During the Fall 2024 semester, 91社区鈥檚 Department of English welcomes Ann-Marie MacDonald as the 2024-2025 Richler Writer in Residence. MacDonald鈥檚 literary works include ten plays and four novels, touching on feminist, queer, and decolonial themes.听聽
During her residency, MacDonald will be participating in two events: a conversation on historical fiction with former Richler Writer-in-Residence and 91社区 alum Heather O鈥橬eill, on October 30th, and a talk with Dr. Neta Gordon from Brock University on her SSHRC funded interdisciplinary project of literary geography and the . During her time at 91社区, MacDonald will be working on two new plays, one of which is a stage adaptation of Jane Austen鈥檚 Pride and Prejudice for the Stratford Festival.听聽
MacDonald will hold office hours for students in Arts-310 on October 21, 25 and November 29, from 9:30AM to 12:30PM. Students are welcome to bring any material that is readable within 20 minutes. A sign up sheet for appointments with MacDonald is available in Arts 310. 聽
On the Outside, Looking In: The Journey of a Writer聽聽
Over the last four decades, MacDonald has been engaging in various forms of art and expression; from acting to playwriting to novel writing, to broadcasting, she has engaged a vast array of audiences across mediums and subjects.听
Due to her father鈥檚 work in the Canadian Air Force, MacDonald moved around a lot in her childhood. Born in Germany, MacDonald鈥檚 upbringing was shaped by her parents鈥� own history: her father, who could trace his family鈥檚 lineage back to the Highland Clearances and her mother, the child of Lebanese immigrants, both hailed from Cape Breton Island.听聽
Growing up, MacDonald learned traditional Lebanese dancing as well as Highland dancing and was exposed to her family鈥檚 memories, myths and repeated stories, which shaped her perspective as an artist. A sense of being different has followed her ever since.听聽
鈥淢oving around a lot gave me the sense of belonging and not-belonging, of being 鈥榥ormal鈥� and 鈥榥ot normal鈥�,鈥� she says. 鈥淎lways inside and outside at the same time, which when you think about it, is the perspective of the artist. A writer who is sufficiently 鈥榠nside鈥� to understand something and sufficiently 鈥榦utside鈥� to always be observing.鈥澛�
The Period Novel and its Contemporary Dialogue聽聽
The period novel is a genre in which MacDonald has worked extensively in and serves as the main topic of her first event at 91社区. Her latest novel, , published by Knopf Canada in 2022, is set on a remote estate straddling the border between England and Scotland in the late 1800s, and was written in the spirit of the Victorian novel (readers will recognize the world of the Bront毛 sisters in Fayne鈥檚 pages.)聽聽
For MacDonald, Fayne is a book that couldn鈥檛 have been written in any other moment than the 21st century.听聽
鈥淚 am interested in the idea of writing a period novel since it can only ever be written now,鈥� says MacDonald. 鈥淲hat is it about something in a distant time period, in a historical setting, that enables you to speak to the present, to the contemporary moment?鈥澛�
鈥淚n writing Fayne, I know that I am entering into an agreement with the reader,鈥� says MacDonald. 鈥淭he tropes and conceits of the genre will be abundant and those are going to buoy the reader experience.鈥澛�
In honouring the tradition of the Victorian novel, MacDonald transports us to Fayne, the Bell鈥檚 lonely and isolated estate where the protagonist, Charlotte, who lives alone with her reclusive father on 12,000 acres of moorlands, has an insatiable thirst for knowledge and enjoys exploring the boglands of her father鈥檚 estate, learning about the old healing ways of the bog from the estate鈥檚 hired man Byrn.听聽
Storytelling Through Research聽
Charlotte鈥檚 hunger for knowledge and her eventual discovery of science via her tutor reflects MacDonald鈥檚 own fascination with the history of science in the late nineteenth century.听聽
鈥淗istorical fiction offers an opportunity to create an immersive experience for the reader, because we are going to a faraway time and that means that you are already letting go of the present moment, the suspension of disbelief has begun,鈥� says MacDonald. 鈥淲e are going to time-travel, we are going to taste, and smell, and feel what it was like then and there.鈥澛�
In creating Fayne鈥檚 universe, MacDonald undertook extensive research at the Osler Library of the History of Medicine at 91社区, as well as medical museums in London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.听聽
鈥淚 was in my happy place reading old case studies, paging through catalogues of surgical implements, medical devices and diagnoses and prescriptions, as well as descriptions of female diseases and disorders, all of which stem from gynaecology,鈥� says MacDonald.听聽
Fayne鈥檚 protagonist has been kept from the world by her father due in large part to a 鈥渕ysterious condition鈥� and her quest for knowledge upends her world, leading her father to arrange for her to be 鈥渃ured.鈥澛犅�
鈥淭he woman is her uterus, that was the abiding principle,鈥� adds MacDonald. Her book addresses this rise in gynaecology in the nineteenth century, the concept of female 鈥渉ysteria鈥�, and the clich茅 of the rescuer. 聽
Understanding and recreating that universe is crucial to the reading experience. Everything from Victorian medical terminologies to the shape and heaviness of the first gynaecological speculum, to the movers and thinkers that went on to shape and shift early 20th century thought, come together to immerse the reader in the protagonist鈥檚 universe.听聽
Crossing Borders: The Past in Dialogue with the Present聽
Borders are another topic that has always fascinated MacDonald. The Bell鈥檚 estate sits on the borderlands of England and Scotland, and Charlotte鈥檚 quest for knowledge crosses between the boundaries of ancestral knowledge and wisdom and the emergence of scientific thought.听聽
鈥淏inaries have bedeviled me my entire career,鈥� she says. 鈥�Fayne is the ultimate challenge to any binary notion, whether it is of our body, our sexuality, our gender, or the nature of reality and our world itself, and the discovery of what is truly valuable.鈥澛�
In Fayne, MacDonald also engages with contemporary themes of ecocriticism and biodiversity. Charlotte鈥檚 fascination with the bogs on her father鈥檚 estate is an example of the past in dialogue with the present. Today, we now know that wetlands such as boglands, are an important carbon sink for the planet. Decades of human interventions on wetlands, such as the draining and burning of boglands for agricultural purposes, produces a large amount of CO2 emissions.听
The act of 鈥榗uring鈥� Charlotte is mirrored in our 鈥榗uring鈥� of the planet, and MacDonald asks us to ponder, who needs to be 鈥榗ured鈥�? What is a 鈥榗ure鈥�? And what鈥檚 the difference between curing and healing?聽
In our own contemporary context, the commercial and cultural rise of self-care, debates on the reproductive rights of women, and the ever-looming threats of climate change, all point to a continued conversation on who and what needs to be cured.听
MacDonald鈥檚 works engage the reader in multiple conversations that crisscross the borders of history, art, and science, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of storytelling.听
Readers can discover more about MacDonald's novels and plays by visiting her .听