Joan Barfoot

Joan Louise Barfoot (born May 17, 1946 in Owen Sound , Canada ) is a Canadian writer and journalist . She has published to date eleven novels, including Abra (1978), for which they the Books in Canada First Novel Award received Luck (2005), for the Scotiabank Giller Prize nominee, and Critical Injuries , which on the long list of Man Booker Prize 2002 stand. She is also the recipient of the Marian Engel Award 1992.

Life

Joan Louise Barfoot was born in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1946 to the second daughter of salesman Robert Barfoot and his wife, Helen, a teacher. Her sister Patricia, ten years her senior, would later enjoy a successful career in banking. The family, descendants of Scottish - Presbyterian settlers lived on a small farm near Owen Sound, where Joan Barfoot grew up. 1951-1956 she attended the Victoria Elementary School and 1957/58 the Dufferin Elementary School before she graduated from the West Hill Collegiate Institute from 1960 to 1965. As a part-time student, she worked as a general reporter for The Owen Sound Sun-Times in 1965/67 and attended the School of Journalism at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) in London in 1966/67 . Meanwhile, she worked as the news editor and co-editor of The UWO Gazette . Since she missed too many courses due to the multiple workload, she then asked to be allowed to leave the journalism study program, which did not allow a BA degree anyway, and changed her subject to English literature. Nevertheless, she worked as a religion editor for The Windsor Star in 1967/69 .

Joan Barfoot graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature in 1969 . She then worked as a reporter and editor for publishers such as Mirror Publications , Toronto , (1969–1973), and The Toronto Sunday Suns (1973–1975). In 1975/1976 she took a break to write her first novel, which has not yet been published. She then worked for the London Free Press (1976–1979).

Even in childhood, an experience would have inspired her to write. Barfoot and her mother were watching a squirrel in the back yard from the kitchen . Her mother told Joan to write the story of the squirrel, which she did. After her mother read this story aloud to her, Joan was delighted. She couldn't remember the story later, but she always remembered the joy and energy that came from creating the story. Another experience also inspired her to write. One day a teacher praised her for her style and said she should consider writing for a living. Decades later, Barfoot would actually be a writer, teaching creative writing courses at the Schoof of Journalism at UWO every year , even if she isn't entirely convinced of the latter. Because she believes that writing should be a completely private pleasure and a mystery.

In 1978 she received the Books in Canada First Novel Award for her first novel, Abra , which propelled her literary career. Abra is about a young mother who, despite a supposedly happy marriage, leaves her husband and two daughters to live alone in the Canadian wilderness. Since then, all of her novels have been characterized by the fact that they describe the lives of housewives or wives who struggle with the ambivalence of their emotional family relationships and try to resolve this by radically turning away from their previous existence. However, some critics have had problems with the idea that a woman would break off all connections with other people in order to find herself. David Stouck, for example, briefly characterized Barfoot's studies on estranged women as “clinical”, while Victoria Branden expressed the understandable criticism that the protagonist did not even seek a dialogue with nature and thus delivered a rather dry and hardly convincing description of nature. In contrast, the novel enjoyed a special reception by feminist literary critics and writers, who emphasized the special connection between the Canadian wilderness, the archetype of the “pioneer women” and the “ Bildungsroman ” of Canadian women writers. The influence of this work, along with Bear (1976) by Marian Engel and Margaret Atwoods Surfacing (1972), on younger women writers such as Gail Anderson-Dargatz ( The Cure for Death by Lightning , 1996) and Eden Robinson ( Monkey Beach , 2000) was decisive.

After her first novel, she worked for The London Free Press for 14 years, that is, 1980-1994 .

Her second novel, Dancing in the Dark , (1982) served as a script for the film of the same name starring Martha Henry . This adaptation won three Genie Awards (Best Art Direction, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role). This book is about the inner recovery process of a woman who is psychologically insane and is now in jail for the murder of her unfaithful husband while she is accountable to herself.

In an international comparison, Barfoot's works were placed on a similar level with those of Anne Tyler , Carol Shields , Margaret Drabble , Fay Weldon and Margaret Atwood . They are also seen as part of the “Southern Ontario Gothic sub-genre”, which includes the Atwood already mentioned, as well as well-known authors such as Alice Munro , Robertson Davies and James Reaney . For Canadian literature, her works are thematically part of the reorientation in an alien environment; this was “a fundamental Canadian concern not only in the days of the Discovery literature; Rather, it has gained increasing importance as a narrative model for the exploration of unknown space beyond the topographical up to the present era. ”These include comparatively classical works such as Rudy Wiebes A discovery of Strangers or Barry Lopez ' Arctic Dreams , as well as those not comparatively works known to the general public, such as Elizabeth Hays The Only Snow or Joan Barfoot's Abra . In addition, Barfoot is perceived as an author who portrayed the generation problems between aging mothers and their daughters who have since made careers or who have failed in their own relationships.

As 2005 Luck on the shortlist of the Scotiabank Giller Prize was, the jury praised their work in a variety of forms: "Joan Barfoot is at the peak of her powers with this splendidly Realized tragicomedy about a household in the wake of an unexpected death. With its note-perfect narration, mordant wit and wonderfully neurotic cast of characters, Luck shows how death can reveal life in all its absurdity and complexity. This scintillating comedy of manners is also a profound meditation on fate, love, and artifice. "

The German translation received similar praise as it was a novel "about limitation and exclusion, about self-definitions and the positioning of different people in relation to the society in which they live," whereby all people would still have corners, edges and abysses treated by the author with equal respect and irony. The stylistic variety, the richness of images and the ease of narration should be emphasized in this novel.

The writer is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada, PEN Canada and now lives as a freelance writer in London , Ontario. Her novels have been translated into various languages ​​and published in Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Norway and Sweden in addition to the Anglo-American language area.

In 1983 she was a Canadian delegate at the first International Feminist Book Days in England.

Works

Novels

• Abra. 1978. (US title Gaining Ground . The Women's Press Ltd., 1980, ISBN 978-0704338524 )
  • A hut to myself. Translation: Uta Gorides. 1981.
• Dancing in the Dark. The Women's Press Ltd., 1982. ISBN 978-0704338951 .
  • Dance in the dark. Translation: Margaret Minker, 1988.
• Duet for Three. The Women's Press Ltd., 1985. ISBN 978-0704339811 .
  • Duet for three . Translation: Gabriele Kosack, Frauenbuchverlag 1988, ISBN 978-3888971280
• Family News. The Women's Press Ltd., 1989. ISBN 978-0704345553 .
  • Family News. Translation: Eva and Thomas Pampuch, 1990.
• Plain Jane. The Women's Press Ltd., 1992. ISBN 978-0704343290 .
  • Waiting for Mr. Smith. Translation: Eva and Thomas Pampuch, 1993.
• Charlotte and Claudia Keeping in Touch. The Women's Press Ltd., 1994. ISBN 978-0704344105 .
  • The woman in the hedge. Translation: Eva and Thomas Pampuch, 1995.
• Some Things About Flying. The Women's Press Ltd., 1997. ISBN 978-0704345492 .
  • About flying and other things. Translation: Eva and Thomas Pampuch, 1998.
• Getting over Edgar. The Women's Press Ltd., 1999. ISBN 978-0704346260 .
  • When he left her. Translation: Eva and Thomas Pampuch, 2000.
• Critical injuries. 2001.
• Luck. Knopf Canada, 2005. ISBN 978-0676977004 .
  • Luck. Translated from the English by Gesine Strempel, Atrium Verlag. Zurich 2007.
• Exit Lines . Vintage Canada 2008. ISBN 978-0307397065 .

Editing

• A Time Apart: Letters of Love and War . Owen Sound, Ontario 1995. (Correspondence (1941–1945) between Norah Egener, a housewife from Owen Sound, and her husband Fred, who was stationed overseas)

Awards and nominations

• 1978: Books in Canada First Novel Award , for Abra
• 1992: Marian Engel Award
• 1999: Nomination, Guardian's Books of the Year Award for Getting Over Edgar
• 2001: Shortlist, Trillium Book Award , for Critical Injuries
• 2002: Longlist , Man Booker Prize , for Critical Injuries
• 2005: Shortlist, Scotiabank Giller Prize , for Luck
• 2005: Huron University College medal of distinction

literature

• Susan Elmslie: Living rooms: domestic material culture in fiction by Joan Barfoot, Marion Quednau, and Diane Schoemperlen. McGill 2000.

Web links

• Literature by and about Joan Barfoot in the catalog of the German National Library
• Roger J. Moran: Article Joan Barfoot - The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Canadian Writers in Person: Joan Barfoot - artmob.ca (short biography, pictures and videos of a lecture)
• Short biography and reviews of works by Joan Barfoot at perlentaucher.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ JRank web site
2. ↑ See biographical sketch in: Antje Thiersch: The Reality B (ey) ond. Triviality and Profundity in the Novels of Joan Barfoot. Galda & Wilch, Cambridge / Mass. / Glienicke / Berlin 2002, p. 227.
3. ^ Canadian Books & Authors web site
4. ↑ http://www.jrank.org/literature/pages/3266/Joan-Barfoot.html
5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ^ William H. New: Encyclopedia of literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2002, p. 64.
7. ↑ On the history of the impact: Lorna Sage, Germaine Greer, Elaine Showalter, Thomson Gale (eds.): The Cambridge guide to women's writing in English. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 1999, p. 1.
8. ↑ See William H. New: A history of Canadian literature. McGill-Queen's Univ. Press, Montreal 2003, p. 222.
9. ^ Corinna Thömen: Representations of Women and Nature in Canadian Women's Writing. GRIN, Munich 2009, p. 46.
10. ^ David Stouck: Major Canadian authors. A critical introduction to Canadian literature in English. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1988, p. 257.
11. ↑ Victoria Branden: The Canadian Book of Snobs. Hounslow Press, Toronto 1992, p. 192.
12. ↑ Elizabeth Helen Thompson: The pioneer woman: a Canadian character type. McGill-Queen's University Press, Buffalo / Montreal 1991, p. 7.
13. ↑ Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson, "From Housewife to Hermit: Fleeing the Feminine Mystique in Joan Barfoot's Gaining Ground." In: Studies in Canadian Literature. Volume 21. No. 1 (1996) p. 92. Abstract .
14. ↑ Cf. Ellen McWilliams: Margaret Atwood and the female bildungsroman. Ashgate Publishing, Farnham 2009, pp. 138ff.
15. ↑ Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson: Women's movement: escape as transgression in North American feminist fiction. Rodopi, Amsterdam 2000, p. 3ff.
16. ↑ Rita Felski: Beyond feminist aesthetics: feminist literature and social change. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1989, p. 13.
17. ^ On the reception of Abras in German prose texts; Theresia Bachofen: "I'll call you when I'm better": possibly dying is the way - death, - the highest sensual experience in its purest form - love: an open diary. BoD, Norderstedt 2009, p. 176.
18. ^ Coral Ann Howells: Writing by women. In: Eva-Marie Kröller: The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge / New York 2004, pp. 194–215, here p. 202.
19. ↑ Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson: "Her-story" and the Feminist Fantastic in Gail Anderson-Dargatz's The Cure for Death by Lightning. In: Robert Alexander Wardhaugh, Alison Calder (Eds.): History, literature, and the writing of the Canadian Prairies. University of Manitoba Press, 2005, pp. 87-100, here p. 99.
20. ↑ http://www.imdb.de/name/nm0054511/
21. ^ Comparison between Audrey Thomas Latakia and Joan Barfoots Dancing in the Dark in: Coral Ann Howells: Private and fictional words: Canadian women novelists of the 1970s and 1980s. Taylor & Francis / Methuen, London / New York 1987, pp. 139ff.
22. ↑ http://www3.sympatico.ca/jbarfoot/
23. ↑ Cheris Kramarae, Dale Spender (Ed.): Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women's Issues and Knowledge. Education: health to hypertension. Volume 3. Identity Politics - Publishing, Routledge, London / New York 2000, p. 1270.
24. ↑ See Susanne Becker: Gothic forms of feminine fictions. Manchester University Press, Manchester / New York 1999, p. 96.
25. ^ Petra Wittke-Rüdiger: Literary cartographies of the Canadian north. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, p. 72.
26. ↑ Clear reference to Duett for Three ; Susan P. Llewelyn, Kate Osborne: Women's lives. Routledge, London / New York 1990, pp. 232f.
27. ↑ Bill Bytheway: Unmasking Age: The Significance of Age for Social Research. Policy Press, Bristol 2011, p. 100.
28. ↑ Bookclubs.ca ( Memento of the original from July 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
29. ↑ The harem after death . Joan Barfoot: "Luck". Radiofeulleton: Criticism In: Deutschlandradio Kultur. June 20, 2007. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
30. ↑ http://www.writersunion.ca/ww_profile.asp?mem=421  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
31. ^ Sabine Brandt: Pressure drop. Joan Barfoot gives flight lessons. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 23, 1998. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
32. ↑ Review summary on Perlentaucher.de
33. ^ Julie Wheelwright: Exit Lines, by Joan Barfoot. The rage of the aged: a haunting, disturbing tale of growing old disgracefully. In: The Independent . September 17, 2008. Retrieved March 11, 2012.