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Conference

Mordecai Richler Against the World / Mordecai Richler contre le monde

Oct. 31, 2019

The Richler Library Project presents:

Mordecai Richler Against the World / Mordecai Richler contre le monde
A free-to-attend conference

McConnell Building Webster Library, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8

This bilingual conference aims to take a closer look at these contentious aspects of Richler’s work, whether it is from the standpoint of Québécois or Canadian national literatures or in relation to its polemic nature or possibly even the translation issues that it poses.

Cette conférence bilingue propose de traiter des questions qui entourent ces affiliations qui posent problème dans l’œuvre de Richler, tant du point de vue des corpus nationaux québécois et canadien que du point de vue de ses aspects polémiques ou des enjeux de traduction.

Conference Programme

Venues

Library Building (LB): McConnell Building Webster Library, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8
Grey Nuns (GN): 1190 Guy St, Montreal, QC H3H 2L4

Rooms

LB 322: Multifunctional Room (Plenaries and Round Tables)
LB 361: Friends of the Library Room (Registration and Refreshments)
LB 362: Seminar Room (Conference Panels)
Grey Nuns E-104

DAY 1 – Thursday, October 31st, 2019

8:00-9:00 Registration and Coffee (LB 361)

9:00-9:30 (LB 322): Jason Camlot, Opening Remarks

1.1 - 9:30-10:30 (LB 322): A PLENARY DISCUSSION WITH MICHEAL LEVINE: MANAGING MORDECAI

  • Michael Levine in Conversation with André Furlani (Concordia University)

10:30-11:00 Refreshment Break (LB 361)

1.2 - 11:00-12:00 (LB 322): Round Table: Translating Richler
Moderator: Judith Woodsworth (Concordia University)

  • Paul Gagné (Boréal)
  • Sherry Simon (Concordia University)

Lunch (off campus, not provided)

1.3 - 13:30-14:30 (LB 322): PLENARY by EMMA RICHLER

Moderator: Katherine McLeod (Concordia University)

  • Emma Richler, “You may split your beer but not your infinitives”

14:30-15:00 Coffee Break (LB 361)

1.4 - 15:00-16:00 (LB 322) PLENARY by JACOB RICHLER

Moderator: Manish Sharma (Chair, Department of English, Concordia University)

  • Jacob Richler, "Writing about my father, or, A few things my father taught me about writing”

1.5 - 16:30-17:30 (The Richler Reading Rooms): TEACHING THE RICHLER LIBRARY

Moderator: Jason Camlot (Concordia University)

  • Katherine McLeod (Concordia University), Teaching the Richler Library, or, Millennial Richler

Tour of the Richler Library by Concordia graduate student Alisha Dukelow and Jason Camlot

1.6 - 18:00 (Grey Nuns E-104) PLENARY by ADAM GOPNIK

  • Adam Gopnik, “Many More Mordecais”

In this talk, Adam Gopnik examines Mordecai Richler as more than just a Jewish-American novelist (a writer of the ‘colonial cringe’) but rather as a writer with the tonal and stylistic range of Naipaul and the South American masters of magical realism.

Facilitated by Jason Camlot

DAY 2 – Friday November 1st, 2019

8:30-9:00 Coffee (LB 361)

9:00-9:30 (LB 362): Samuel Mercier (Concordia University), Opening Remarks

2.1 - 9:30-10:30 (LB 362): POLEMICS AND HUMOUR IN RICHLER’S WORK
Moderator: Jason Camlot (Concordia University)

  • Nathalie Cooke (McGill University), Silence, Suspicion and a Slight Hint of Humour: What Richlerean Heroes are Unmade of
  • Norman Ravvin (Concordia University), Seeing Jews, and Oneself as a Jew, in Postwar Europe: Mordecai Richler’s Early Novels Alongside Other Postwar Polemists

10:30-11:00 Refreshment Break (LB 361)

2.2 - 11:00-12:00 (LB 322): PLENARY by RUTH PANOFSKY

Moderator: Nathalie Cooke (McGill University)

  • Ruth Panofsky (Ryerson University), “Richler’s Panofskys”

Lunch (off campus, not provided)

2.3 - 13:30-14:30 (LB 362): DUDDY AND BELONGING
Moderator: Andre Furlani (Concordia University)

  • Gerald Lynch (University of Ottawa), “Why Can’t Duddy Go Home Again?”
  • Marilyne Lamer (McGill University), “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, un « unbildungsroman »?”

14:30-15:00 Coffee Break (LB 361)

2.4 - 15:00-16:00 (LB 362) BARNEY, DANS LE TEMPS ET DANS L’ESPACE
Moderator: Samuel Mercier (Concordia University)

  • Catherine Leclerc (McGill University), “Victoires et vulnérabilités dans Barney’s Version: lectures anachroniques croisées”
  • Yan Hamel (TELUQ), “Le Paris de Barney”

2.5 - 16:00-17:00 Round Table (LB 322) : ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: CONTEMPORARY WRITERS ON RICHLER
Moderator: Linda Morra (Bishop’s University)

  • David Homel
  • Saleema Nawaz
  • Emma Richler

18:00 Drinks at Ziggy’s Pub
1470 Rue Crescent, Montreal, Quebec H3G 2B6, Canada