War and its Consequences Theme of Fall Colloquium Series

Now in its sixth year, a popular series of presentations by Arts and Humanities faculty at Vancouver Island University (VIU) will kick off Friday, Sept. 19.

“As 2014 is the centennial of the outbreak of WWI, our three fall presentations in VIU’s Arts and Humanities Colloquium series will touch on the theme of war and its consequences,” says Dr. Dawn Thompson, one of the faculty coordinating the series.

The series launches with a presentation titled Waters That No Vessel Ever Sailed by Kathy Page, a noted BC author and instructor in Creative Writing and Journalism. While many aspects of WWI have captured attention in recent months, Page brings her unique sensibility to focus on one soldier, Edward Thomas, who died at Arras on April 9, 1917, at age 39. As well as a soldier, Thomas was a writer, one of the famous poets of the Great War.

“Edward Thomas was a man acutely aware of the fragility of memory and the perplexing nature of time, and while his is a minutely documented life, at its end it seems to slip tantalizingly into the realm of story and imagination,” Page says.

Using the available evidence to construct several possibilities, Page will explore the border territory between fiction and non-fiction, and our need to make stories of our own and other people’s lives.

A well-known author in her own right, Page was born and educated in England, and published her first novel in 1986. In 2001 she relocated with her family to Salt Spring Island, where she continues to write. Her novel Alphabet was short-listed for the Governor-General's Literary Award in 2005. Recently she has published a collection of short stories, Paradise and Elsewhere.   

The Arts & Humanities Colloquium Series continues with two further fall presentations. On October 17, Dr. John Hill and Dr. Ann Rogers will speak on a controversial topic: The Rise of Drones: From the Great War to Gaza. Continuing the theme of war and its consequences, on November 28 Terri Doughty and Dr. Justin McGrail will present Cultural Contact Zones: Wroclaw, Poland, a look at how modern writers and artists are recovering Poland's multi-ethnic history and creating identities in a historically war-torn country.

All Colloquium presentations are free and open to all interested, and take place in VIU’s Malaspina Theatre, from 10 to 11: 30 am.

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