Susan Billingham
Associate Professor in Canadian Studies, Faculty of Arts
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Teaching Summary
My main area of expertise is post-1960 Canadian literature written in English. My special interests include queer writing, women's writing, and Native writing. I incorporate a broad range of genres… read more
Research Summary
For several years I have been interested in how, and to what extent, creative writing fosters individual, social or political agency. For instance, writers participate in public discourses such as… read more
Selected Publications
BILLINGHAM, SUSAN, 2010. Écriture au Trans-féminine: Trish Salah's Wanting in Arabic Canadian Literature. 205, 33-51
2010. Il/legitimacy: Sexual Violence, Mental Health, and Resisting Abjection in Camilla Gibb’s Mouthing the Words and Elizabeth Ruth’s Ten Good Seconds of Silence. In: GUNNE, SORCHA and BRIGLEY THOMPSON, ZOE, eds., Feminism, Literature, and Rape Narratives: Violence and Violation Routledge. 96-113
BILLINGHAM, SUSAN, 2012. "A Wanted Man": Transgender as Outlaw in Elizabeth Ruth’s Smoke. In: MILLER, VIVIEN and OAKLEY, HELEN, eds., Cross-Cultural Connections in Crime Fictions Palgrave. (In Press.)
My main area of expertise is post-1960 Canadian literature written in English. My special interests include queer writing, women's writing, and Native writing. I incorporate a broad range of genres in my classes, including novels, short fiction, poetry, drama, life writing, and 'borderblur' texts that challenge generic bounds altogether. I contribute to the first-year core module Canadian Literature, Film and Culture. Occasionally I teach some American literature as well.
My current optional modules include Recent Queer Writing (Level 3/4) and Canadian Women Writers (Level 2).
I am also the Director of Taught Courses for American & Canadian Studies, so I am actively involved in designing our curriculum and seeking innovative methods of learning and teaching.
Current Research
For several years I have been interested in how, and to what extent, creative writing fosters individual, social or political agency. For instance, writers participate in public discourses such as the publishing industry, higher education, and debates concerning censorship and canon formation. What happens when marginalized subjects join, or are co-opted by, the mainstream? My overall aim is to find alternatives to psychoanalytic models of the subject/abject, which continue to dominate feminist and even queer theory.
I am eager to supervise PhD or M.Res candidates interested in working in any aspect of lesbigay, queer or transgender literature and theory in the North American context. This is an expanding field with numerous areas as yet unexplored. Possible topics include: writing as/and agency; the intersection of trauma (such as incest, rape, genocide, war) and sexual identities; homophobia, backlash and blame; 'female masculinities,' 'brazen femmes,' and other forms of (un)doing gender. Writers for investigation include: Daphne Marlatt, Erin Moure, Dionne Brand, Nalo Hopkinson, Shani Mootoo, Hiromi Goto, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Camilla Gibb, Gail Scott, H. Nigel Thomas, Tomson Highway, Daniel David Moses, Timothy Findley, Shyam Selvadurai, Jane Rule, Dorothy Allison, Leslie Feinberg, Chrystos, Audre Lorde. These suggestions are by no means exhaustive.
I have also conducted research on various women writers such as Carol Shields, Lola Lemire Tostevin and Lorna Crozier. Canadian women's writing is particularly strong, making frequent appearances on short-lists for international awards like the Booker and Orange prizes. Apart from well-established names such as Atwood, Shields, Munro and Laurence, much remains to be done on writers such as Audrey Thomas, Aritha van Herk, Jeannette Armstrong, Lee Maracle, Dionne Brand, to name but a few. All inquiries regarding topics on feminist theory or women's writing in general will be welcome.
Recent Publications:
- "Detained at Customs: Jane Rule, Censorship and the Politics of Crossing the Canada-United States Border." Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-U.S. Border. Ed. Gillian Roberts and David Stirrup. forthcoming Wilfrid Laurier UP 2012.
- "Écriture auTrans-féminine: Trish Salah's Wanting in Arabic." Canadian Literature 205 (2010): 33-51.
- "Fraternizing with the Enemy: Constructions of Masculinity in the Short Fiction of Timothy Findley." Short Story Criticism Vol 145. Gale 2011. Rpt from Yearbook of English Studies 31 (2001).
- "The Configurations of Gender in Tomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing." Queer Theatre in Canada ed. Rosalind Kerr. Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2007, 112-33. Rpt from Modern Drama 46.3 (2003).
Past Research
My past research interests revolved around 'language-focused writing.' My first book was on the experimental Canadian poet bpNichol. This challenging writer started out in the 1960s in concrete and sound media, and engaged actively with post-structuralist linguistic theory and postmodern approaches to writing. He wrote a multi-volume life-long work entitled The Martyrology, where he invented his own canon of saints from words beginning with 'st' (for example, 'stranglehold' became St Ranglehold). I continue to be interested in writing that plays with language and transgresses generic boundaries.
Future Research
I am interested in exploring queer pedagogies and the extent to which institutional attitudes to queer youth are changing (or failing to change). I would also like to learn more about transgender writers such as Trish Salah or the collective 'Taste This,' including writers Ivan E Coyote and Anna Camilleri.