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136 LEITERS IN CANADA 1993 a1 in broadening horizons in this manner. For exalnple, Jan Geddes of Cormorant Books indicated that it was on Sheila Fischman's recommendation that they published Gravel's Le Bonheur Fall in what became a highly successful translation. By remaining well-informed readers of Frenchlanguage literature, and by translating and promoting this work to publishers, the translation community continues to provide English readers with literature within the canon as well as with that on the forefront of literary renewal and with important non-fiction texts. Although English-language fiction authors may continue to seek their revenge in France, their francophone counterparts can remain assured of a translating, reading, and perhaps purchasing English-language audience mterested in a wide range of authors, topics, and genres. Humanities Shirley Neuman and Glennis Stephenson. ReImagining Women: Representations of Women in Culture University of Toronto Press 1993.334. $60.00, $24.95 paper The eighteen articles that make up this collection are richly varied. The majority are in the field of literature, and the collection makes a strong case for the relevance of textual studies in understanding how women's image-making transforms consciousness and society. Essays in art history, cultural studies, and history fit splendidly with the volume's overriding focus on the representation of women in culture. One of the most satisfying features of the collection is the way it punctures the boundaries between disciplines. Views by and about lesbians, Native Canadian women, and women ·from ethnic communities are included in critical mass. Exciting work by a new generation of feminist scholars is mixed with essays by distinguished senior feminists such as Catharine R. Stimpson . With contributors from the United States, Britain, and Australia, the volume displays and strengthens the ties among women's studies scholars across international frontiers. Most contributors, though, are working in Canadian institutions, and one could justly claim that Relmagining Women reflects the strength of feminist research in the humanities in this country. It is easier to· offer an assessment of the collection as a whole than to describe its varied contents: the quality of the work is superb throughout. The topics are compelling and well chosen, engaging important debates or emerging areas of research; each contributor offers deeply thoughtful analysis, steeped in the relevant research in the field; and without exception the results are powerfully persuasive. All of the articles in Relmagining Women were presented at a (:onference on 1mag(in)ing Women' held at the University of Alberta in March 1989. HUMANITIES 137 Some conference papers did not make it into the collection, according to the acknowledgments, and the archivist in me would have appreciated a listing of all who participated in this milestone event. Feminist writers and artists were also present at the conference, and lTIany of the articles in Relmagining Women arise from the rich middle ground of theory and art. The articles are conscientiously updated to reflect the current state of research. The editors, Shirley Neuman and Glennis Stephenson, deserve special kudos for their success in nurturing ideas that first circulated as conference presentations into polished written scholarship. The subtitle of the collection, Representations of Women in Culture, accurately reflects the focus of the volume. In her introduction, Shirley Neuman gives a bird's-eye view of each essay, showing how it fits within the overarching issue of gender and representation. Representation is a flexible concept that has belonged to theories of art since Aristotle, and it has been widely discussed in contemporary, non-feminist forulns. The introduction thus situates the volume with respect to one of the major critical concepts of the day. But the introduction strives beyond its most immediate task of guiding the reader through the volume to become a general discussion of feminist theories of representation, and their evolution during the second wave. I emphasize the introduction's noteworthy project because I agree that, after a quarter of a century, the time is right for a genealogy of academic feminism's central concepts as well as a history of its institutions. The introduction's mapping of theories of representation is not carried over to the table of contents, though, nor is it used to subdivide...

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