Hilary Scharper (born 1961) is a Canadian novelist and professor of cultural anthropology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Scharper's fiction, teaching and research focus on cultural approaches to nature. She writes historical fiction, multi-species fiction, and, self-coined, "ecoGothic" fiction.

Biography

Born in 1961, Scharper grew up in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. She attended

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, where she received her PhD in Anthropology in 1992.

Writing

__NOTOC__ Scharper's first novel, ''Perdita'' (2013) is a

gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

with strong nature themes. She has characterized her writing as "ecoGothic," a newly minted subgenre that represents a more ecologically aware gothic. Scharper has stated: "I do not treat nature as merely a backdrop or setting, but rather as an active and indeed central player in the narrative." Jennifer Dawson credits Scharper with originating the term "ecoGothic".Quoted in Susan J. Tyburski, "Seduced by the Wild: Audrey Schulman's EcoGothic Romance", in: ''Gothic Transgressions: Extension and Commercialization of a Cultural Mode''. Ed. Ellen Redling and Christian Schneider. Zurich: LIT, 2015.
p. 133
Dawson credits Scharper with originating the "ecoGothic". Critic Robert Douglas has suggested that Scharper's fiction draws upon literary classics such as

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...

's '' Wuthering Heights'' and Charlotte Brontë's ''

Jane Eyre ''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...

'', noting that all these novels feature landscapes that are "desolate," "powerful" and "cruel." Scharper's book of short stories, ''Dream Dresses'' (2009), draws upon her experience as an ethnographer and explores women's experiences of dressing over the life cycle. '' Hollins Critic'' writes that Scharper "brings to her fiction writing a trained anthropological eye." The ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' wrote that her writing in ''Dream Dresses'' was "reminiscent of

Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. A leading writer of the Victorian era, he exerted a profound influence on 19th-century art, literature and philosophy. Born in Ecclefechan, Dum ...

Selected works

Fiction

*''Dream Dresses: Stories'' (2009) *''Perdita'' (2013) ,

References

External links

Hilary Scharper

Hilary Scharper University of Toronto
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scharper, Hilary 1961 births 21st-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women novelists Living people Academic staff of the University of Toronto Novelists from Toronto Writers of Gothic fiction Yale University alumni Canadian expatriates in the United States Canadian women non-fiction writers