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Canadian war experience focus of literary reading


Two authors will read from and discuss their works on Canada's First World War soldiers in a free public event today at 1:30 p.m. in the Rose Room, Vanier Hall.

Ward McBurney will discuss & after this our exile, his novel of the Great War and soldiers returning to postwar Toronto, in the context of Homer, Milton, and the epic tradition. He will discuss the making of the book, the importance of home, and the meaning of remembrance to those with no memory of the war.

Bruce Cane both edits and comments upon the fascinating diary of an ordinary soldier, and thereby disrupts the usual top-down narrative of Canada in the First World War. Cane began researching and writing articles on military history while a curatorial assistant at Toronto's Historic Fort York. In 2004, he published his first book, It Made You Think of Home: The Haunting Journal of Deward Barnes, CEF, 1916-1919.

This event is sponsored by the Humanities Research Group; light refreshments will be served.