UBC – Department of English

ENGL 470 CANADIAN LITERATURE

Echoes from Elsewhere, Echoes from Here

Instructor: Gudrun Dreher (English, UBC)

Course Description

As the title suggests, we will focus on literature that “echoes” something else. This “something” can be other works of literature (myths, stories, poems, etc), or it can be memories, histories, the past. It can also be other cultures, philosophies, ways of thinking, or it can be objects: manuscripts, artifacts, photographs, buildings, stones, bones. Sometimes, the echoes may be barely audible among all the noise of the everyday, at other times, they may gain more and more prominence and eventually even drown out the sounds of the current here and now. In any case, the echo voice(s) will add one (or even more than one) dimension to the primary/present/surface voice(s) and, eventually, perhaps begin to talk. The key here is to listen.