MAVIS GALLANT: THE WRITER AS EXILE

Next Monday we shall be speaking in the course  about Mavis Gallant, (born 1922) a writer who, although she was born in Montreal, has spent most of her life in Paris. She also lived in Spain in the early fifties' and this is what the two stories you are going to read are about. She almost returned to Spain in 1999, but did not make it... However, I was lucky enough to interview her in Paris.
Here is the link to the interview, published in Atlantis, the journal published AEDEAN, (Spanish Association for Angloamerican Studies):
http://www.atlantisjournal.org/HTML%20Files/Tables%20of%20contents/22.1%20(2000).htm

Mavis Gallant essay: "What is Style?" (1982)
http://www.mrbauld.com/gallant.html

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:

Does Gallant's description of Madrid in the early 1950's correspond to what your parents/granparents have told you about this period? What "horizon of expectations" do you bring to your reading of the stories (films, TV series, previous readings...)?

Here are the other promised links:

Video about The Paris Stories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFh_A_unK1s

My article on autobiography in "When We Were Nearly Young":
http://jsse.revues.org/index533.html

Thank you all for your contributions to the course. It's been pleasure having you a students!
Keep on reading Canadian Literature!

MORE MATERIAL ON ALICE MUNRO

In 2007 the Canadian actress and film director Sarah Polley adapted the story "The Bear Cane Over the Mountain" for the screen. You may remember Sarah Polley as the actress starring in Isabel Coixet's film La vida secreta de las palabras. She is currently working on a film adaptation of one of Margaret Atwood's novels, Alias Grace.
Here are some useful links:


Trailer from "Away from Her"

Children's song "The Bear Went Over the Mountain"

Alice Munro's about censhorship

SHARE YOUR REACTIONS TO ALICE MUNRO'S STORIES

What are your personal reactions to Munro's stories?  Do you connect it with any personal memories/experiences? Lives of Girls and Women was removed from the school curricula in Huron Country, the region where the story is set  because it was considered obscene: how do you feel about the description of sexuality in this story? Do you find it crude or realistic? What do you think about the portrait of sexuality/male-female relationship  in "The Bear Came Over the Mountain?" How does Munro's style contribute to your reactions to the stories? Do you think it has evolved from the earlier one ("Lives of Girls and Women") to the later one ("The Bear Came Over the Mountain")

SHARE YOUR REACTIONS TO MARGARET ATWOOD'S POEMS

What do you think about the  Atwood's poems I  reproduced in the handout? What is their intention?
Do you find them violent, repulsive, exaggerated, humorous? Do you find any aesthetic value in them.
Look at the poems from Power Politics: who is the "you"? Who is the "I"? Read "Notes Towards a Poem that Can Never Be Written"? Do you think that speaker in this poem has the right to speak for the victims?

Female Literature in the United States and Canada

The CTIF of Madrid-Sur is organizing a course about  "Female Literature in the United States and Canada" Certainly Canada is well-known for the quality of her "female" literature -I prefer to say "women's literature,"
Canada  has had women writers from the beginning of its history, starting from its pioneers, like Susanna Moodie, and following a tradition which continues until the present day. In this course, I will be introducing three of  Canada's foremost women writers: Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro and Mavis Gallant.
Margaret Atwood (Ottawa, 1939) is one of  Canada's best known writers, the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award in 2008. Karen Stein recognizes Atwood's gifts for all genres of writing, but recognizes that for Atwood it was her  poetry that first built her reputation. Especially early in her career, she often spoke of herself as a poet. Her publications of poetry collections (more than eleven volumes) are impressive, as impressive as her novels. In fact, often her novels derive from visions or ideas suggested in ther poems.