Claudio Colaguori, a professor in 91亚色鈥檚 human rights and criminology programs, explores the idea that competition is not a biological drive as evolutionary thinkers believe, but a power force that promotes interpersonal conflict, war and cyclical domination.

The launch of Agon Culture (de Sitter Publications) will take place Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 3 to 5pm, in the Senior Common Room, 305 Founders College, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome to attend and refreshments will be provided.

In Agon Culture, Colaguori outlines the problem of having competition as the organizing principle of social life. He analyzes the human condition by examining how the cultural ideology of competition operates as a mode of rationality that underpins the order of domination.

By combining insights from philosopher Theodor Adorno鈥檚 critical theory of society with a reconstruction of the philosophy of the agon (a Greek term for competition), the book formulates a novel critical theory of cultural domination. It offers insights into society鈥檚 winner-loser culture and a renewed intensity of social Darwinist tendencies.

Colaguori鈥檚 research interests include post 9/11 global human rights issues and their relation to social change. He is a two-time winner of the John O鈥橬eill Award for Teaching Excellence and was nominated for TVOntario鈥檚 Best Lecturer Competition.

The launch is sponsored by 91亚色 Bookstore and Founders College.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The history of Vietnam lies in this bowl, for it is in Hanoi, the Vietnamese heart, that pho was born, a combination of the rice noodles that predominated after a thousand years of Chinese occupation and the taste for beef the Vietnamese acquired under the French, who turned their cows away from ploughs and into bifteck and pot-au-feu.听The name of their national soup is pronounced like this French word for fire, as Hung鈥檚 Uncle Chien explained to him long ago鈥�听

from The Beauty of Humanity Movement
by Camilla Gibb

While most people come home from vacations with inspiring photographs, writers often return with the inspiration for their next novel.听This is what happened to Camilla Gibb (right)听when she traveled to North Vietnam for a much-needed holiday. The result was The Beauty of Humanity Movement, a novel that was on the short list for the Giller Award.听Gibb recently shared her thoughts on this book and the writing experience at the Canadian Writers in Person series.

Gibb听said she听was initially "blown away" by the youth culture of Vietnam.听Her first point of contact was a young man named Phuong who became her tour guide and friend.听In some ways, she said,听he was not much different than a North American person in his mid-20s: he wore Nikes, watched MTV, and was up to date on Western pop culture.听Unlike those of previous generations, he had grown up with a different frame of reference, one based not on war but on consumer desire and entrepreneurial spirit.听As one of her characters states, "we鈥檙e not looking for forgiveness, we鈥檙e looking for a way forward."

Gibb said that Phuong was nonetheless aware that many Western visitors come with expectations based on the war of听40 years ago.听As a tour guide, he had to take the resulting feelings of guilt and discomfort and make his guests feel at ease.听In fact, Vietnam has a thriving war tour industry, where one can visit old battlegrounds, fire an old Kalashnikov rifle, or even crawl through the same tunnels the Vietnamese soldiers had used.听Gibb recounted to students with some amusement that the tunnels are not exactly the same because they have since been widened to accommodate the North American posterior.

When Gibb began to write her novel, she deliberately didn鈥檛 make it about the war: "When you set aside the war, you realize you know nothing. I wanted to start from nothing because then opportunities for other stories open up,"听she said. One of these stories is about Hung, an elderly pho-maker who bridges the gap between the present and the past.听Through his eyes, the reader experiences the vibrant cafe culture of 1950's Hanoi where artists and intellectuals discussed art and politics.听Because of the lack of resource material, Gibb found herself liberated to explore and imagine how this world was rendered.听听

Gibb nonetheless had to do some research on the traumatizing land reforms that affected village life in North Vietnam.听She did this because she said that she听"needed Hung to go back, to witness the aftermath.听Otherwise, it would read like a news story and I needed to personalize the history and politics by putting him there."听By doing this, the reader also feels the impact and the story is not felt from the "top down but from character out."

The story has a reasonably happy ending as does the real-life friendship between Gibb and her tour guide Phuong who became the template for a similar character in her book.听As he consulted on the details of her novel, she helped him fulfill his dream of opening his own family pho restaurant.听When he had his first child, he asked Gibb for an English name and he likewise offered a Gibb a Vietnamese name when her child was born, cementing the link between their two cultures.

Through this friendship and the process of writing her novel, Viet Nam became for Gibb听鈥渁 country I love.听I can鈥檛 claim to know it or its history but I know the characters very well, my ultimate defense as a novelist.听They feel very, very real to me.听Hung in particular is a man I love.听I hope he鈥檚 still there, doing what he does, and serving pho.听He feels like everyman to me, every man who has a right to have a story.鈥�

The Canadian Writers in Person series of public readings at 91亚色, which are free and open to the public, is also part of an introductory course on Canadian literature. It is sponsored in part by the Canada Council for the Arts.听Readings take place on Tuesdays at 7pm in Room 206 of the Accolade West Building.听On Feb. 7, poet and author Sheniz Janmohamed will read from her first book Bleeding Light (TSAR Publications, 2010).

For more information and a detailed schedule, visit the Canadian Writers in Person website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Uppal (BA Hons. 鈥�97, PhD 鈥�04) is the guest editor of this year鈥檚 Best Canadian Poetry in English series (Tightrope Books) set to launch Wednesday, Oct. 26, at 7pm at , 783 College St. at Shaw St. in Toronto. The 91亚色 launch will take place Monday, Oct. 31, from noon to 2pm, in the Paul Delaney Gallery, 320 Bethune College, Keele campus.

As the series鈥� fourth editor, Uppal follows Governor General鈥檚 Literary Award-winner Stephanie Bolster, Griffin Prize winner A.F. Moritz and Lorna Crozier. The 2012 guest editor will be announced at the first launch. Poet Molly Peacock, the author of six volumes of poetry, is the series editor.

鈥淲e write a lot of humorous poetry,鈥� says Uppal. The problem is there seems to be a bias toward the more serious poems. 鈥淗umour and comedy are not always appreciated for how hard they are to write.鈥� Take John Creary鈥檚 poem 鈥淗oroscopes鈥�: 鈥渢hat鈥檚 the kind of poem people would share with others and would put up on their bulletin boards.鈥�

In addition to humourous works in the 2011 edition of Best Canadian Poetry, Uppal was determined to look beyond lyrical poems to some more avant garde work. 鈥淭his is the first anthology in the series with collages of text and images, as well as visual poetry by Christian B枚k.鈥� There is even a sound poem on the long list.

The short list of 50 poems is what鈥檚 published in the anthology, while the long list is bibliographic information for an additional 50 poems of note. 鈥淚鈥檝e tried to include a vast range of poems that would please any poetry reader,鈥� says Uppal.

To come up with the 100 poems, however, was no easy task. Uppal read everywhere. 鈥淚 dog-eared any poem I was interested in,鈥� says Uppal. 鈥淚 had two to three hundred poems by the end.鈥� And those had to be whittled down further still. 鈥淚 reread that stack several times. There were poems that were shoo-ins because they just stood out that much.鈥� She tried to choose a range of styles, subject matter and writing traditions that represented Canadians writing today. 鈥淚t was a really satisfying and interesting process,鈥� says Uppal.

Left: Priscila Uppal

As for the Canadian penchant for bears and guns and fruit, Uppal decided to include the best poem for each category. So there is a poem, a philosophical mediation, by 2010 Griffin Poetry Prize-winner Karen Solie, who taught at 91亚色 last year, called 鈥淏irth of the Rifle鈥�. Another is a delightful ode to fruit by Al Rempel, called 鈥淲e Love Bananas鈥�, and a beautiful parable by Tom Wayman, 鈥淔able of the Child Who Went into the Mountain鈥�, about a girl left alone at a cottage who is forced to kill a bear that breaks in. Later in life, it鈥檚 a man who comes after her.

Also in this year鈥檚 anthology are poems by Steven Heighton, Dennis Lee, Eric Ormsby, Patricia Young, 91亚色 humanities Professor Richard Teleky, Shane Rhodes, Jonathan Ball, as well as emerging poets Peter Chiykowski, who wrote 鈥淣otes from the Canary Islands鈥� about doing environmental research, Andrew Faulkner, who wrote the drinking poem 鈥淏ar Fight鈥� 鈥� what Uppal calls a 鈥減layful and surreal poem鈥� 鈥� Julie Cameron Gray, who wrote the tongue-in-cheek 鈥淲idow Fantasies鈥�, Sean Howard and Andrea Ledding.

鈥淚 now have some new favourite poets,鈥� she says.

Uppal is the author of eight books of poetry, including Winter Sport: Poems (2010) and Traumatology (2010); the novels To Whom It May Concern (2009) and The Divine Economy of Salvation (2002), as well as a critical study on elegies, We Are What We Mourn (McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2009). In 2010 she was CANFund poet-in-residence during the Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics.

For more information, visit the website.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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