In a Queer Country: Gay and Lesbian Studies in the Canadian Context

John Stanley Senior Policy Advisor Corporate Policy Branch Management
Board Secretariat

This collection of essays results from the “Queer Nation?”
conference held at York University in March 1996. The book’s title
contains an ambiguity. Does “queer country” refer to the oddity of
Canada among the world’s nation-states? Or does it reference queer
separatism and the belief in a distinct queer nation? Only a few essays,
such as Tom Waugh’s exploration of Canadian gay cinema, attempt to
explicate this theme. As James Allen notes in his essay on Canadian
film, “It seems very Canadian to be queer, and very queer to be
Canadian.”

The contributors cover a broad spectrum, in scholarly approaches as
well as in topic. Gay elements in Canada’s drama, urban geography,
films, literature, fashion, and art are touched upon. Papers by Wesley
Crichlow and Zoл Newman focus on theorizing, while other essays (such
as Catherine Nash’s research on lesbian neighborhoods and Andrew
Lesk’s debunking of Glassco’s Memoirs of Montparnasse) have a
tighter field of interest. Approaches range from Gary Kinsmen’s
Marxist analysis of nationalisms to Andrea Frolic’s dissection of
style at Toronto’s Pride Parade.

Inevitably, some essays disappoint: Crichlow’s blue-sky theorizing
has no legs, Michelle Owen’s piece belongs to the field of
scissors-and-paste scholarship, Kinsmen’s harangue can grow tiresome.
Most of the essays, however, are impressive and the reader has much to
learn from this diverse collection.