University Professor Emeritus, Department of English, Centre for Comparative Literature
Jackman Humanities Building, Room 826, 170 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5R 2M8
Areas of Interest
- 20th-Century
- Theory
- Interdisciplinarity
- I continue my longstanding interest in our contemporary culture and its rhetorical and formal strategies (irony, parody, adaptation, etc.).
- A strong inclination to do interdisciplinary work has led to my collaboration with Dr. Michael Hutcheon, M.D., on the intersection of medical and cultural history using opera as the vehicle of choice. Our fourth book together, Four Last Songs: Aging and Creativity in Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen, Britten (University of Chicago Press, 2015) is an examination of the last works and late style of opera composers who led long and creative lives.
Recent Publications
Four Last Songs: Aging and Creativity in Verdi, Strauss, Messiaen, Britten (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015) (with Michael Hutcheon)
A Theory of Adaptation (NY and London: Routledge, 2006). reissue with new preface and epiloque (the latter by Siobhan O'Flynn), 2013.
Opera: The Art of Dying. Harvard University Press, 2004 (with Michael Hutcheon).
Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1980); paperback edition with new preface (London and New York: Methuen, 1984); reissue with new preface (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012).
The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary English-Canadian Fiction (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1988); reissue 2012.