Trafford Publishing

Ian Sowton

In ancient Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to the meaningless activity of forever rolling a boulder to the top of a hill, then starting all over again after it had promptly rolled back downhill. Taking its cue from the famous essay on Sisyphus by the French existentialist writer Albert Camus, this book's paradoxical title and title-poem suggest the imperative of refusing to despair, of choosing oneOs own meaning and taking responsibility for it. Although Imagining Sisyphus Happy includes poems of complaint, mourning, and contemptuous or exasperated satire, the bookOs overall stance affirms that existential imperative of refusing to despair. As a group these poems might be trying to imagine Sisyphus happy but they discourage IOve-got-the-truth certainties of every stripe. A number of these poems are at home in an urban cityscape, with various Toronto streets, parks, and backyards as their setting. As in the authorOs first book of poems, Intricate Armada (2005), here there is a considerable range of tones, moods, and voices; these poems are not for readers looking for a single, confidently settled point of view. The prevailing form in this new book of poems is so-called 'free verse', but there are some ballad-like poems and brief forays into very strict forms such as glosa, villanelle, and sonnet. Mercy Jones, who is quite a strong presence in Intricate Armada, makes some further appearances in this volume, along with a new character called Tewler. DonOt ask the author where Mercy Jones or this guy Tewler came fromÑhe doesnOt know.

Imagining Sisyphus Happy

Jennifer Henderson

Eva C. Karpinski

Ray Ellenwood

Trans/acting Culture, Writing, and Memory is a collection of essays written in honour of Barbara Godard, one of the most original and wide-ranging literary critics, theorists, teachers, translators, and public intellectuals Canada has ever produced. The contributors, both established and emerging scholars, extend Godard’s work through engagements with her published texts in the spirit of creative interchange and intergenerational relay of ideas. Their essays resonate with Godard’s innovative scholarship, situated at the intersection of such fields as literary studies, cultural studies, translation studies, feminist theory, arts criticism, social activism, institutional analysis, and public memory. In pursuit of unexpected linkages and connections, the essays venture beyond generic and disciplinary borders, zeroing in on Godard’s transdisciplinary practice which has been extremely influential in the way it framed questions and modelled interventions for the study of Canadian, Québécois, and Acadian literatures and cultures. The authors work with the materials ranging from Canadian government policies and documents to publications concerning white-supremacist organizations in Southern Ontario, online materials from a Toronto-based transgender arts festival, a photographic mural installation commemorating the Montreal Massacre, and the works of such writers and artists as Marie Clements, Nicole Brossard, France Daigle, Nancy Huston, Yvette Nolan, Gail Scott, Denise Desautels, Louise Warren, Rebecca Belmore, Vera Frenkel, Robert Lepage, and Janet Cardiff.

Essays in Honour of Barbara Godard

Trans/acting Culture, Writing, and Memory

Trans/acting Culture, Writing, and Memory is a collection of essays written in honour of Barbara Godard, one of the most original and wide-ranging literary critics, theorists, teachers, translators, and public intellectuals Canada has ever produced. The contributors, both established and emerging scholars, extend Godard’s work through engagements with her published texts in the spirit of creative interchange and intergenerational relay of ideas. Their essays resonate with Godard’s innovative scholarship situated at the intersection of such fields as literary studies, cultural studies, translation studies, feminist theory, arts criticism, social activism, institutional analysis, and public memory. In pursuit of unexpected linkages and connections, the essays venture beyond generic and disciplinary borders, zeroing in on Godard’s transdisciplinary practice that has been extremely influential in the way that it framed questions and modeled interventions for the study of Canadian, Québécois, and Acadian literatures and cultures. The authors work with the archives ranging from Canadian government policies and documents, to publications concerning white supremacist organizations in Southern Ontario, online materials from a Toronto-based transgender arts festival, a photographic mural installation commemorating the Montreal Massacre, and the works of such writers and artists as Marie Clements, Nicole Brossard, France Daigle, Nancy Huston, Yvette Nolan, Gail Scott, Denise Desautels, Louise Warren, Rebecca Belmore, Vera Frenkel, Robert Lepage, and Janet Cardiff.

Ian Sowton

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