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The aim of this article is to analyze the latest volume of migrant memoirs from Poland to Canada Zwyczajna przeprowadzka / An Ordinary Move: Memoirs of Polish Immigrants in Canada 1988-2012 (2014) in order to track the changes in attitudes to the migrants' perception of Poland and Canada in the context of finding/losing home, (un)belonging and Polish-Canadian identity. This edited collection and its examination will be situated within the history of Polish life writing in Canada as well. The texts gathered in the volume are written in prose and verse and prove the migrants' variegated perspectives ranging from nostalgic and painful tones discussed in light of Svetlana Boym's The Future of Nostalgia to affirmative ones that can be described through the concept of finding a friendly space or the so called locus amoenus (Shallcross). This contribution also addresses the question of the usage of Polish and English as languages of expression as the recent publication is the first bilingual edition in the series. All in all, the memoirs show not only the constant need to write one's experience of migration and narrate the immigrants' attitude to their Polish identity but also testify to the possibility of migrants' "transnational status" (Kozaczka 152). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay assesses the merits of life writing in sport history as it is represented in one rare document, the Record, a diary-notebook-scrapbook constructed by lacrosse player Frank J. Grace (1878-1954) beginning in 1907. A talented athlete, Grace was a professional "tourist" who suited up for teams in Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto, Chatham, Orillia, and Winnipeg during the twilight of Canadian lacrosse; that is, in the years preceding World War I. The highlight of Grace's career was his selection to the All-Canada Lacrosse Team that traveled to play 16 games against teams in Australia in July and August of 1907, which prompted him to begin recording his life in the sport. This study makes sense of the Record by examining its making as an historical document, by placing it in the context of its times, and by interpreting the story it tells about Grace's life in the game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large wave of Polish immigration to Canada during the years immediately following World War II also brought the production of written narratives that reflect upon the process of migration and settlement in the new place. Although these migrants included persons from all across Poland, of different age groups, backgrounds, and occupations, the migration narratives share certain distinctive formulas and patterns, particularly in terms of their plot lines and narrative structure. Each story highlights the journey and its difficulties, the arrival and culture shock, the struggle to adapt, and finally acceptance of life in the new world. This article focuses on the migration experiences of Józef Bauer (arriving in Canada in 1946), Helena Beznowska (arriving 1948), Marian Pawiński (arriving 1949), and Erika Wolf-May (arriving 1953). Explored from a folkloristic perspective, these four narratives fulfill the four functions of folklore: entertainment, education, validation and reinforcement of beliefs and conduct, and maintaining the stability, solidarity, cohesiveness, and continuity of a group within the larger mass culture. Moreover, as folkloric expressions of culture, the narratives not only reflect our very human culture, but also reinforce our shared humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses three recent publications in Canadian life writing that challenge traditional genre boundaries and blur the lines between memoir, biography, and fiction. The texts mentioned are "Clifford" by Harold R. Johnson, "Split Tooth" by Tanya Tagaq, and "Machine Without Horses" by Helen Humphreys. These books explore the themes of trauma and the role of narrative in healing. The article emphasizes the significance of these texts in expanding the boundaries of Canadian life narrative and challenging representations of stable and verifiable selves. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the problem of theatrical playtexts that disguise the operations of life writing in conventionalized dramatic genres by identifying life writing in three plays written by returned soldiers in Canada in the years following the First World War. The essay asks how we might identify life writing in theater if auto/biography is neither overtly claimed nor foregrounded in content or performance and identifies a historical moment when the autobiographical compulsion was hidden behind the scrim of genre convention prior to the legitimization of autobiographical drama in the modern theater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few places are more closely associated with masculinity than prison. From the bank robber to the political dissident, the convict in North America is typically gendered male. This masculine association is curious given that the prison emasculates as a form of punishment, depriving the prisoner of independence, agency, money, and heterosexual activity – that is, many of the typical means of male expression in the outside world. Although the prison is typically thought of as a hyper-masculine space characterized by the adage ‘might is right’, the literature that comes out of it attests to more intricate, complex, and fluid male identities performed and improvised in this space. These prison masculinities both invert and reflect gender constructions of outside society. Drawing on recent life writing by Canadian prisoners, this paper examines how masculinity is reconstituted in the prison and what these prison masculinities may contribute to theoretical discussions of gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article features the creative collaborative research of university researchers and practicing teachers who are engaged in an ongoing inquiry concerned with rewriting literacy and pedagogy in Canadian cosmopolitan educational contexts. Individual life writing texts are juxtaposed to create print-based and digital stories that embody and resonate with narrative and poetic expressions of pedagogical experiences of living and teaching in tensioned and often precarious places and times. In this research, the authors strive to create dialogues between and across different educational sites and discourses about issues of identity, language and literacy, and the teaching life, with the aim to become more knowledgeable and more empathetic about each other's words and worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]