English Lit and Public Library co-sponsor Rooke Lectures

The connections between history and literature, historical fact and historical fiction will be explored in a series of nine lectures entitled "Fabricating the Past" beginning Nov. 9 and continuing through March 15.

Co-sponsored again by Trent's Department of English Literature and the Peterborough Public Library, the Rooke Series began in 1998 and is held in memory of Barbara Rooke, chair of the department from 1969-73. Sessions begin at 7:30 p.m. and are open to the university community and the public.

Members of the Trent English department and some of their colleagues from the Trent History department, along with guests, will explore literary-historical topics that range from Newfoundland to Suriname, from the Middle Ages to today, and from the art of the novel to the art of video production.

November 9 - David MacFarlane The Danger Tree: The Extraordinary Nature of Ordinary History

November 23 - David Glassco Literature and the Great War

December 7 - Michael Moses Magical Realism at the World's End: Garcia Marquez, Rushdie, and the Progeny of Walter Scott

January 11 - Natalie Zemon Davis The Knot of Slavery: Stedman and Joanna in Suriname

January 25 - David Sheinin Painful Legacies: Ricardo Piglia and Argentina's Past

February 8 - Sarah Larratt Keefer and Gordon Johnston "In Its Own Continuous Present:" Beowulf and Seamus Heaney

February 15 - Wayne Johnston Old Lost Land: History and Destiny in The Colony of Unrequited Dreams

March 1 - Patrick Watson, Michael Levine and Dale Standen Dramatizing the Past: The Making of the Heritage Minutes

March 15 - Christl Verduyn Ontariošs King of St. Joseph Island: Major William Kingdom Rains and Marian Engel: His/Story and Hers