Blockseminar: June 16 - July 14, 2025. Mondays and Fridays: 4-7 pm.
The immigrant experience is a foundational phenomenon of Canadian culture and history. To a substantial degree, the country has been shaped by successive generations of immigrants, from colonial times until the present. The immigrant experience has been woven into every facet of the country’s history and understanding of itself at the level of individual destinies as well as that of the national collective. While an historical constant within Canadian life, the understanding and collective perception of immigrants and immigration and their role in shaping the country have changed over the years.
It is no surprise that the Canadian literary institution has long been occupied with the literary depiction of the immigrant experience. Some of the quintessential texts of Canadian literature – from Frances Brooke and Susanna Moodie to Frederick Philip Grove and Michael Ondaatje – have been about the effects of immigration on the immigrants themselves and the country as a whole. To a significant degree, the changing contours of the Canadian national imaginary have been shaped by changing perceptions of immigration as expressed in the nation’s literary art.
The present course will be occupied with a reading of four contemporary Anglophone novels of immigrants and immigrant experience within Canada. Our interest in studying these texts will be to identify consistencies within the transhistorical ”story” of immigration, but also to observe changes and to reflect upon the ways in which the changing narratives of immigrant experience reflect shifts within the national imaginary.
Students are required to read the assigned texts in advance of the relevant classes and to come to discussions prepared to express their own ideas and insights.
List of Required Reading (tentative list):
Peter Behrens, The O’Briens, 2012
Barbara Joan Scott, The Taste of Hunger, 2022
Dmitri Nasrallah, Hotline, 2022
Nancy Lam, The Loyal Daughter, 2022
Course Requirements:
- Course readings / discussions
- Presentation on a relevant topic of the student’s choice
- Final essay of approximately 15 - 20 pp.
Tentative Schedule (Alterations to the schedule possible – according to student availability):
Monday June 16 16:00 – 18:00 Introduction
Friday June 20 16:00 – 19:00 Peter Behrens, The O’Briens
Monday June 23 16:00 – 19:00 Peter Behrens, The O’Briens
Friday June 27 16:00 – 19:00 Barbara Joan Scott, The Taste of Hunger
Monday June 30 16:00 – 19:00 Barbara Joan Scott, The Taste of Hunger
Friday July 4 16:00 – 19:00 Dmitri Nasrallah, Hotline
Monday July 7 16:00 – 19:00 Dmitri Nasrallah, Hotline
Friday July 11 16:00 – 19:00 Nancy Lam, The Loyal Daughter
Monday July 14 16:00 – 19:00 Nancy Lam, The Loyal Daughter
- DozentIn: Paul Morris
- DozentIn: Bärbel Schlimbach