6.0680 Bibliotherapy (1/59)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 28 Apr 1993 18:21:45 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0680. Wednesday, 28 Apr 1993.
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1993 14:25:16 PDT
From: "Dana Paramskas : DanaP@CSUS.edu" <paramskasdm@CCVAX.CCS.CSUS.EDU>
Subject: Announcement
Please forgive the posting of this announcement on several lists, and
the length of this posting.
The Association for Bibliotherapy in Canada is a *new* learned society
formed to study and promote bibliotherapy. Its purpose includes show-
ing how reading can be valued in everyday life, and emphasizing the
practical functions of literature as a life-resource for both the
individual and the community. Bibliotherapy is concerned with how
readers make use of literature in constructing, repairing and under-
standing their own lives. Bibliotherapy often is used as an adjunct to
more traditional forms of short and long term therapies.
ABC aims at bringing together professionals from *several* fields (in-
cluding librarians, social workers, therapists, and teachers of litera-
ture) who share a concern with the practical uses of literature, and
who want to emphasise and work with the responses of individual rea-
ders. ABC's founding president is Joseph Gold (Department of English,
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario), author of _Read for Your
Life: Literature as a Life Support System_, Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry
Whiteside, 1990.
The Association for Bibliotherapy in Canada will be holding a one-day
conference in conjunction with the annual Learned Societies of Canada
Conference, being held this year at Carleton University in Ottawa. The
date of the ABC Conference is Sunday, May 30, from 9 am to 5 pm. The
location is Room 214 of the "Residence Commons" Building. Conference
sessions are planned as follows.
Michael Ballin (English, Sir Wilfred Laurier): "John Cowper Powys'
_Autobiography_ - an act of healing."
Stephen Bonnycastle (English and Philosophy, RMC): "Love obsessions and
readers' responses - Irwin Yallom's _When Nietzsche Wept_ and
_Love's Executioner_ ."
Valerie Broege (Humanities, Vanier College): "Using _Anne of Green
Gables_ as a text for bibliotherapy."
Hoi Cheu (English, Waterloo): "Henry Vaughan's therapeutic poetics in
_Silex Scintillans_ ."
Joseph Gold (English, Waterloo): "Bibliotherapy in action."
Kristine Jantzi (English, McGill): "Love stories - identity and dialec-
tic in Julia Kristeva."
Claudia Mitchell (Education, McGill): chairing a panel discussion on
"Readers in search of self", with Linda Anderson (fairytales), Jill
Ramage (youth-in-care), Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (Nancy Drew stories).
Mark Weisberg (Law, Queen's): "Teaching doctors and lawyers, using
narratives about themselves."
Angela Roorda Winter (English, Alberta): "Oneself as an other - reading
autobiographies."
To join the Association and receive its newsletter, send a cheque (pay-
able to the ABC) to the Treasurer, Gilda Katz, c/o Surrey Place Centre,
2 Surrey Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 2C2. Fees are $20/year
($10 for students and partially employed). To attend the Conference,
please send $10 ($5 if partially employed or a student) -- as part of
the same cheque. More detailed information about conference sessions
and speakers may be obtained from Stephen Bonnycastle, Department of
English and Philosophy, Royal Military COllege, Kingston, Ontario,
Canada K7K 5L0. Internet: BONNYCASTLE_SR@CP6.RMC.CA
'Phone: (613) 541-6242
FAX: (613) 542-5055.