Trent University Research Articles

Healthy Travel, Healthy Environments: Integrating Youth and Child Perspectives into Municipal Transportation Planning

Children, Youth and Environments 15(2), 2005 Healthy Travel, Healthy Environments: Integrating Youth and Child Perspectives into Municipal Transportation Planning Susan Wurtele Trent University Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Jill Ritchie Peterborough County-City Health Unit Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Citation: Wurtele, Susan and Jill Ritchie. (2005). “Healthy Travel, Healthy Environments: Integrating Youth and Child Perspectives into Local Municipal Transportation Planning.” Children, Youth and Environments 15(2): 356-370. . Comment on This Article Abstract Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) is a national program to increase active travel by children on the home-school journey and thereby to improve health, traffic safety, air quality and community connections. Peterborough’s ASRTS Research Project (situated in Ontario, Canada) is an innovative partnership linking a public health department, an environmental non-profit organization and an academic geographer to conduct school-community transportation studies. The research project described here involved transportation studies carried out at ten schools by geography students in co-operation with parents and schools. The results were shared with school councils, school boards, community organizations and municipal transportation planners. The project offered university students an opportunity for community-based research while increasing the capacity of the partner organizations. The school transportation studies provided local data that promoted consideration of child transportation issues in the City’s Transportation Master Plan Update (2002). This paper examines the evolution, contributions, and challenges of the ASRTS partnership and how it could expand and attract allies such as urban planners. Keywords: urban planning, community-based research, schools, transportation, Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS)© 2005 Children, Youth and Environments Healthy Travel, Healthy Environments: Integrating Youth and Child Perspectives… 357 Introduction Local governance has daily and pervasive impacts on the lives of children and youth. Nowhere is this more apparent than in local transportation planning. In this paper we reflect on a project that enabled the education, health, and environmental sectors to develop a more child-centered perspective. In particular, this project involved school councils, the local public health unit and an environmental nonprofit organization.1 The services provided by these groups regularly focus on children and youth but by coming together in a partnership to study children’s travel patterns, the initiative was broadened and strengthened. In its data collection phase, the partnership was extended to include youth from the local university as researchers. Based on the breadth and depth of the project that emerged, it was also possible to provide input into a concurrent municipal transportation planning exercise. As such, this project provides a useful model for collecting local-level, child- and youth-centered information to put forward to municipal service agencies and planning officials. Every day millions of Canadian children make the trip to and from school. Some of them will walk with a sibling or ride their bike with friends. While two-thirds of them live within a 30-minute walk of their school (Green Communities Association 2004), over 21 percent travel passively, sitting in a vehicle (Hunt 1998). In addition to the adverse effects on health resulting from low levels of physical activity, this pattern leads to traffic congestion and poor air quality around many schools and in this way becomes an environmental and municipal planning issue. Concerns about the impacts of this situation upon the well-being of children have led to the implementation of programs promoting active travel in communities across the country.2 This report reviews the Active and Safe Routes to School (ASRTS)-Peterborough Research Project which took place between January 2000 and April 2002. During this time a community-based coalition collaborated with local university students to initiate a school-based active travel program in Peterborough, Ontario. This innovative partnership brought university student researchers into the elementary school setting and injected their own perspectives into the municipal Transportation Master Plan review process. The university students’ role was to collect data on the travel patterns of specific school communities. This was the first step in introducing the ASRTS program and ensuring that it was tailored to the needs of each school. The purposes of this report are to document the unique features of the partnership, to tell the story of the project, and to examine the role it played...

Venereal disease, hospitals, and the urban poor: London's "foul wards," 1600-1800

This book explores how London society responded to the dilemma of the rampant spread of the pox among the poor. Some have asserted that public authorities turned their backs on the and only began to offer care for venereal patients in the Enlightenment. An exploration of hospitals and workhouses shows a much more impressive public health response. London hospitals established foul at least as early as the mid-sixteenth century. Reconstruction of these wards shows that, far from banning paupers with the pox, hospitals made treating them one of their primary services. Not merely present in hospitals, venereal patients were omnipresent. Yet the comprised a unique category of patient. The sexual nature of their ailment guaranteed that they would be treated quite differently than all other patients. Class and gender informed patients' experiences in crucial ways. The shameful nature of the disease, and the gendered notion of shame itself, meant that men and women faced quite different circumstances. There emerged a gendered geography of London hospitals as men predominated in fee-charging hospitals, while sick women crowded into workhouses. Patients frequently desired to conceal their infection. This generated innovative services for elite patients who could buy medical privacy by hiring their own doctor. However, the public scrutiny that hospitalization demanded forced poor patients to be creative as they sought access to medical care that they could not afford. Thus, Venereal Disease, Hospitals and the Urban Poor offers new insights on patients' experiences of illness and on London's health care system itself. Kevin Siena is assistant professor of history at Trent University.

The Meaning of Water (review)

Reviewed by: The Meaning of Water Saud Choudhry The Meaning of Water, Veronica Strang, Published by Berg, 2004. Veronica Strang's 'The Meaning of Water' analyses water conflicts in complex political environments. Her approach is novel - an anthropological view, arguing that water tensions have their roots in history and the complex interdependencies unfolding over time. Hence the need to exercise extreme caution in the rush to commodify this 'essence of all life', as that might create serious social, cultural and moral dilemmas. In keeping with her anthropological roots, Strang treats the whole gamut of human-water relationship in a context of ever-changing social, political and spatial arrangements. Hence Part I, 'Cultural Landscapes' offers a historical narrative of how the Stour Valley's material culture (of water ownership and management), also mirrors the social and political conditions of their time. Part II, 'Under Water', explores the metaphorical use of water imagery in the construction of ideas about self and also models the relationships between individuals and their social and material environments. Part III, 'Hydrolatry and Hydrology' looks at how water imagery plays a central role in both religious and secular cosmological models, creating coherent undercurrents in both. Part IV 'Owning Water' examines the public response to the privatization of water in the UK; Part V 'Managing Water' looks at local groups in Dorest and their direct involvement in river management and water conservation. The same reveals how this has enabled the local population to regain some degree of common ownership over water. Part VI, 'contraflows' focuses on how contemporary socio-political arrangements impact upon patterns of domestic water usage as well as government and industry responses to evaluations of water quality. Finally, the conclusion summarises the findings and considers their long-term social and environmental implications. In suggesting a concluding perspective on water ownership and management, the author readily acknowledges that communal arrangements of the past cannot be feasibly replicated in today's technological and demographic reality. However, the current cynicism surrounding public - private partnerships is also understandable, stemming primarily from the frequent tendency to unload costly infrastructure upgrading onto the public sector while retaining profitable operational aspects for the private. A more palatable solution might be to reconsider public ownership in some form, perhaps replacing a private water utility with a semi-mutualised, non-profit organisation. In sum, Professor Strang draws upon a wide variety of sources - ethnographic research, cultural mapping, local archives, folklore, etc., to explore and explain the controversies surrounding water ownership and management. The scope of the study is very broad, but held together by the author's skill and judicious passion for the issue at hand. The topical nature of the issues discussed, makes this book a must read for anyone with an interest in contemporary research on water. Saud Choudhry Trent University Peterborough, Canada Copyright © 2004 Tennesse State University

Invasive Alien Species: A Toolkit of Best Prevention and Management Practices. Based on a workshop held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22–27 March 1999. Edited by Rüdiger Wittenberg and , Matthew J W Cock. Published by CABI Publishing, Wallingford (United Kingdom) and New York, on behalf on the Global Invasive Species Programme, Washington (DC). $50.00 (paper). xii + 228 p; ill.;

Previous articleNext article No AccessEnvironmental SciencesInvasive Alien Species: A Toolkit of Best Prevention and Management Practices. Based on a workshop held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 22–27 March 1999. Edited by Rüdiger Wittenberg and , Matthew J W Cock. Published by CABI Publishing, Wallingford (United Kingdom) and New York, on behalf on the Global Invasive Species Programme, Washington (DC). $50.00 (paper). xii + 228 p; ill.; locality and taxa indexes. ISBN: 0–85199–569–1. 2001.Michael BerrillMichael BerrillBiology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada Search for more articles by this author Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, CanadaPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Quarterly Review of Biology Volume 79, Number 2June 2004 Published in association with Stony Brook University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/423102 Views: 14Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Sex and Sensibility: Margaret Mead's Descriptive and Rhetorical Ethnography

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size ROGER IVAR LOHMANN is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Trent University, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. A Melanesianist, his interests include cultural change, religion, and dreaming. He is the editor of Dream Travelers: Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and “Perspectives on the Category ‘Supernatural,’” a special issue of Anthropological Forum, 13(2), 2003.

Lionel Curtis, Imperial Citizenship, and the Quest for Unity

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsDaniel GormanDaniel Gorman is an assistant professor of history at Trent University.

Federalism, Democracy, and Labour Market Policy in Canada

Contributors include Gerard W. Boychuk (University of Waterloo), Rodney Haddow (St Francis Xavier University), Thomas R. Klassen (Trent University), Stephen McBride (Simon Fraser University), Tom McIntosh, and Peter Stoyko (Carleton University).

Whose Method? Culture, Commerce, and American Performer Training

The rapid acceptance in America of Stanislavsky's approach to actor training is often presented as an unexpected and unaccountable imposition of foreign culture. But Keith Walden argues that, while the ‘method’ may have been an innovation in acting schools, its goals and techniques were already familiar in other spheres of American life – particularly in the voluminous advice literature directed at salespeople. The similarities are not surprising, since both attempts to shape performances were inspired by the erosion of older notions of coherent, stable selfhood. Though the cultural purposes of acting and selling remained sharply different, the transgressive potential of modern theatre was dependent on a widespread belief that the roles required in ordinary work should be competently enacted. Keith Walden is a member of the History Department at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. He is a former editor of the Canadian Historical Review and author of Becoming Modern in Toronto: the Industrial Exhibition and the Shaping of a Late-Victorian Culture.

Courtly Contradictions: The Emergence of the Literary Object in the Twelfth Century by Sarah Kay (review)

ll8ARTHURIANA compellingdiscussion ofilluminated Insular Gospel books argues for their distance from Continental models: for rhe newly-literate Irish andAnglo-Saxons, she insists, the Latin Scriptures were exotic, mystically charged visual webs of signs that celebrated 'beyond all words, the central mysteryofdieWord' (279). Susan Youngss detailed analysis of an Irish gilt-bronze mount found in Kent enlarges our understanding ofViking trade in the ninth and tendi centuries. With hisdiscussionofRomanesque art, Peter Harbisonventures into the relatively uncharted territory ofpost-conquest Irish art. Although Cormac's Chapel is now recognized as the earliest example of the Romanesque style in Ireland, Harbison concludes that while borrowing some Romanesque features, twelfth-century adaptations on crosses, metal croziers and shrines remained distinctively Irish and tied to older Celtic models. Tessa Garten's study of human and animal heads in Irish Romanesque sculpture reaches similar conclusions: the Irish adopted the Romanesque style, but infused it with Celtic and Viking features. Susanne McNab stresses thelongevityofancient motifslike the non-realistic interlacedhuman figures, serpents and disembodied heads in much later Irish Romanesque art. The discussion also extends to later periods. Raghnall Ó Floinn examines Irish Gothic metalwork, particularly reliquaries and seals, after the Norman conquest. Heather King's discussion of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century stone crosses demonstrates the importance ofEuropean influences on Irish crosses ofthis period. Maggie McEnchroc Williams's article on the Market Cross atTuam is a fascinating look at how nineteenth-century Irish nationalism influenced perceptions ofa cross 'reconstructed' from disparate medieval pans and displayed at the 1853 Dublin exhibition before being moved toTuam. Catherine Karkov's fresh lookat the sheelana -gigs of post-conquest Ireland sheds important new light on these enigmatic female figures and their interpretation throughout Ireland's post-colonial past. The excellent scholarship here is complemented by a thorough index and an attractive layout. From Irebnd Coming opens up exciting new vistas on the Irish artistic tradition and is sure to stimulate future discussion. JOANNE FINDON Trent University Sarah KAY, Courtly Contradictions: TheEmergence oftheLiterary Objectin the Twelfth Century. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. Pp. x, 380. isbn: c—8047-30792 . $55. With this book, Sarah Kay, one of the foremost contemporary authorities on troubadour poetry, widens her scope to include other forms ofmedieval literature as well. She traces the development and interaction in the twelfth century ofthree major genres, vernacular lyric, courtly romance, and hagiography, all of which cultivate a rhetoric ofparadox and opposition. The emerging 'literary object' ofher title does not mean only die courtly beloved, the object ofthe lover's desire, but also the literary artifact itself, the very texts under examination which escape from medieval didacticism so as to offer themselves as pure pleasure and entertainment. REVIEWS119 Her subject is, then, the ascendance of courtly literature, and she observes rhat contradictoriness is central to its makeup. Rather than concentratingon the influence ofthe scholasticscience oflogicor 'dialectic' on literature, however (asubject much explored byother critics), Kaytraces rhe interpénétration ofthe religious and secular genres. She points out that unlike Aristotle's medieval followers, who respected the principle of non-contradiction, religious writers in the Neoplatonist tradition considered certain paradoxes acceptable and, indeed, foundational. Courtlywriters, too, not only flouted the rules of dialectical argument, but founded their fictions onwhat Leo Spitzer called theparadoxeamoureuse, that ofwillingly renouncing the object ofone's desire. In rhe second half of rhe book especially she turns to modern French 'theory,' and Lacanian psychoanalysis in particular, to make sense ofthe texts'willful insistence on contradictoriness. In part this is because she sees a tellingcorrespondence between the texts' riddling language and Lacan's similarly enigmatic reflections, but more generally because—although she does not put it this way—as literary artifacts, the objects of her analysis necessarily reflect the structure of mind. She cites Lacan as suggesting that the erotic configurations of medieval courtly love poetry had an especiallydecisive influence on modern subjectivity, and repeatedlyasks (I paraphrase here): whydo we still find these texts absorbing? what can they tell us about ourselves today? Lacan asserted that the truth as he described it had the structure offiction. The courtly fictions that she describes seem to have the nature of self-fulfilling truths. The book's first three chapters describe the interaction between...

In the Eye of the Storm: The State and Non-Violence in Southern Africa (Botswana)

In February 2002, while visiting our students and local partners in the Trent University International Development Studies year abroad programme, I gave a talk at the Institute for Policy Alternatives (Tamale, Northern Ghana) on aspects of my current research. 1 I focused on the dilemmas posed by attempts on the part of liberal states to recognize the moral and political basis of both collectivities and individuals as rights bearing agents. How, in such instances, can a balance be forged between the needs for state stability and integrity on the one hand and the recognition and claims of groups—specifically "minorities" or subnational groups—on the other? I illustrated the talk with examples from my research on Botswana where politicized ethnicity, minority rights, the institution of chieftaincy, and constitutional reform all impact upon citizenship and entitlement and are currently arenas of intense contestation. The audience consisted of local scholars, development and policy officials, local government and "traditional" authorities, and Canadian and Ghanaian students. After the talk, instead of questions, I got silence. Eventually, an intrepid student asked a question and a few others followed. But, after the formal talk, during the reception and in the darkness of the [End Page 485] courtyard, numerous people came up to me. Most told me how my talk had spoken directly to them, touched their hearts, and how the issues were utterly central to circumstances in Ghana, especially in the north. A few men told me of how they had barely escaped with their lives in earlier disputes, one described how his home had been a way station during previous conflicts, others told me of tragedies that had befallen friends and associates in the recent past. They said they wanted to speak with me but not in the public context; it was too risky, they were frightened, and could only speak outside in the corners and shadows. A month later the Dagbani chief (the head of the second largest chieftaincy in Ghana next to the Ashanti) was beheaded in a succession dispute. Rioting broke out in the streets of the chiefly capital and spilled over into the streets of Tamale (approximately 80 kms. to the west), where I had given my talk. We evacuated students from the most dangerous areas, assembled them in a central location, kept in close contact with the Canadian High Commission, and had all students safely in the capital a few days later. These events affirmed what had often been brought to my attention—that I work in the Disneyland of Africa or something close to it. Botswana is no utopia but it is a country noted for its singular lack of violence in a region (Southern Africa) in which virtually every other country has witnessed severe instances of acute violence in the post-colonial era and on a continent scarred by some of the most intractable and horrific violent episodes (although Africa is certainly and painfully is not alone on this front). Given the centrality of violence in representations of Africa, perhaps it is worth taking a closer look at the conditions of non-violence. In particular, I will focus on violence (or its absence) in relation to politicized ethnic consciousness and the material and cultural struggles that surround it. Admittedly, my task is a simple one compared to attempts to explain acute or direct violence (c.f. Salmi 1993). As anthropologists, we are skilled at providing persuasive explanations and descriptions of structural violence—the condition of compounded deprivation, demoralization, and poverty. We have encountered, depicted, and analysed systemic material and symbolic degradation and suffering, especially that of marginalized groups. The people we often study, unfortunately, are subject to this structural violence and our tools of analysis are sophisticated; Marxist political economy, practice theory, studies of the politics of recognition, and so on provide potent means of understanding the combined suffering that many people endure. [End Page...

Trent University

The study of medievalism at Trent University, increasingly popular judged by student registration over the past decade, has just taken a new and exponential step forward with the approval by its Undergraduate Academic Development Committee of an Emphasis in Medieval and Renaissance Studies (M.A.R.S.), to begin in the Fall of 2003. Trent’s M.A.R.S. Emphasis is under the aegis of the Medieval Academy of America: Committee on Centers and Regional Associations (CARA), and is open to all students eligible for any Joint or Single Honours program of study in Arts or Science at Trent.

Open Arms, Open Hearts, Open Minds -- Welcomed Once Again

Within this particular issue of American Indian Quarterly, I expect that there will be stories that speak about incidences of racism, intolerance, exclusion, and ignorance as experienced by Native scholars within academia. My experiences as a non-Native student in a graduate program in Native studies are reflective of my experiences within Native communities. The story that I have to share is one that speaks almost entirely about welcoming, acceptance, inclusion, and support. The challenges that I have faced, to this point in time, have for the most part arisen inside myself. My choice to pursue a PhD in Native studies brought the underlying issue-What is my place, my role, in the discipline of Native studies?-to the surface once again. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Native Studies at Trent University. My return to student life began in 2001, after more than a decade had passed since the completion of my master's degree. My decision to become part of this particular program was based on three factors. First of all, it is at this time the only doctoral program in Canada in the discipline of Native studies. Second, my learning experiences as an undergraduate within this same department more than two decades earlier had continued to be valuable in my personal and professional life. Finally, and most importantly, this particular program respects Native ways of knowing as reflected in traditional and contemporary perspectives. Though this is a relatively new program-when I started it was beginning its third year of operation-it is part of one of the longest-standing Native studies departments in North America. The majority of faculty and staff within the department are Native people. Within the doctoral program the ratio of Native to non-Native students is roughly two to one.

Acadia University

K.S. Whetter (Ph. D. Wales) teaches first-year literature and medieval literature in Acadia University’s English Department. His principal areas of expertise and interest are medieval literature, especially the medieval Arthurian tradition, Thomas Malory’s Morte Darthur, and Middle English romance, but he is also interested in genre theory, and epic and heroic literature (both medieval and classical). He has published in the Bibliographical Bulletin of the International Arthurian Society, Reading Medieval Studies (forthcoming), a collection of essays from Trent University’s Department of Ancient History and Classics, and a collection of essays entitled Writing War: Medieval Literary Responses (forthcoming from Boydell & Brewer). He has also appeared on BBC’s Time Team as the Malory expert for their In Search of King Arthur special.

Rethinking the donut: the case for hydrologically relevant buffer zones

Hydrological ProcessesVolume 16, Issue 15 p. 3093-3096 Invited Commentary Rethinking the donut: the case for hydrologically relevant buffer zones J. M. Buttle, Corresponding Author J. M. Buttle jbuttle@trentu.ca Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 7B8Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 7B8.===Search for more papers by this author J. M. Buttle, Corresponding Author J. M. Buttle jbuttle@trentu.ca Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada K9J 7B8Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, ON, Canada, K9J 7B8.===Search for more papers by this author First published: 30 September 2002 https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5066Citations: 41AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume16, Issue1530 October 2002Pages 3093-3096 RelatedInformation

Agendas, Interests and Authority: Science and Politics in Canada

In the spring of 1953, two young scientists announced they had discovered the of life. By describing the structure of DNA, Francis Crick and James Watson helped explain the nature of heredity. It was not quite the secret of life, but it was certainly an enormous contribution to our knowledge of biology. Fifty years later, the consequences continue to unfold. On the one hand, Trent University, the home of the Journal of Canadian Studies, has just announced plans to become a centre for DNA research, to pursue innovations in health and forensic science and to seek out opportunities for local economic development. On the other hand, just last month Trent students opened an organic cafe, serving food that, they promise, will be free of genetically modified ingredients. The capacity provided by science to understand and to reshape nature has created both new possibilities and new anxieties, in Canada and elsewhere. Scientific knowledge and its political, economic and social implications have not received extensive attention in the Journal of Canadian Studies. As this issue of the journal demonstrates, however, this area of study is entirely consistent with the spirit of Canadian Studies, demanding interdisciplinarity, a balanced understanding of both universal themes and concrete details, and, often, a view of scholarly study as an activist enterprise. Examining science in society requires many disciplines, from philosophy to history, from sociology to political science. This diversity of perspectives is well represented in this issue, in articles that range from the politics of scientific institutions, to the quantitative study of scientific productivity, to the sociology of recent controversies involving science. Science itself, of course, is often viewed in universal terms, as a community of scholars transcending borders and pursuing knowledge valid in every context. As comparative studies of science have demonstrated, however, borders do matter: different contexts generate distinctive approaches to understanding nature. Certainly, the classic problems of science in society - such as adjudicating the competing research agendas of scientists, politicians, industrialists and the public, or negotiating the tension between democratic imperatives and technocratic perspectives that privilege expertise, are not specific to Canada. None the less, the dis-tinctive history of Canadian science is informed by institutions such as the Geological Survey of Canada, the National Research Council and the federal research granting agencies; the evolving relationship between Canadian scientists and a natural environment of unusual biological and geographical diversity; and recent shifts in science policy, from the building of an autonomous scientific community to the formation of a national system of innovation focussed on science as an economic instrument. The history has generated a continuing dialectic between universal challenges and the concrete experience of science in Canada. Finally, several articles in this issue exhibit a commitment to an activist agenda, exploring concerns regarding the environmental impacts of resource extraction, the implications of new technologies such as genetically modified food, or the consequences of restrictions on alternative health care. Such preoccupations are informed by an awareness of the ties between science and political and economic authority, and the implications of these ties for democracy, equity, environmentalism and other values important to many Canadians. Defining the Terrain This issue begins with several essays that define the terrain of Canadian science, examining where research is done - in laboratories and field stations, in universities, hospitals, governments and industry - as well as the ideas and interests that shape scientific activity in these diverse locations. David Holdsworth provides historical and philosophical context, locating contemporary debates within the longstanding dichotomy between an autonomous scientific community pursuing knowledge for its own sake and a scientific practice guided by a concern for pragmatic utility in the service of society. …

Writing the Meal: Dinner in the Fiction of Early Twentieth-Century Writers by Diane McGee

REVIEWS Deconstructive readings of decadent texts throw a raking light over continual alterations of signification, the “perennial decay,” referred to in the book’s title: “Decadent textual strate­ gies interfere with the boundaries and borders (national, sexual, definitional, historical, to name but a few) that criticism nor­ mally relies upon to make its judgments, producing what we call a ‘perennial decay’ of those boundaries and borders” (11). This position implies that theory, at least in the form of decon­ struction, is likewise a mode of “perennial decay,” indeed, of decadence. In refraining from directing its attention backward (so to speak) upon its own theoretical premises and methods, Perennial Decay chooses not to name deconstruction itself as one of the latest and most potent articulations of Decadence, a truth that, from the mouths of academic humanists, has fre­ quently been hurled in the form of an accusation against deconstruction . Within the context of a volume such as this one, deconstruction needs to come out as decadent, even if doing so prevents it (and us) from ever safely exiting the purlieus of Decadence. Within this general set of parameters, readers with an inter­ est in literary and other modes of decadence will find a variety of items of interest in this collection: an essay on opera and disease by Marc A. Weiner; the art of posing in Latin American liter­ ature of the fin de siècle (Sylvia Molloy), and the connection between Dorian’s portrait and late Victorian and Edwardian portraiture practice (Dennis Denisoff). RICHARD DELLAMORA / Trent University Diane McGee. Writing the Meal: Dinner in the Fiction of Early Twentieth-Century Writers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001. 221. $60.00 cloth. Re-imagine Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam: instead of the masculine text of a finger-tip touch through which God dele­ gates authority to a lolling Adam, picture instead God’s ex­ tended arm in the act of handing over to a harried Eve the divine cooking pot so that she can assume responsibility for 539 ESC 28, 2002 whipping up mini-acts of Creation daily in order to re-vivify physically and spiritually all those gathered round the hearth for the dinner rites. A vision only slightly less ambitious is set up at the beginning of McGee’s study. The first chapter draws upon a variety of anthropological and sociological references to argue that meal preparation is not only a cultural text but also a site of origins: “Thus the roots of storytelling, art, and religion are linked to cooking,” and “Through this process of ordering and transforming the world, cooking can be viewed as the ba­ sis of thought” (13). Not only are food preparation practices “conveyers of meaning both to those within the group and to outsiders” (11), but also, “in that they create meaning, these activities are fundamental to thought and to language” (13). Before narrowing her scope to meals of various sorts (pri­ marily dinners because they are the most ritualized), McGee provides an overview of changing societal attitudes towards cooking and women’s domestic roles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She thus establishes a historical con­ text for the argument to turn from the notion of origins to the specific time-frame of modernity. The dinner analyses that fol­ low are situated to be reflective of problems rooted not just in women’s social roles but also in western culture’s worried responses to a changing world. McGee’s approach to dinner as discourse concentrates on female characters acting in the broadly defined roles of host­ ess or guest in fiction by Edith Wharton, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and Kate Chopin (with the work of some other women writers mentioned in passing, along with that of an occa­ sional male author). Interactions of gender, class, and economics are convincingly examined in novels by Wharton, and Clarissa’s significance as hostess in Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway gets a more sympathetic reading than is often the case. The chapters on Mansfield may be especially welcome to readers because, despite the steady growth in Mansfield studies over the last few years, there are fresh insights here. To close, McGee picks up on her...

Preface

This volume of papers emanating from the 23rd Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society (FCHS) in Midland, Ontario (1997), constitutes the first volume of the new journal published by the Society. With the introduction of French Colonial History, the Society commits to publish an annual volume of refereed, scholarly articles selected from papers given at the annual FCHS meetings, though not necessarily from a single meeting. The new paperbackjournal will appear with punctuality and regularity —characteristics that were, at times, difficult to sustain with the Proceedings format. With the adoption of the journal approach, the editor will have more latitude to achieve thematic unity in each volume than was possible with the Proceedings. Pan of the process of transforming our annual publication into a journal was the formal establishment of a distinguished editorial board. The Executive Board of the FCHS, its editors, and the staff of our publisher, Michigan State University Press, all agree that the journal format reflects a stature that is in keeping with the quality of scholarship produced under the auspices of the Society. This exciting initiative owes much to the cooperation and enthusiasm of Fred Böhm of Michigan State University Press. The publication of the 1995 Proceedings (from the meeting at Sydney and Louisbourg in Nova Scotia) marked the beginning of the Society's partnership with MSU Press. Since then, Fred and his colleagues have been unfailingly supportive of the Society's enterprise and have joined constructively in the search for improvements in our annual publication. The volumes published by MSU Press are unmatched in their quality of production. The willingness and encouragement of the Press have made possible the transition to this newjournal, French Colonial History. One of the many attractions of the Society's annual meetings is the exposure they provide to French overseas encounters in diverse regions of the world, and to a wide representation of historical methods and approaches. The viiiFrench Colonial History meetings provide a refreshing vista that serves as an antidote to the danger of myopic specialization. They stimulate useful comparative insights. The 23rd Annual Meeting in Midland, Ontario, in May 1997, was no exception. As with all annual meetings of the Society, a special theme was suggested in the call for papers, but not with the intention of excluding papers on other themes of French colonial history. In keeping with the earlyJesuit contact with the Hurons in the area, the suggested theme at Midland was French relations with indigenous peoples. The response—as indicated by the selection of papers included in this first volume of French Colonial History—produced a variety ofpresentations on this theme, spanning a period of400 years in Africa and the Americas. All papers, including those not directly linked to relations with indigenous peoples, inquire into differing aspects of the French mental universe in its colonial adventure. At the end of the volume is a list of those papers not included in these Proceedings, some of which are destined for publication elsewhere. In addition, conference participants were treated to a number ofsocial and cultural excursions in the Midland-Penetanguishene area: visits to the reconstructed seventeenth-century Jesuit mission of Sainte-Marie-among-theHurons ; the Martyrs' Shrine; the Huronia Museum and Huron Indian Village; and a barbeque boat tour among the Thousand Islands on Georgian Bay. Visiting historic sites of French colonial significance is one of the attractions of the Society's annual meetings. Finally, as this new journal takes shape, I would like to thank the many readers and assessors who reviewed the manuscripts submitted for this volume . To Keith Widder of MSU Press, a longstanding member of the Society, I owe a special debt for his work in producing this volume and for his patience and unfailing good cheer in the face of delays for which he was not responsible . A special thanks is also due to Kathryn Köhler for the French translations of some of the abstracts of the papers in this volume and to Anne Meyering, associate professor of history at Michigan State University, for her help in launching this series. S. Dale Standen, Editor Trent University Peterborough, Ontario ...

(review)

MLR, 96. I, 2001 MLR, 96. I, 2001 provides a contribution on her mixed fortunes in her publishing links to Britain, while G. P. Butler provides an open-ended and stimulating contribution on the possible sourcesused by Galston in his successfulEnglishtranslationof Transit and Das siebteKreuz.From this volume emerges a Seghersjust as interested in Jewish issues, in artistic and aesthetic questions, in the religious and metaphysical as in socialism and socialist realism. It becomes clear too that these interests do not alwayscombine easily.A piece on Dassiebte Kreuz would have been welcome, given attempts elsewhere to discredit it in line with the recent wave of criticism of communistresistancein the camps (similarly,in 1994,Apitz'sNacktunter Woifen was unfavourably compared by the literary critic Wilfried Schoeller with the 'truer' picture of concentration camp life offered by Remarque in Der FunkeLeben). However, this is not meant as a criticism.I can warmly recommend Ian Wallace's new volume: it is interesting,well-written,readableand stimulating. NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY BILL NIVEN MaxFrisch, Friedrich Durrenmatt: Briefwechsel. Ed. by PETER RUEDI. Zurich:Diogenes. I998. 240 pp. DM 39. It was perhaps inevitable that two very different German-Swiss authors who achieved world fame at approximately the same time should be linked in the perception of the public. The plays Der BesuchderaltenDame,Biedermann unddie Brandstifter, Andorra and Die Physiker all had theirpremieres in Switzerlandbetween 1956 and 1962 before going on to much wider audiences. It is alsoprobably trueto say that the worldperceived them only as playwrights,althoughFrischhad by 1956 firmly established a reputation in German-speaking Europe with Tagebuch I946-I949 and Stiller and althoughboth writerscontinued to publishin a varietyof genres for the remainderof their long lives. The irritationengendered by thisjoint perception is expressedby the French-SwisscriticMaurice Audetat when he writes of 'le Frisch-et-Dtirrenmatt, creature fantasmagorique, accouplement contre nature d'un Zurichois et d'un Bernois'. Academic critics, while seeking to explain difference, possibly only succeeded in reinforcing the notion of similarity:Hans Banziger's FrischundDiirrenmatt, first published in 1960 and running to several revised editions over the years, was followed in 1963 by Diirrenmatt undFrisch. Anmerkungen from Hans Mayer, who was later to edit Frisch'sGesammelte Werke. The one difference between the two men, at least perceived very clearly in their own country, relatednot so much to theirworkbut to their criticismof Switzerlandas a result of which, the present volume points out, Frischbecame 'StaatsfeindNr I' whereasDurrenmattwas 'derHofnarr'(p. 22). The book contains a go-page introduction by the editor entitled 'Fast eine Freundschaft',33 lettersand notes exchanged between the two writersfrom 1947to 1986, copious annotations to these exchanges, numerous photographs and a very useful 'Chronik' of the lives and works. The meticulously researched scholarly apparatusis greaterthan its subjectby a factorof at leastfourto one. When the size of the correspondence, almost certainly comprising all the extant missives, is compared with that of the recently published correspondence between Frischand Uwe Johnson, the modesty of the claim by the editor that the collection will not figure among 'den groBen Zwiegesprachender deutschsprachigenBriefschriftstellerei ' (p. 9) seems entirelyappropriate. It isnone thelessfascinatingto trace,despitethe enormousgaps,the development of the relationshipbetween the two men. It is Frischwho firsttakes up contact in 1947afterreadingthe manuscriptof Esstehtgeschrieben, Durrenmatt'sfirstperformed provides a contribution on her mixed fortunes in her publishing links to Britain, while G. P. Butler provides an open-ended and stimulating contribution on the possible sourcesused by Galston in his successfulEnglishtranslationof Transit and Das siebteKreuz.From this volume emerges a Seghersjust as interested in Jewish issues, in artistic and aesthetic questions, in the religious and metaphysical as in socialism and socialist realism. It becomes clear too that these interests do not alwayscombine easily.A piece on Dassiebte Kreuz would have been welcome, given attempts elsewhere to discredit it in line with the recent wave of criticism of communistresistancein the camps (similarly,in 1994,Apitz'sNacktunter Woifen was unfavourably compared by the literary critic Wilfried Schoeller with the 'truer' picture of concentration camp life offered by Remarque in Der FunkeLeben). However, this is not meant as a criticism.I can warmly recommend Ian Wallace's new volume: it is interesting,well-written,readableand stimulating. NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY BILL NIVEN MaxFrisch, Friedrich Durrenmatt: Briefwechsel. Ed. by...

REVIEWS

REVIEWS Get access Mists of Regret Culture and Sensibility in the Classic French Film. By DUDLEY ANDREW. Princeton University Press, 1995. xv + 409 pp. £19.95. MARTIN O'SHAUGHNESSY MARTIN O'SHAUGHNESSY NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, Volume LIII, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 226–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/LIII.2.226 Published: 01 April 1999

Review. Mists of Regret: Culture and Sensibility in Classic French Film. Andrew, Dudley

Journal Article REVIEWS Get access Mists of Regret Culture and Sensibility in the Classic French Film. By DUDLEY ANDREW. Princeton University Press, 1995. xv + 409 pp. £19.95. MARTIN O'SHAUGHNESSY MARTIN O'SHAUGHNESSY NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, Volume LIII, Issue 2, April 1999, Pages 226–227, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/LIII.2.226 Published: 01 April 1999