year Our faculty continue to excel The 2010 Molson Prize Winner: 20 plan for the Department of in research and teaching. Linda Hutcheon English. All this has been This year Professor Linda The Linda Hutcheon Graduate 21 very challenging. Hutcheon was awarded a Scholarship Fund prestigious Molson Prize in These reviews have required The A.S.P. Woodhouse Prize 22 Social Sciences and us to think a lot about what Humanities. This prize is The Brian Corman Graduate Prize 23 The Writer-in-Residence, 25 Barbara Gowdy The Annual Creative Writing Showcase In Memoriam: Paul Quarrington 26 By Jeff Parker sharp and controlled, cutting his name for a second-year The Adam Penn Gilders 26 Scholarship in Creative Writing If you keep up with recent and funny and powerful. Un- student in the MA in English fortunately, he passed away a in the Field of Creative Writ- Support the Department of 27 Canadian writing, you English might be familiar with the few years ago at a young age. ing program at U of T. work of Adam Penn Gild- Now his friends and family Alumni Information Update Form 28 continued on page 24 ers. His prose style was have endowed a scholarship in Department of English Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 2M8 Page 2 English Studies at The University of Toronto "The man that hath The 2010 Alexander Lectures no music in himself, By Pamela Coles Nor is not mov'd but rather visu- The Alexander lectures were alized, into the with concord of sweet founded in 1928 in memory of framework of former English Department lyric theory. Head Professor W.J. sounds, The real treat, Alexander. The talks on devel- however, was Is fit for treasons, opments in literature and liter- Professor ary theory are delivered on Culler’s read- stratagems, and four consecutive days. By de- ing, in his final sign, the series affords listeners talk, of an ex- spoils." a substantial degree of insight cerpt from into an invited lecturer’s com- Gerrard Manley William Shakespeare, pleted works or a current work -Hopkin’s “The The Merchant of Venice in progress. The talks are al- Leaden Echo (V, i, 83-85) ways a mid-winter pleasure. and the Golden Jonathan Culler Cornell Professor Jonathan Echo.” His Culler’s series on “The Theory obvious delight in the playful, of the Lyric” was no exception History and Literature, 1966) labile nature of the poem was to this rule. Following the tra- obvious as he read: “Nay, and Oxford University (B Phil jectory of the lyric from Sap- what we had lighthanded left in Comparative Literature, pho, Petrarch, Goethe and in surly the mere mould/Will 1968; D Phil in Modern Lan- Baudelaire and then into the have waked and have waxed guages, 1972), he has worked present, Culler gave a wonder- and have walked with the on nineteenth-century French fully comparative summation of wind what while we slept / literature (especially on the fundamentals and the family This side, that side hurling a Flaubert and Baudelaire) and resemblances of lyric across heavyheaded hundredfold/ on contemporary literary time. aÉ w|áàtÇvx Éy ÑÄtvx ÉÜ What while we, while we theory and criticism Addressing the more practical slumbered” to great applause. (especially structuralism, de- ÄtÑáx Éy à|Åx vtÇ ÄxááxÇ issues of the study of the lyric, construction and French the- he spoke about the pedagogical ory generally). He primarily à{x yÜ|xÇwá{|Ñ Éy à{Éáx ã{É tendency to search for a narra- teaches courses on literary tÜx à{ÉÜÉâz{Äç ÑxÜáâtwxw tive in lyric that makes it easier theory and on aspects of the to teach poetry through ques- About the speaker: history of the lyric. tions as is typically done in the Éy xtv{ Éà{xÜ:á ãÉÜà{A Jonathan Culler is Class of classroom. He also raised the 1916 Professor of English and issue of the difficulty of putting Comparative Literature at eÉuxÜà fÉâà{xç contemporary poetry such as Cornell University. Educated concrete or language poems at Harvard University (BA in that are not meant to be read Department of English, Jackman Humanities Building, 170 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 2M8 Page 3 English Studies at The University of Toronto An ACCUTE Sense of Relief By Steven Bruhm ACCUTE’s U of T office and easily. Craig Patterson you’ve done to assure its success. continued to promote the worked tirelessly with the folks On behalf of all members of Steven Bruhm valuable work of the associa- at the Federation to promote Association of Canadian Col- ACCUTE Past President tion’s least enfranchised ACCUTE through its own lege and University Teachers Robert and Ruth Lumsden Professor of groups, it kept strict control channels of dissemination, and I of English (ACCUTE), I want English of its finances, it reported its understand we are on the cusp to congratulate Heather The University of Western Ontario doings to the Association with of having an electronic mem- Murray, Craig Patterson, Pam clarity and openness—in bership registration system. Coles and the rest of the team short, it maintained all the Heather Murray’s sure hand has at the University of Toronto practices of ACCUTE ad- continued to improve the for a splendid administration ministrations before it, but ACCUTE/CACE hiring survey over the past two years. also kept us aware of the par- so that it asks what we need to When U of T took the reins of ticular urgency of dealing know with a sure sense of why ACCUTE in the summer of with the down-turn in the we need to know it. And Pam 2008, they were about to be markets. Coles has dealt with members’ where no one ever wants to concerns and questions effi- But it did more than tread be: running a large non-profit ciently, knowledgably, and water and encourage us to organization in the midst of an with a delightful sense of hu- look forward to brighter economic crisis. As we would mor. (You need that sense of days. On top of the usual come to learn over the next humor in her job, as her prede- responsibilities of organizing two years, the economic melt- cessors know.) the annual conferences (both down had serious effects on of which were tremendous Throughout this very successful many members of our organi- successes), supporting English tenure of ACCUTE’s admini- zation. Tenured and tenure- Studies in Canada (which is in stration, Heather and her team track faculty faced wage terrific shape on many have been very vocal about the freezes or cuts to travel funds, fronts), and lobbying for remarkable support they have people in contract positions government support through received from all levels at the found their contracts not being its participation in the University of Toronto. This renewed, graduate students Federation for Humanities support began with Brian heard an even louder wail of and Social Sciences, the U of Corman’s ensuring that doom for the future of the job T team also completely re- ACCUTE would find a home market. Of course no one in vamped the website, which there, and has continued our position can correct these was in need of a facelift.