About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
As W.H. New's Grandchild of Empire shows, irony is not dead, but has found fresh purpose. New looks at the politics of irony in modern writing and explains how it relates to imperial history, how it impacts upon personal memories, how it speaks from the margin, and how it indirectly teaches us to resist presumptuous authority. Focusing on postcolonial poetry and prose, but also including autobiographical incidents and memories, New establishes how irony speaks "about" from the outside. He emphasizes the importance of voice in communicating what irony has to say, the necessity of listening closely to how ironic literature speaks. And he draws his examples from around the world, ranging from Canada and the Caribbean to Africa, India and Australia. Funny, informed and emotionally engaging, Grandchild of Empire, an extension of the 2002 Sedgewick Lecture at the University of BC, demonstrates how writers have actively adapted the English language in order to undermine empty conventions of literary and political power, and to affirm, even in bleak times, self-esteem. Includes eight black and white illustrations.
Contributor Notes
William New is one of Canada's outstanding men of letters: well known for his children's books - Vanilla Gorilla, Dream Helmet and Llamas in the Laundry - his adult poetry, his writings on Canadian and postcolonial literature, and his literary criticism (some 30 volumes). He is on the editorial board of the New Canadian Library and the editor of the monumental Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada (U of Toronto Press). For many years he was the editor of the journal Canadian Literature,and he is presently on the board of the New Canadian Library. He is Professor Emeritus of English and Canadian literature at the University of B.C. He lives in Vancouver.
