Barbara Godard (1942 – May 16, 2010) was a Canadian critic, translator, editor, and academic. She held the
Avie Bennett
Avie Bennett, (January 2, 1928 – June 2, 2017) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of First Plazas, a real estate development company that built retail strip malls in Canada. Bennett also served as the tenth c ...
Historica Chair of
Canadian Literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both ...
and was Professor of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
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, Social and Political Thought and
Women's Studies
Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...
at
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and staf ...
. She published widely on Canadian and
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
cultures, on
feminist and
literary theory
Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...
, and on translation studies]. Barbara Godard died peacefully in Toronto on May 16, 2010. Across Canada and throughout the world, poets, scholars, feminists, and friends mourned her death.
Translator
As
Translation, translator, she has introduced Quebec women writers Louky Bersianik, Yolande Villemaire and
Antonine Maillet
Antonine Maillet, (; born May 10, 1929) is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, Canada."Antonine Maillet." ''Paroles d'Acadie : Anthologie de la littérature acadienne (1958-2009)'', edited by ...
to an English audience. Her translations include
Nicole Brossard
Nicole Brossard (born November 27, 1943) is a leading French-Canadian formalist poet and novelist. Her work is known for exploration of feminist themes and for challenging masculine-oriented language and points of view in French literature.
She ...
's ''Picture Theory'' (1991) and France Theoret's ''The Tangible Word'' (1991). In 2004 her translation of Brossard's ''Intimate Journal'' was published as well as a revised edition of Maillet's ''The Tale of Don l'Orignal,'' also available as an
audiobook
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements.
Spoken audio has been available in sch ...
as broadcast on
CBC's Between the Covers. She is author of ''Talking About Ourselves: the Cultural Productions of Canadian Native Women'' (1985) and ''Audrey Thomas: Her Life and Work'' (1989) and has edited ''Gynocritics/Gynocritiques: Feminist Approaches to the Writing of Canadian and Quebec Women'' (1987), ''Collaboration in the Feminine: Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera'' (1994), and ''Intersexions: Issues of Race and Gender in Canadian Women's Writing'' (1996). ''Translation, Semiotics, and Feminism: Selected Writings of Barbara Godard'' appeared in 2022 in the Key Thinkers on Translation series (Routledge).
Editor
A founding co-editor of the feminist literary theory periodical, ''Tessera,'' Barbara Godard was
contributing editor
A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership d ...
of ''Open Letter'' and ''The Semiotic Review of Books'' and
book review
__NOTOC__
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit.
A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revi ...
editor of ''Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.'' In 1998 she held the Gerstein Award for an advanced
research
Research is "creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness t ...
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
on ''Translation Studies in Canada: Institutions, Discourses, Texts.'' In 2001, with
Di Brandt
Di Brandt (born 31 January 1952) (née Janzen) often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.
Life and career
Brandt grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farming ...
she organized the conference "'Wider Boundaries of Daring': The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry" whose
proceedings
In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confer ...
are currently being edited for
publication
To publish is to make content available to the general public.[Berne Con ...](_blank)
. A first volume, ''ReGenerations: Canadian Women Poets in Conversation,'' appeared in 2006.
Prizes
She is the recipient of the Gabrielle Roy Prize of the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures (1988), the Award of Merit of the Association of Canadian Studies (1995), the Vinay-Darbelnet Prize of the Canadian Association of Translation Studies (2000) and the Teaching Award of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University (2002) and of the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools (2002). In 2010, she was made a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Canada.
References
External links
Barbara Godardat
The Canadian Encyclopedia
''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage.
Available f ...
Barbara Godard archivesa
Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godard
1942 births
2010 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
Writers from Toronto
Academic staff of York University
20th-century Canadian women writers
20th-century Canadian translators
20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers
Canadian women non-fiction writers