Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada ed. by Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli

Abstract

Reviewed by: Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada ed. by Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli Margaret Steffler Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli, eds. Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada. Wilfrid Laurier up, 2016. 335 pp. $42.99. Editing as Cultural Practice in Canada originated in a joint workshop organized by the Trans-Canada Institute and Editing Modernism in Canada (emic) in October 2011. The workshop, as explained by Dean Irvine and Smaro Kamboureli in their introduction to the edited collection, was designed to address the dialogue between "the cultural and material particularities outside a text that shape its production, publication, and circulation with those inscribed in it," taking into account "recent developments in editorial methodology" and "the important changeover from a presumably homogeneous CanLit tradition to Canadian literatures" (14). Providing opportunities for participants to move easily between their roles as critics and/or literary authors and editors, the workshop encouraged the fluidity and collaboration that characterize the highly successful and prolific research carried out within and, in this case, between the Trans-Canada Institute and emic. Irvine and Kamboureli are correct in their assertion that there is a "dearth of critical material on the theory and practice of editing in Canada" (4). In helpfully placing this conference and edited collection in the context of, and to some extent in opposition to, earlier conferences and collections, the editors clearly showcase what is different, dynamic, and forward looking in current relationships between editing, criticism, and theory, demonstrating the rich, diverse, and complex ways in which twenty-first-century editors are participating, through cultural practice, in the making of Canadian literatures. The insistence on the importance of collaboration runs throughout the collection, which is not surprising given the central position of collaborative work in projects undertaken by the Trans-Canada Institute and emic. Four of the fifteen essays are co-written, while intergenerational partnerships and teams are intrinsic to many of the case studies included. Contributors are writers, critics, and editors who bring the labour of editing from the periphery to the centre through understanding and using the intersections between "literary critics and textual critics" and between "literary and editorial theory" (18) to quote from the first chapter, Christl Verduyn's "Literary and Editorial Theory and Editing Marian Engel." Referencing key scholars and movements in editorial theory and practice, Verduyn's work is invaluable in its comprehensive coverage of central concepts that recur throughout the collection, such as genetic and social-text criticism and editing, the role of archival materials, and the valuing of [End Page 224] process over product. Focusing on her awareness of the "'literary/textual theory' divide" (28) identified by Michael Groden, Verduyn turns to the social-text criticism and practice of Jerome McGann, whose work and name are the most prominent of the theorists referred to in the collection. For example, in his chapter on bpNichol as editor Frank Davey places Nichol's attention to "the process of creating a text" within the "'genetic' editing mode discussed in this collection by Christl Verduyn and Zailig Pollock" (207). Although these essays share many common elements, important differences exist as one would expect in the editing of a plurality of Canadian literatures. Kateri Akiwenzie-Damn, for example, in the context of colonial history and editorial oppression, advocates for "non-hierarchical relationships," "non-interference," "linguistic accuracy," "protection of the integrity of Indigenous knowledge," and "commitment to the collective well-being of Indigenous peoples" (36–8) in "the (Indigenous) editing of Indigenous writing" (36). Speaking as "an Anishinaabe writer, editor, and publisher," she describes Kegedonce Press "as a form of kinship, a 'family' or community operating on shared goals and values for the betterment of the whole" (35). Robert Bringhurst, in addressing the controversy of his translation of Haida texts, also speaks of a collective in his belief that "culture is necessarily common property," turning to the language of John Locke when expressing his view that to "edit a text is to mix our labour with a portion of the commons" (215). My only quibble with this excellent collection, and it is a minor one, is the lack of explanation of, or clear structure for, the order in which the chapters occur. I...