Canadian Literature / Littérature canadienne A Quarterly of Criticism and Review Number 239, 2019, 60th Anniversary Published by The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Editor: Laura Moss Associate Editors: Nicholas Bradley (Reviews), Glenn Deer (Reviews), Kevin McNeilly (Reviews) Assistant Editors: Phinder Dulai (Poetry), Sarah Henzi (Francophone Writing), Brendan McCormack Past Editors: George Woodcock (1959-1977), W. H. New (1977-1995), Eva-Marie Kröller (1995-2003), Laurie Ricou (2003-2007), Margery Fee (2007-2015) Editorial Board Alison Calder University of Manitoba Lily Cho York University Carrie Dawson Dalhousie University Cecily Devereux University of Alberta Kit Dobson Mount Royal University Helen Gilbert University of London Faye Hammill University of Glasgow Lucie Hotte University of Ottawa Smaro Kamboureli University of Toronto Ric Knowles University of Guelph Christopher Lee University of British Columbia Linda Morra Bishop’s University Lianne Moyes Université de Montréal Maureen Moynagh St. Francis Xavier University Vanja Polic´ University of Zagreb Ian Rae King’s University College Julie Rak University of Alberta Deanna Reder Simon Fraser University Roxanne Rimstead Université de Sherbrooke Gillian Roberts University of Nottingham Sherry Simon Concordia University Cynthia Sugars University of Ottawa Neil ten Kortenaar University of Toronto Karina Vernon University of Toronto Lorraine York McMaster University Editorial Laura Moss A Diamond Anniversary 6 60th Anniversary Forum Nicholas Bradley North of Sixty: Surviving CanLit 11 Karina Vernon CanLit as Critical Genealogy 13 Carrie Dawson The Bosom of CanLit 17 Forum, continued Gillian Roberts CanLit and Canadian Literature: A Long-Distance View 20 Lily Cho Canadian Literature at 60: Inhabiting Discomfort 25 Articles Rosemarie Savignac Fantômes et impostures dans La fureur de ce que je pense de Marie Brassard d’après des textes de Nelly Arcan 31 Jenny Kerber Corrosive Aesthetics: On the Receiving End of Oil and Gas in Who by Fire 50 Jamie Paris “Men break when things like that happen”: On Indigenous Masculinities in Katherena Vermette’s The Break 68 Aislinn Clare McDougall The Decolonization of Print, Digital, and Oral Spaces in Jordan Abel’s Injun 87 Sally Chivers “Your own guilty story”: Rethinking Care Relations through David Chariandy’s Soucouyant 108 Poems Prathna Lor 10 Franco Cortese 85 Melanie Pierluigi 29 David Martin 107 Meredith Quartermain 48 Adrian De Leon 125 Cyril Dabydeen 66 Books in Review Forthcoming book reviews are available at canlit.ca/reviews Authors Reviewed Angie Abdou 128 Ali Blythe 131 André Alexis 128 Randy Boyagoda 133 Mike Barnes 130 Dionne Brand 135 Gwen Benaway 131 Julie Bruck 136 Cassandra Blanchard 132 Grant Buday 138 Books in Review, continued Paul Carlucci 139 Madeleine Thien 167 Lori Cayer 140 Miriam Toews 168 Simone Chaput 141 Emily Ursuliak 163 George Elliott Clarke 143 Isabel Vaillancourt 155 Stephen Collis 145 W. D. Valgardson 165 Pauline Dakin 146 Tom Wayman 169 Degan Davis 147 Joshua Whitehead 126, 127 Laura K. Davis 148 Deanna Young 136 Giulia De Gasperi 145 Suzanne Zelazo 140 Sarah de Leeuw 150 Dina Del Bucchia 138 Reviewers Mary Lou Dickinson 133 Paul Barrett 128, 143 Jamie Dopp 128 Gregory Betts 151 Sarah Dowling 151 Magali Blanc 141 Esi Edugyan 153 Natalie Boldt 154, 168 Kim Fahner 150 Natalee Caple 135, 138 Jason Freure 147 Mandy Len Catron 159 Carla Funk 154 Heidi Tiedemann Darroch 157 Pierre-Louis Gagnon 155 Sarah Dowling 131 Lyne Gareau 141 Chiara Falangola 156 Patricia Godbout 156 Alexandre Gauthier 155 Louis-Philippe Hébert 156 Louis-Serge Gill 160 Sarah Henstra 157 Jennifer Hardwick 127 Sheila Heti 157 Carla Harrison 133 Eve Joseph 136 Dallas Hunt 126 Kelli María Korducki 159 Anne L. Kaufman 162 Sarah Wylie Krotz 159 Jenny Kerber 150 Robert Lalonde 141 Angela Kruger 132 Valérie Lapointe-Gagnon 160 Amei-lee Laboucan 127 Brenda Leifso 130 Dorothy F. Lane 165 Randy Lundy 163 Andrea MacPherson 136 Jenny Manzer 162 Krzysztof Majer 139 Dave Margoshes 163 Dougal McNeill 145, 164 Robert McGill 145 Geordie Miller 147 Jean Mills 162 Nanette Norris 146 Kagiso Lesego Molope 162 Heather Olaveson 140 Jean Morisset 160 Claire Omhovère 159 Linda M. Morra 148 Robert David Stacey 169 Shane Neilson 130 Neil Surkan 130 Joseph Pivato 145 Véronique Trottier 167 Alexandra Risen 146 Emily Wall 163 Gillian Roberts 164 Paul Watkins 153 Genevieve Scott 165 J. A. Weingarten 148 Anna Marie Sewell 131 Suzanne Zelazo 128 Kelly Shepherd 150 Barbara Sibbald 139 Matthieu Simard 167 Opinions and Notes Ruth Panofsky The Spice Box, Old and New: Defining the Field of Canadian Jewish Writing 172 Ahmed Joudar “The cultures of Orient and Occident must be together in the character, imagination, and ideas of the writer”: A Conversation with Naim Kattan 178 Canadian Literature, a peer-reviewed journal, welcomes original, unpublished submissions of articles, interviews, and other commentaries relating to writers and writing in Canada and of previously unpublished poems by Canadian writers. The journal does not publish fiction. Articles—6,500-7,000 words (including Notes and Works Cited), double-spaced, and in 12-point font size—should be submitted online through Open Journal Systems (OJS). Please go to canlit.ca/submit to register and submit. Submissions must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf) or Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx). Submissions should include a brief biographical note (50-100 words) and an abstract (150 words). Articles should follow MLA guidelines for bibliographic format. Littérature canadienne est une revue avec comité de lecture. Elle publie des articles, des entrevues et des commentaires originaux sur les écrivains et l’écriture au Canada, ainsi que de la poésie canadienne pour publication initiale. La revue ne publie pas de fiction. Les articles—6500-7000 mots (notes et références bibliographiques comprises), à double interligne, taille de la police 12—peuvent être soumis en ligne sur canlit.ca/submit, où vous serez automatiquement redirigé vers notre plateforme OJS (Open Journal Systems). Les soumissions doivent être en format de texte enrichi (.rtf) ou Microsoft Word (.doc ou .docx) et doivent comprendre une brève note biographique (50-100 mots) et un résumé (150 mots). Les articles doivent respecter le style de citation MLA. Canadian Literature online (canlit.ca): Archives (canlit.ca/issues) Issues #1 to 215 are freely available online, as are all editorials and pre-print book reviews. CanLit Guides (canlitguides.ca) CanLit Guides is an open-access and flexible learning resource that helps students critically engage with Canadian literature while encouraging and promoting independent study. Open Journal Systems (canlit.ca/submit) Submit articles, poetry, and book reviews online. Copyright © 2019 The University of British Columbia Subject to the exception noted below, reproduction of the journal, or any part thereof, in any form, or transmission in any manner is strictly prohibited. Reproduction is only permitted for the purposes of research or private study in a manner that is consistent with the principle of fair dealing as stated in the Copyright Act (Canada). GST R108161779 Publication of Canadian Literature is assisted by The University of British Columbia, the Faculty of Arts (ubc), and sshrc. Canadian Literature is indexed in Canadian Magazine Index, Canadian Periodical Index, European Reference Index for the Humanities, Humanities International Complete, and the MLA International Bibliography, among numerous others. The journal is indexed and abstracted by ebsco, proquest, and abes. Full text of articles and reviews from 1997 onwards is available from proquest, gale, and ebsco Publishing. The journal is available in microfilm from University Microfilm International. Publications Mail Agreement SUBSCRIPTION for issues 236-239 no. 40592543 CANADA (GST INCLUDED): INDIVIDUAL $60; Registration no. 08647 INSTITUTION $242.55 OUTSIDE CANADA (SHIPPING INCLUDED): RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN INDIVIDUAL $90 usd; ADDRESSES TO INSTITUTION $272.55 usd Canadian Literature ISSN 0008-4360 The University of British Columbia Managing Editor: Donna Chin ANSO Building, Room 8 [email protected] 6303 NW Marine Drive Production Staff: Janin Balleza, Vancouver, BC Niamh Harold, Camille Lemire, Canada V6T 1Z1 Brendan McCormack, Beth Veitch TELEPHONE: (604) 822-2780 Design: George Vaitkunas EMAIL: [email protected] Illustrations: George Kuthan canlit.ca Printing: Hignell Printing Limited canlit.ca/submit Paper: recycled and acid-free We acknowledge that we are on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hәn’ q’ әmin’ әm’ -speaking Musqueam people. Editorial A Diamond Anniversary Laura Moss On June 1, 2019, we publicly celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of Canadian Literature. When the journal launched in 1959, there was skepticism over whether there could be enough critical material on the small body of literature produced in Canada to keep the publication alive for a year. The skeptics were wrong. Canadian Literature was the first journal devoted to the critical discussion of Canadian writing but absolutely not the last. In the early days, the journal was in the vanguard. Now, it documents the accomplishments and the ruptures in the culture it anticipated. Over the past six decades, the journal has continued to grow and publish important work by scholars, critics, reviewers, historians, commentators, authors, poets, and novelists alike. It has met the challenges of an ever-evolving field and changing publishing platforms. And,