"Amy J. Ransom and Dominick Grace have done a fantastic job with this volume, putting together a comprehensive, in-depth milestone that serves both as a valid introduction to the field of Canadian SFF and a towering critical work within it, which conveys the key conversations, opens up many avenues for research, and transmits a strong sense of enthusiasm for delving into the underreported yet clearly rewarding field of Canadian SFF." (Daniel Lukes, Fafnir - Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, Vol. 7 (2), 2020)
"Ransom and Grace's introduction is commendable for its illuminating survey of historical and recent developments in Canadian sf/f criticism and will be useful to both veterans and newcomers to the field. ... this volume deserves a lot of credit for successfully representing diversity and contemporariness while not losing sight of the Canadian sf/f canon." (Moritz Ingwersen, Science Fiction Studies, Vol. 47, 2020)
1. Introduction: Bridging the Solitudes as a Critical Metaphor
Amy J. Ransom, Central Michigan University
Dominick Grace, Brescia University
Prologue
2. Colonial Visions: The British Empire in Early Anglophone and
Francophone Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy
Allan Weiss, York University
Part I Bridging Borders:
Transnationalism and Postcolonialism in Canadian Speculative Fiction
3. Nevermind the Gap: Judith Merril Challenges the Status Quo
Ritch Calvin, SUNY – Stony Brook
4. Two Solitudes, Two Cultures: Building and Burning Bridges in Peter Watts’s
Novels
Michele Braun, Mount Royal University
5. The Affinity for Utopia: Erecting Walls and Building Bridges in Robert
Charles Wilson’s The Affinities
Graham J. Murphy, Seneca College
6. The Art of Not Dying: Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Catherine
Mavrikakis’s Oscar De Profundis
Patrick Bergeron, University of New Brunswick
(Translated by Amy J. Ransom)
Part IIBuilding Bridges:
Constructing and Deconstructing Myths of the Canadian Nation
7. When Are We Ever at Home?: Exile and Nostalgia in the Work of Guy
Gavriel Kay
Susan Johnston, University of Regina
8. Reconciliation, Resistance and Biskaabiiyang: Re-Imagining Canadian
Residential Schools in Indigenous Speculative Fictions
Judith Leggatt, Lakehead University
9. Indigenous Futurist Film: Speculation and Resistance in Jeff Barnaby’s
Rhymes for Young Ghouls and File Under Miscellaneous
Kristina Baudemann, Europa-Universität, Flensberg
Part III Bridging the Gender Gap:
Transnational and Transsexual Identities in Canadian SF
10. Building Hope through Community in Élisabeth Vonarburg’s Maerlande
Chronicles
Caroline Mosser, Utah State University
11. Cruising Canadian SF’s Queer Futurity: Hiromi Goto’s The Kappa Child and
Larissa Lai’s Salt Fish Girl
Wendy Gay Pearson, University of Western Ontario
12. Crossing the (Trans)Gender Bridge: Exploring Intersex and Trans Bodies in
Canadian Speculative Fiction
Evelyn Deshane, University of Waterloo
Part IV Bridging the Species Divide:
Technological, Animal, Extraterrestrial and Posthuman Sentience
13. A Maelstrom of Replication: Peter Watts’s Glitching Textual Source Codes
Ben Eldridge, University of Sydney
14. The Missing Link: Bridging the Species Divide in Margaret Atwood’s
MaddAddam Trilogy
Dunja Mohr, University of Erfurt
15. ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’: Bear Horror, the Species Divide, and the
Canadian Fight for Survival in a Time of Climate Change
Michael Fuchs, University of Graz
16. Interacting and Cohabiting with Humans, Earthlings, and Others in SFQ
Isabelle Fournier, Trent University
Part V Bridging the Slipstream: Generic Fluidity in Canadian Speculative Fiction
17. Holes Within and Bridges Beyond: The Transfictions of Élisabeth Vonarburg
and Michel Tremblay
Sylvie Bérard, Trent University
18. Tropes Crossing: On Some Québec Sf Writers from the Mainstream
Sophie Beaulé, St. Mary’s University
(Translated by Amy J. Ransom)
19. Transculture, Transgenre: Stanley Péan’s Fantastic Detective Fiction
Kathleen Kellett, Ryerson University
Epilogue
20. [Excerpts from A Glossary of Non-Essential Forms and Genres in English-
Canadian Literature]
Jordan Bolay, University of Calgary
Amy J. Ransom is Chair of World Languages and Cultures at Central Michigan University, USA. She has published over two dozen articles on Québécois popular genre literatures and film and is the author of Science Fiction from Québec (2009) and Hockey PQ (2014).
Dominick Grace is Professor of English at Brescia University, Canada. He is the author of The Science Fiction of Phyllis Gotlieb (2015) and several articles on Canadian literature of the fantastic, and coeditor of several collections of interviews with cartoonists, a volume on Canadian comics, and a volume on Twin Peaks.
Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror: Bridging the Solitudes exposes the limitations of the solitudes concept so often applied uncritically to the Canadian experience. This volume examines Canadian and Québécois literature of the fantastic across its genres—such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, indigenous futurism, and others—and considers how its interrogation of colonialism, nationalism, race, and gender works to bridge multiple solitudes. Utilizing a transnational lens, this volume reveals how the fantastic is ready-made for exploring, in non-literal terms, the complex and problematic nature of intercultural engagement.