Issues and Themes in Canadian Literature I

Nonhuman Lives in Canadian Fiction

How do our ideas about Canadian identity change when we consider the world through the antennae of an ant, the nostrils of a shrew, or the probing tendrils of a vine? When we pay attention to the creatures with whom we share the land, how can we rethink our notions of sovereignty, borders, and belonging? And why is it important that we do so now?

This course will attempt to answer these questions by examining a range of nonhuman characters in Canadian literature, with particular attention paid to the critters we consider to be alien, invasive, unwanted, and/or dangerous. Our goal will be to critically analyze human-nonhuman relationships in Canada as they inform constructions of identity, kinship, intelligence, consciousness, and hierarchies of being. The course will be divided into the following modules: plants; fungi and lichen; animals I (pets); animals II (pests); and machines. Readings will include novels, short stories, poems, film, and comics from authors such as (but not limited to) Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, André Alexis, John Elizabeth Stintzi, Premee Mohamed, Jessica J. Lee, Lee Maracle, Kate Beaton, Corinna Chong, and Tiffany Morris. Our aim throughout the semester will be to consider the power that nonhuman voices in literature hold in re-imagining our relationships with our earthbound co-tenants in these times of eco-crises.