Abstract
This chapter takes a comparative approach to two postapocalyptic novels by transnational Canadian writers. Both deploy the metaphor of the bridge, featuring devastated worlds, in which most of the bridges allowing people to reach out to each other have collapsed. But, they also focus on a handful of characters using memory and art to build new bridges. In Oscar De Profundis (2016), Mavrikakis’s hero is a world-famous singer who creates museums and mausoleums to the glory of endangered communities threatened by engulfment in “global culture.” Similarly, in Station Eleven (2014), Mandel presents a troupe of itinerant actors who roam the Great Lakes region to perform Shakespeare and music, thus acting to preserve a culture threatened with loss.
Translated by Amy J. Ransom.
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Bergeron, P. (2019). The Art of Not Dying: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Oscar De Profundis by Catherine Mavrikakis. In: Ransom, A., Grace, D. (eds) Canadian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Studies in Global Science Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15685-5_6
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