for a special issue of Canada & Beyond: A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies (Spring 2018 issue)

Guest Editor: Eva Darias-Beautell

In her Levinasian discussion of the functioning of ethical obligations in the face of global and local forms of precarity, Judith Butler links the production of vulnerability with a situation of “up againstness” or “unwilled adjacency,” of one’s involvement in a relation of proximity that has not been chosen (134). Vulnerability in those cases arises from the realization that “one’s life is also the life of others”, and that “the bounded and living appearance of the body is the condition of being exposed to the other, exposed to solicitation, seduction, passion, injury, exposed in ways that sustain us but also in ways that can destroy us” (141). Itself the site of production of various forms of violence and vulnerability, this adjacency also triggers the affective and creative engagements necessary for action (134).

These seem crucial issues in Canada, where contemporary debates over citizenship and social justice often take place within complex transnational, transcultural, and (post)colonial contexts as well as beside the historical experiences of settlement and migration, with their contested forms of national or cultural belonging. Additionally, Canada’s humanitarian tradition, itself marked by convoluted narratives, is increasingly challenged by new conditions of global violence, environmental threats, social and political unrest. Canadian literatures do not merely reflect on these conditions but engage with them, exploring the aesthetic possibilities of what could be thought of as a reconnection between the text and the world. How does cultural production articulate and propose strategies of resistance to the massive production of vulnerability? Are the examples of resilience offered by Canadian literature, film, performance and visual arts able to reactivate ethical responsibility and political activism?

This special issue invites contributors to offer a critical examination of Canadian cultural production with an emphasis on the discursive modes that deconstruct the hegemonic structures that produce vulnerability. We also wish to invite research articles that interpret the present condition of (un)willed adjacency in its real and metaphoric possibilities as a site of production of violence and vulnerability, but also (potentially) of lucid creativity, exposing, soliciting, seducing “in ways that sustain us but also in ways that can destroy us.”

Possible areas of interest include (but are not limited to): urban poverty, the medicalized body, indigenous activism, colonial violence, migration and war narratives, ecological vulnerability, the posthuman seduction, emotional precarity, sexuality and (trans)narrative desire, gender and agency, technological liquidity, queer creativities, precarious labour, (non)narratives of resistance, narrative ethics and the post-truth moment. Comparatist and interdisciplinary approaches are most welcome.

All submissions to Canada & Beyond must be original, unpublished work. Articles, between 6,000 and 7500 words in length, including endnotes and works cited, should follow current MLA bibliographic format.

Submissions should be uploaded to Canada & Beyond’s online submissions system (OJS) by the deadline of June the 1^st, 2017. They will be peer-reviewed for the Spring 2018 issue.

Work Cited: Butler, Judith. 2012. “Precarious Life, Vulnerability, and the Ethics of Cohabitation.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 26.2: 134-151.

Ever since his first feature film J’ai tué ma mère premiered at Cannes in 2009, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and three awards, every film from the prolific and precocious 28 year-old Québécois director Xavier Dolan has generated significant buzz. A recipient of numerous international awards, Dolan has recently taken his career into genre filmmaking (with Tom à la ferme, which premiered at Venice and garnered the prestigious FRIPESCI prize) and to an international level, with his first English-language feature The Death and Life of John F. Donovan now in post-production.

Dolan has undoubtedly been a crucial player in the film festival circuit of the past seven years, and an eloquent spokesperson for Québec’s national cinema within international spheres. Dolan’s involvement with directing, producing, screenwriting, editing, costume design and English subtitling and dubbing make Dolan an exemplar of auteur cinema. Meanwhile, his “very Québécois” profile, combined with the wide circulation of his films in foreign markets, continues to enhance the relevance of Québec’s cultural specificity in wider frameworks of film reception.

As the first book-length anthology on Xavier Dolan, this ReFocus International Directors volume seeks to make an intervention on the global reach of small national and subnational cinemas, and to use Dolan’s cinema as a departure point to reconsider the position of Québec film and cultural imaginary within a global cinematic culture. The Films of Xavier Dolan will be one of the scholarly editions to be published by the University of Edinburgh Press in the ReFocus series on international directors. Series editors are Robert Singer, PhD and Gary D. Rhodes, PhD.

The editor is accepting submissions on any aspect of Dolan’s oeuvre, but especially chapters on the following topics:

• The international reception of Dolan’s films
• Local/Global reception
• Millennial filmmaking and reception, as it relates to Dolan
• Millennial queer filmmaking
• Millennial nostalgia in Dolan’s films
• Specific films, as they relate to any of the above or the following additional topics: sexuality/intimacy, language/accents, women/motherhood, Québec cinema, international circuits/film festivals

Probably best known as the creator of the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, Sydney Newman played a significant role in the production of television and film both in his native Canada and in the United Kingdom. The Museum of Broadcast Communications describes Newman as „the most significant agent in the development of British television drama.“ [1] But this is only one aspect of Sydney Newman’s (1917-1997) professional experience. Newman enjoyed a long and interesting career in broadcasting and films. While his ‚claim to fame‘ might very well be as creator of Doctor Who and Avengers, he also worked at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as Supervising director of features, documentaries and outside broadcasts (1952-1958), the Associated British Corporation as head of Drama (1958-1962), the British Broadcasting Corporation as head of Drama (1962-1967), and the National Film Board of Canada as a film editor (1941-1949) and as Commissioner (1970-1975). He then became a special advisor on film to the Canadian Secretary of State, and was Chief Creative Consultant for the Canadian Film Development Corporation (1978-1984).

His work at these institutions was critical in the development of Canadian and British broadcasting, and popular culture. His influence was far-reaching. But thus far, while there have been some studies which have taken into account the particular roles which he has played during his career, no study has taken his roles together, to provide a more complete picture.

This peer-reviewed collection seeks to understand Sydney Newman’s career in both Canada and in Britain by curating a number of studies on his various professional roles and works. This includes providing an understanding of the world of broadcast television and film, in both countries during the 50s-70s, and the visions of culture he articulated in his work. Articles can deal with specific aspects of his career, specific institutions, specific programs he developed, his influence as a producer/filmmaker, or administrator. Biographical articles are also welcome. The aim is that the collection taken as a whole will provide a balanced analysis of his varied career in two countries during periods of significant development and change in the entertainment industry of both.

[Please note that Sydney Newman’s Memoirs Head of Drama: The Memoir of Sydney Newman will be released by ECW Press on 5^th September 2017.]

Proposals should be approximately two hundred words, and sent to gilliandoctor@gmail.com by the 30th of September 2017.  A decision will be communicated by the 30th of November, and final articles should be submitted by the 15 July 2018.

Gillian I Leitch, PhD, Independent Scholar, Co-Chair, Science Fiction Fantasy Area, PCA/ACA

[1] http://www.museum.tv/eotv/newmansydne.htm [Accessed 2 April 2017]