English 603 Topic 12/English 505 Topic 13 - Feminist Poetry in Canada

Winter 2010
Instructor: Susan Rudy
srudy [at] ucalgary [dot] ca
Wednesday 1:00-3:30 

Course Description:  This course will focus on some of the considerable body of poetry produced by women in Canada since the mid-1960s that can be considered both feminist and experimental.  In addition to close textual analyses of the work of key figures from the 1960s and 1970s (Nicole Brossard, Daphne Marlatt, Phyllis Webb), 1980s (Erin Mouré, Lola Lemire Tostevin), 1990s (Marie Annharte Baker, Dionne Brand, Lisa Robertson),  and since the turn of the century (Sina Queyras, Rita Wong, Rachel Zolf), we will examine how, why, and by whom what Stephen Morton has recently called a "feminist counterpublic" has been formed by looking to the network of conferences (Women and Words

[1983], Telling It [1987], Women and Texts [1997], the "Inspiring Collaborations" conference in honour of Barbara Godard [2008]), little magazines and journals (Room of One's Own, Tessera, CV/2, Fireweed: A Feminist Quarterly), and presses (Sister Vision, Coach House, New Star, NeWest) that have enabled, produced, and connected this community of feminist poets. 

Note:  Because many of the key writers in this context have continued to publish across several decades, wherever possible we will read texts from at least two different periods in their writing lives.  Texts that are no longer in print will be available in digital form on Blackboard.

Tentative Reading List

Baker, Marie Annharte.  Being on the Moon.  Winlaw, B.C.: Polestar, 1990.
---. Exercises in Lip Pointing.  Vancouver: New Star, 2003.
Brand, Dionne.  Inventory. Toronto: M & S, 2006.
---. No Language is Neutral. Toronto: Coach House, 1990.
Brossard, Nicole.  Fluid Arguments.  Trans. Anne-Marie Wheeler. Ed. Susan Rudy. Toronto: Mercury P, 2005.
---. She Would Be the First Sentence of My Next Novel / Elle serait la premiere phrase de mon prochain roman.  Trans. Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood. Toronto: Mercury P, 1998.
---.  These Our Mothers. Trans. Barbara Godard. Toronto: Coach House, 1983. 
Dorward, Nate, ed. Antiphonies: Essays on Women's Experimental Poetries in Canada. Toronto: The Gig, 2008.
Dybikowski, Ann et al.  In the Feminine:  Women and Words / Les Femmes et les Mots. Edmonton: Longspoon P, 1985.
Godard, Barbara, ed. Collaboration in the Feminine: Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera.  Toronto: Second Story P, 1994.
Marlatt, Daphne.  Readings from the Labyrinth.  Edmonto: NeWest P, 1998.
---. Salvage.  Red Deer: Red Deer College P, 1991.
---. Touch to My Tongue.  Edmonton: Longspoon, 1984.
Morton, Stephen. "The Formation of a Feminist Counterpublic in the Poetics of Lola Lemire Tostevin and Daphne Marlatt."  Contemporary Women's Writing 1:1/2 (2007):151-170.
Moure, Erin. O Cidadán. Toronto: Anansi, 2002.
---. Furious. Toronto: Anansi, 1988.
Queyras, Sina. Lemon Hound.  Toronto: Coach House P, 2006.
Tostevin, Lola Lemire. Gyno-Text.  Toronto: Underwhich, 1983.
Robertson, Lisa.  The Men.  Toronto: Bookthug, 2006
---. The Weather. Vancouver: New Star P, 2001.
Webb, Phyllis.  Naked Poems.  Vancouver: Periwinkle P, 1965.
Wong, Rita. Forage. Gibsons L.anding, B.C.: Nightwood, 2007.
Zolf, Rachel. Human Resources. Toronto: Coach House P, 2007.