Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Bearing Witness to Global Traumas in Canadian Fiction

Bearing Witness to Global Traumas in Canadian Fiction

Beckman-Long, Brenda

Paperback

Literary Criticism

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 22, 2026

ISBN10: 1772128791
ISBN13: 9781772128796
Publisher: University of Alberta Press
Published: Oct 22 2026
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.72
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

Bearing Witness to Global Traumas in Canadian Fiction expands our understanding of testimonial literature, arguing that readers act as second-hand witnesses to historical and global traumas. Focusing on Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes, Steven Galloway's The Cellist of Sarajevo, and Karen Connelly's The Lizard Cage--novels about the Holocaust, transatlantic slavery, Bosnia, and Burma--Beckman-Long uses close readings and narratological analyses to reveal an emerging literary movement seeking new ethical communities. The author demonstrates how these Canadian novelists contribute to social and political change by altering perspectives on traumatic histories. By crossing boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, the testimonial novel re-imagines encounters for writers, characters, and readers--offering something distinct from memoir. Drawing on autobiography and trauma theories, this study compares the novels' narrative techniques and readers' positions, modeling foundational literary scholarship. This is an essential book for scholars of Canadian, postcolonial, and testimonial literature, as well as autobiography studies and trauma theory.

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