Candida Rifkind, University of Winnipeg
Department of English
Professor
Winnipeg, Manitoba
c.rifkind@uwinnipeg.ca
Office:
(204) 786-9198
Expert In
Bio/Research
Canadian literature has exploded over the last twenty years, with many writers becoming international superstars. Yet, as an area of study, this is a relatively young field taught in universities since only the 1970s. Through her research, Dr. Candida Rifkind is expanding our historical understan...
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Bio/Research
Canadian literature has exploded over the last twenty years, with many writers becoming international superstars. Yet, as an area of study, this is a relatively young field taught in universities since only the 1970s. Through her research, Dr. Candida Rifkind is expanding our historical understanding of Canadian literature and culture, and illuminating the authors of two and three generations ago. Her focus is the first half of the 20th century. While there were interesting and important writers in this modernist period, many of the best-selling popular authors remain largely understudied or are just now being rediscovered.
Popular writing is often dismissed as unimportant but can be an enlightening indicator of cultural values and social attitudes. Studying non-canonical writing can help us understand how many Canadians encountered the enduring images, stories, and myths about this country. Dr. Rifkind's work primarily examines popular literature and culture in the decades between the two world wars, which bridge great change. The 1920s was a period of high nationalism and an economic and cultural boom. For the first time, a number of critics began to write about Canadian literature as distinct from British and American literature. Then came the 1929 crash and the Great Depression. Paradoxically, in that decade of scarcity and deprivation, the arts and culture flourished. Many writers produced left wing works, which is the subject of Dr. Rifkind's recent book, Comrades and Critics: Women, Literature, and the Left in 1930s Canada. However, the public was hungry for romance, adventure, and detective novels. Dr. Rifkind is now studying serial fiction that was all the rage in this period, such as Frank L. Packard's Jimmy Dale mysteries and Laurie York Erskine's Renfrew of the Mounted stories, both of which were adapted to radio and early film.
Dr. Rifkind is also turning her attention to graphic narratives, from 1930s `novels in woodcuts' about the rise of fascism to today's `graphic novels' that relate serious stories in a combination of words and pictures. In her further research, Dr. Rifkind will examine the idea of the artist as political witness and trace the historical development of this medium of graphic narratives.
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Popular writing is often dismissed as unimportant but can be an enlightening indicator of cultural values and social attitudes. Studying non-canonical writing can help us understand how many Canadians encountered the enduring images, stories, and myths about this country. Dr. Rifkind's work primarily examines popular literature and culture in the decades between the two world wars, which bridge great change. The 1920s was a period of high nationalism and an economic and cultural boom. For the first time, a number of critics began to write about Canadian literature as distinct from British and American literature. Then came the 1929 crash and the Great Depression. Paradoxically, in that decade of scarcity and deprivation, the arts and culture flourished. Many writers produced left wing works, which is the subject of Dr. Rifkind's recent book, Comrades and Critics: Women, Literature, and the Left in 1930s Canada. However, the public was hungry for romance, adventure, and detective novels. Dr. Rifkind is now studying serial fiction that was all the rage in this period, such as Frank L. Packard's Jimmy Dale mysteries and Laurie York Erskine's Renfrew of the Mounted stories, both of which were adapted to radio and early film.
Dr. Rifkind is also turning her attention to graphic narratives, from 1930s `novels in woodcuts' about the rise of fascism to today's `graphic novels' that relate serious stories in a combination of words and pictures. In her further research, Dr. Rifkind will examine the idea of the artist as political witness and trace the historical development of this medium of graphic narratives.
Click to Shrink <<