Barbara Godard (1942 – May 16, 2010) was a Canadian critic, translator, editor, and academic. She held the

Avie Bennett Avie Bennett, (January 2, 1928 – June 2, 2017) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of First Plazas, a real estate development company that built retail strip malls in Canada. Bennett also served as the tenth c ...

Historica Chair of

Canadian Literature Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both g ...

and was Professor of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, French, Social and Political Thought and

Women's Studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining social and cultural constructs of gender; systems of privilege and oppress ...

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

. She published widely on Canadian and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

cultures, on feminist and literary theory, and on translation studies]. Barbara Godard died peacefully in Toronto on May 16, 2010. Across Canada and throughout the world, poets, scholars, feminists, and friends mourned her death.

Translator

As Translation, translator, she has introduced Quebec women writers Louky Bersianik, Yolande Villemaire and

Antonine Maillet Antonine Maillet, (; born May 10, 1929) is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, Canada."Antonine Maillet." ''Paroles d'Acadie : Anthologie de la littérature acadienne (1958-2009)'', edited by ...

to an English audience. Her translations include

Nicole Brossard Nicole Brossard (born November 27, 1943) is a leading French-Canadian formalist poet and novelist. Her work is known for exploration of feminist themes and for challenging masculine-oriented language and points of view in French literature. Sh ...

's ''Picture Theory'' (1991) and France Theoret's ''The Tangible Word'' (1991). In 2004 her translation of Brossard's ''Intimate Journal'' was published as well as a revised edition of Maillet's ''The Tale of Don l'Orignal,'' also available as an

audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements. Spoken audio has been available in sc ...

as broadcast on CBC's Between the Covers. She is author of ''Talking About Ourselves: the Cultural Productions of Canadian Native Women'' (1985) and ''Audrey Thomas: Her Life and Work'' (1989) and has edited ''Gynocritics/Gynocritiques: Feminist Approaches to the Writing of Canadian and Quebec Women'' (1987), ''Collaboration in the Feminine: Writings on Women and Culture from Tessera'' (1994), and ''Intersexions: Issues of Race and Gender in Canadian Women's Writing'' (1996). ''Translation, Semiotics, and Feminism: Selected Writings of Barbara Godard'' appeared in 2022 in the Key Thinkers on Translation series (Routledge).

Editor

A founding co-editor of the feminist literary theory periodical, ''Tessera,'' Barbara Godard was

contributing editor A contributing editor is a newspaper, magazine or online job title that varies in its responsibilities. Often, but not always, a contributing editor is a "high-end" freelancer, consultant, or expert who has proven ability and has readership dra ...

of ''Open Letter'' and ''The Semiotic Review of Books'' and

book review __NOTOC__ A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, opinion piece, summary review or scholarly revie ...

editor of ''Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies.'' In 1998 she held the Gerstein Award for an advanced

research Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

seminar A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...

on ''Translation Studies in Canada: Institutions, Discourses, Texts.'' In 2001, with

Di Brandt Di Brandt (born 31 January 1952) (née Janzen) often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018. Life and career Brandt grew up in Reinland, a Mennonite farmin ...

she organized the conference "'Wider Boundaries of Daring': The Modernist Impulse in Canadian Women's Poetry" whose

proceedings In academia and librarianship, conference proceedings is a collection of academic papers published in the context of an academic conference or workshop. Conference proceedings typically contain the contributions made by researchers at the confere ...

are currently being edited for

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

. A first volume, ''ReGenerations: Canadian Women Poets in Conversation,'' appeared in 2006.

Prizes

She is the recipient of the Gabrielle Roy Prize of the Association for Canadian and Quebec Literatures (1988), the Award of Merit of the Association of Canadian Studies (1995), the Vinay-Darbelnet Prize of the Canadian Association of Translation Studies (2000) and the Teaching Award of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, York University (2002) and of the Northeast Association of Graduate Schools (2002). In 2010, she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

References

External links

Barbara Godard
at

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

Barbara Godard archives
a
Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections
York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada {{DEFAULTSORT:Godard 1942 births 2010 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Writers from Toronto Academic staff of York University 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian translators 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women non-fiction writers