I
imaginingtoronto
Guest
Hi everybody;
I'm interested in Toronto literature, and would be happy to discuss it here. My current research, the [link=http://www.imaginingtoronto.com newwindow]Imagining Toronto[/link] project, explores intersections of literature and place in the Toronto region.
Some of the questions I explore include:
* Why so many commentators assert that Toronto doesn't exist in any collective cultural imagination.
* How (and why) it does (my focus is on literature, but there are also well established artistic, cinematic, dramatic, and even musical representations of the city).
* What Toronto literature has to say about the experience of living in this city (not to mention about the experience of living in 'the city' as a more general category).
* How the literature reveals the ways our understandings and experiences of cities are changing profoundly (from discrete, mono/megalithic entities defined by density, commerce, tall buildings, etc.) to diverse congregations of culture and experience (a creude way of representing this shift would be to compare centripetal and centrifugal forces).
* What experiences the literature does not yet represent (as Toronto writer Dionne Brand puts it, "the literature is still catching up with the city, with its new stories").
Beyond this forum, you can visit the Imagining Toronto project at http://www.imaginingtoronto.com . I also write (mostly about literature) for Reading Toronto ( http://readingtoronto.com ) and contribute to Spacing magazine.
I've posted here not only to start/join a discussion about Toronto ltierature and culture, but also to join this forum!
warmth,
Amy Lavender Harris
[link=http://www.imaginingtoronto.com newwindow]Imagining Toronto[/link]
I'm interested in Toronto literature, and would be happy to discuss it here. My current research, the [link=http://www.imaginingtoronto.com newwindow]Imagining Toronto[/link] project, explores intersections of literature and place in the Toronto region.
Some of the questions I explore include:
* Why so many commentators assert that Toronto doesn't exist in any collective cultural imagination.
* How (and why) it does (my focus is on literature, but there are also well established artistic, cinematic, dramatic, and even musical representations of the city).
* What Toronto literature has to say about the experience of living in this city (not to mention about the experience of living in 'the city' as a more general category).
* How the literature reveals the ways our understandings and experiences of cities are changing profoundly (from discrete, mono/megalithic entities defined by density, commerce, tall buildings, etc.) to diverse congregations of culture and experience (a creude way of representing this shift would be to compare centripetal and centrifugal forces).
* What experiences the literature does not yet represent (as Toronto writer Dionne Brand puts it, "the literature is still catching up with the city, with its new stories").
Beyond this forum, you can visit the Imagining Toronto project at http://www.imaginingtoronto.com . I also write (mostly about literature) for Reading Toronto ( http://readingtoronto.com ) and contribute to Spacing magazine.
I've posted here not only to start/join a discussion about Toronto ltierature and culture, but also to join this forum!
warmth,
Amy Lavender Harris
[link=http://www.imaginingtoronto.com newwindow]Imagining Toronto[/link]