Inaugural Lecture of Canadian Studies Centre

This lecture examines contemporary Canadian fiction and film in English through the lens of Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of liquid modernity, a term he applies to the pervasive sense of instability that defines late modern life. For Bauman, modernity is defined by a deep awareness of precarity, in which social structures, individual and collective identities become increasingly contingent and fragmented. I aim to explore how urban Canadian literature and cinema express and navigate this ontological condition. Specifically, I will look into how these texts represent the "liquid city," engaging with, responding to, or resisting its manifestations. Key issues include gentrification, urban alienation, and the heightened vulnerability that comes with these processes. The analysis will briefly focus on a selection of texts that foreground these discussions: Everything Will Be (Dir. Julia Kwan, 2014); The Better Mother (Jen Sookfong Lee, 2011); Double Happiness (Dir. Mina Shum, 1994); Five Little Indians (Michelle Good, 2020); and The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (Dir. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn, 2019).