Selves and Subjectivities—Reflections on Canadian Arts and Culture

Long a topic of intricate political and social debate, Canadian
identity has come to be understood as fragmented, amorphous, and
unstable, a multifaceted and contested space only tenuously linked to
traditional concepts of the nation. As Canadians, we are endlessly
defining ourselves, seeking to locate our sense of self in relation to
some Other. By examining how writers and performers have conceptualized
and negotiated issues of personal identity in their work, the essays
collected in Selves and Subjectivities investigate emerging
representations of self and other in contemporary Canadian arts and
culture. Included are essays on iconic poet and musician Leonard Cohen,
Governor General award–winning playwright Colleen Wagner,
feminist poet and novelist Daphne Marlatt, film director David
Cronenberg, poet and writer Hedi Bouraoui, author and media scholar
Marusya Bociurkiw, puppeteer Ronnie Burkett, and the Aboriginal rap
group War Party.

As critic Diana Brydon has argued, contemporary Canadian writers are
“not transcending nation but resituating it.” Drawing
together themes of gender and sexuality, trauma and displacement,
performativity, and linguistic diversity, Selves and
Subjectivities offers an exciting new contribution to the
multivocal dialogue surrounding the Canadian sense of identity.

Manijeh Mannani is associate professor of English and comparative literature at Athabasca University and adjunctprofessor of comparative literature at the University of Alberta. Veronica Thompson is assistant professor of English in the Centre for Language and Literature at Athabasca University.