In his well-known satirical poem, aptly titled "Can. Lit., (1962)" Earle Birney argues that "[i]t's only by our lack of ghosts that we're [Canadians] haunted." Paradoxically, Birney subsequently stirred substantial debate over what spectres continue to shape English-Canadian literature and, more broadly, Canada as a nation. Birney is one in a long line of writers who recognize the fundamentally ambivalent relationship between colonialism and haunting as manifested in our national literature and culture, ranging from poems and short stories to plays, novels, paintings, and films. This course explores and wrestles with critical and creative work written over the last forty years that characterizes and labels Canadian texts as "Gothic." We probe the benefits and liabilities of employing the "Gothic" label to describe the work of BIPOC writers and artists, especially those who may see such terms as a colonial stamp of approval.
Prerequisites: B+ average in ENGL; open to ENGL Honours students. |
