Weronika Suchacka / Uwe Zagratzki / Hartmut Lutz (eds.)Despite Harper: International Perceptions of Canadian Literature and Culture

Rezension

This highly readable and informative volume of essays on international perceptions of Canadian literature and culture testifies to the achievement of the founders of the Szczecin Canadian Studies Group [...] and to the important trans-border cooperation between German and Polish enthusiasts in the field of Canadian Studies. [...]

This welcome collection offers many insightful introductory essays to various fascinating facets of the threatened but surviving field of Canadian Studies. The editors come from or teach in the Baltic landscape that Stephen Scobie writes about in the poems included. But this landscape (and its cultural dialogue with Canada) also finds its beautiful reflection on the cover of the volume in a First Nations Canadian‘s rendering of the Pomeranian gryphon meeting the Anishnawbe Thunderbird spirit: a spirited and inspiring encounter.

Mit der Publikation dieses Sammelbandes entscheidet sich das Herausgeberteam zum anderen für eine Darstellung des internationalen Zuschnitts der Kanadistik. Sie bietet mithin einen Gradmesser für die rasante Entwicklung der Canadian Studies innerhalb und außerhalb Kanadas in den vergangenen Jahren auch unter erschwerten ökonomischen Bedingungen.