About the Project

About the Project

Artful (Un)belonging examines how contemporary Canadian literature conceptualizes experiences of (un)belonging through reference to and the incorporation of the visual arts. By exploring contemporary Canadian literary texts that either include the visual arts (painting, drawings, photographs) or narrate the experience and/or creation of the visual arts, I place visual and verbal communication in relation to each other and interrogate their intersections. Arguing that the visual arts can be an alternate means of expression that speaks when words fail or are difficult to come by, this project explores the efficacies of showing rather than telling, particularly in the context of the navigation of belonging.

With a focus on the writing of such authors as Roy Kiyooka, Dionne Brand, Kim Barry Brunhuber, George Elliott Clark, among others, this project sets itself the following objectives:

• To theorize the significance of contemporary Canadian literature’s reference to and incorporation of visually artistic expression;

• To establish visual representation as a strategy for achieving recognition, hence agency and/or belonging;

• To develop models for reading visual elements and the intersections between the verbal and visual;

• To contribute new insight regarding contemporary Canadian literature and its writers by conducting author interviews, synthesizing and assessing archival material, and completing close readings of relevant texts.

As I work towards the writing/presentation goals of this project, this website serves as a hub for knowledge creation, curating preliminary contemplations and publishing interviews with authors. Please subscribe (link on the Home Page) to be notified as new content is added (your privacy is paramount and will be respected!).

Principal Investigator

Veronica Austen

Dr. Veronica Austen (she/her) is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at St. Jerome’s University, where she is also Associate Dean. Having completed her Honours BA in English with a minor in Fine Arts, she has long been interested in the intersections between the visual arts and literary studies. While her graduate work led her towards a career in literary studies, with specialties in contemporary Canadian and Caribbean literatures, she has continued to dabble in the visual arts, with drawing, watercolour painting, and doodles-during-meetings being her key genres.

She has published work in various areas of literary studies, including contemplations of the representation of trauma and of acts of eating. She too has been broadly engaged in other aspects of the academic profession, with articles published on professional issues such as matters pertaining to contract academic faculty and on pedagogy. She was honoured to have been a winner of the 2019 Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.

The Artful (Un)Belonging website is a part of her current SSHRC-funded project which explores how representations of the visual arts are deployed in contemporary Canadian literature to navigate experiences of (un)belonging.

Contributors

Past Contributors

Sam Boer

Sam Boer (M.A., Toronto Metropolitan University; B.A., Western) is a musician, writer, and educator born and raised on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (known as Guelph, Ontario). Under the moniker Samson Wrote and as a vocalist/drummer for several groups (including art-folk collective The Lifers), Sam has toured Canada and Europe. His debut full-length album, Pigeon, was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in the “Pushing the Boundaries” category and praised by Exclaim! as “prolific and expansive.” Sam’s most recent music project is a folk musical entitled Ursa (co-created with composer/songwriter Jake Schindler) which received its first full-length premiere as part of the Toronto Fringe’s NextStage Festival (January 2022). Beyond his songwriting and performance work, Sam has written  music journalism for several Canadian publications; hosted an interview-based podcast, Lyrically Speaking; led music classes for young children; provided project management support for many Canadian musicians; and, as part of the University of Guelph’s Improvisation Institute, helped produce two online, 24-hour multi-disciplinary, international arts festivals during the pandemic: IF 2020 and IF 2021. His research into comics as sex education has been featured in Studies in Comics (July 2020), and he has contributed to the University of Calgary's What Were Comics project.