Exploring Canadian identities / Vers l'exploration des identites canadiennes

Canadian studies in Poland have been developing rapidly in the last ten years. Within a relatively short period of time four Canadian Studies Centres were opened in Warsaw, Cracow, Łódz and Toruń. Courses with Canadian content were introduced at other universities across the country. In each case there were individuals, whose enthusiasm and hard work in the entirely new social system contributed, within their local communities, to the rise and then increase of interest in Canada. Research gained impetus together with the establishment of the Polish Association for Canadian Studies back in 1998. PACS came into being at the first conference of Polish Canadianists, which took place at Warsaw University. The First International Canadian Studies Conference to be held in Poland was the highlight of those activities. The conference took place on the 20-22 April 2001 and was hosted by the Department of English and Canadian Resource Centre at the Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun.
The conference theme, like the title of this volume, was Exploring Canadian Identities / Vers I 'exploration des identites canadiennes. It has, no doubt, been one of the most significant issues in research on Canada recently so it evoked enormous interest world wide. The conference attracted over ninety participants from many European countries, as well as from Israel, Japan, Brazil, Canada and the USA. Nearly sixty papers were presented in three main sections: Canadian literature in English; sociology, history & political sciences; Francophone section. The problem of identity became an object of the exchange of ideas between Polish canadianists and foreign participants from various cultural backgrounds. The variety of subjects discussed and the high standards they presented were most admirable. Hence, the final selection of the papers we received for this publication was not an easy task for the reviewers and publishers alike.

Aleksander Szwedek - Preface
Anna Branach-Kallas, Jakub Wójcik - Avant-propos
Ewa Wełnic - Introduction
Maciej Abramowicz - Vision de la societe sauvage dans Le Grand voyage au Pays des Hurons du pere Sagard
Betty Bednarski - Pologne Imaginaire, Pologne Identitaire: Jacques Ferron et les ecrivains polonais
Zila Bernd - Bresil/Quebec: itineraires et traversees
Anna Branach-Kallas - Rights Versus Duties: Shifting Identities in Chinese-Canadian Fiction
Nancy Burke - "Double Vision" - Post-Colonial Identity in Canadian Literature
Tanja Cvetkovic -To Steal and To Heal - The Portrait of a Canadian in Linda Griffiths'and Maria Carnbell's The Book ofJessica: A Theatrical Transformation
Magdalena Czechowska - Search for Identity in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion
Agnieszka Rzepa - Considering Magical Resolutions: Jane Urquhart's Away and the Politics of a Genre
Milda Danyte - M(otherland): Multiple Identities in Michaeal Ondaatje's Ani1's Ghost and Other Recent Canadian Fiction
Marek Gołębiowski - Canadian Values: Continuity or Change?
Bartosz Hlebowicz - The Drums Became Loud: New Identities of the Canadian Indians
Patrick Imbert - Barbarie et Civilisation dans les Ameriques au XIXeme siecle: les espaces imaginaires
Anna Jakabfi - Canadian Identity - Regional Attachment to Nova Scotia: the Historical Fiction of Thomas H. Randall ( 1903-1994)
Marta Kijewska-Trembecka - Canadian Identity or Identities in Canada
Robert Kłosowicz - Poles in the War of 1812 and their Influence upon the Shaping of Canadian Identities
Józef Kwaterko - Fictions Identitaires au Quebec: le point de vue de la critique
Tina Mouneimne - Deracinement eternel: le personnage de Moishe dans Aaron d'Yves Theriault
Magdalena Paluszkiewicz-Misiaczek -Development of Women Organizations in Canada in the Second Part of the19th Century and Their Influence Upon the Formation of the New Country
Rejean Pelletier and Daniel Guerin - National Identity, Trust and Tolerance in Canada: A Comparison with Other Multinational Federations
Anna Reczyńska - Polish Ethnic Press in Canada and its Attitude Towards the Country of Settlement
Anna Ritchie - A Search for Identity in A. M. Klein's The Second Scroll
Agnieszka Rzepa - Considering Magical Resolutions: Jane Urquhart's Away and the Politics of a Genre
Eugenia Sojka - (De)Constructing Canadian Identities in Selected 20th Century Arts and Interarts Projects
Don Sparling - History and Identity - The Case of Historical Fiction
Edina Szalay - The Gothic in Contemporary Canadian Fiction
Yutaka Takenaka - Cornelius Krieghoff and Genre Painting in 19th Century Quebec
Maria Tiley - National Identity within a Multicultural Society
Ewa Wełnic - (Re)Defining Identity: Native Canadian Short Story
Jakub Wójcik- "Who am I? What will become of me?" - Searching for Identity inAmerican and Canadian Literature: The Examples of Ralph Ellison'sInvisible Man and Margaret Laurence's A Jest of God
Mirosława Ziaja-Bucholtz - Native Boy's Bluest Eye: Drew Hayden Taylor and Jordan Wheeler between Politics and Myth

Ewa Wełnic

Wójcik Jakub Anna