TransCanada: A Rationale
We believe that Canada has reached now yet another turning point, trying as it is to negotiate its multicultural phase of the last two decades with the pressures of globalization. While the unraveling of the nation's coherence may have resulted in a loss of purpose, this loss is not to be lamented. Instead, we see this turning point as representing a critical moment that invites a complete rethinking of the disciplinary and institutional frameworks within which Canadian literature is produced, disseminated, studied and taught. Fully acknowledging the importance of what has been accomplished over Canadian literature's relatively short history, this conference will take the form of a structured forum that will foster rigorous critical dialogue which will hopefully not stop at the level of debate. Instead, it will articulate a loose collective of scholars that will pursue future research plans--collaborative as well as individual--about the production, study and teaching of Canadian literature.
TransCanada, then, is not conceived in revisionist terms, nor is it a rejection of Canadian literature's institutional history or triggered by anxiety over the loss of the margin. Rather, TransCanada intends to bring to light the incommensurable aspects of the study of Canadian literature as praxis in Canada.
