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INTRODUCTION
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JUDIT NAGY
The 16 studies included in the volume Canadian Landscapes/ Paysages cana¬
diens explore various interpretations of landscapes in Canadian Studies,
offering unique perspectives in areas such as Canadian literature in English
and French, Native Studies, cultural history, ethnic minorities, religion, urban
studies, sociology, history, politics, and Canadian art.
Eva Voldrichova Berankova’s study reveals how J. D. Kurtness develops her
own original aesthetic through the gradual blurring of the human/ animal
distinction, and how her work differs from the existing trends in the depiction
of pre- and post-apocalyptic scenes.
Dalibor Zila analyses three contemporary Québec novels, Le fil des kilo¬
metres, Le Poids de la neige, and Les ombres filantes, written by Christian
Guay-Poliquin. In all three novels, a dichotomy takes place between the inside
and the outside, the outside being hostile. This study examines how the (post-)
apocalyptic spatiality of these works is linked to abandonment, isolation, dis¬
tance, fear, and a sense of threat.
Zuzana Malinovska proposes a critical reflection of Québec novelist Sylvie
Drapeau’s tetralogy, investigating the aesthetic power of her concise, poetic
writing, which transforms referential landscapes into imaginary ones.
Andrea Szabó F.’s study centers around homes as interior landscapes in
Alice Munro’s short fiction. Instead of providing safety and protection, these
homes are representative of the uncanny, fitting in with the tradition of South¬
ern Ontario Gothic. Szabö F. argues that the analysed stories not only display
patterns of continuity in Munro’s writing, but they are also indicative of a
change of the female protagonists’ vision.
Pavlina Studenä looks into how, in her Manawaka cycle, Margaret Laurence
challenges the Pioneer myths of conquering the landscape, and sees it as a
means of transformation, a place where her heroines come “not to hide but to
seek” as they repeatedly venture into their unconscious psychic landscapes to
explore their inner Selves and search for their autonomous identities.
In her study, Ramona Pal-Kovacs offers an ecocritical reading of Lise Trem¬
blay’s rural landscapes as presented in the short story collection La heronniere
and in her novel L’Habitude des bétes.
Anikó Ad4m demonstrates how Gabrielle Roy’s Bonheur d’occasion paints
a realistic, multi-faceted portrait of Montreal’s Saint-Henri district. The second
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