Dr. Kenneth Meadwell
Title: Professor Emeritus
Email: k.meadwell@uwinnipeg.ca
Biography:
Kenneth Meadwell taught courses in French literature (Canada, France), literary theory, terminology and translation for thirty years at the University of Winnipeg. A graduate of Winnipeg’s Kelvin High School and recipient of the Kelvin Jubilee Scholarship, he received his BA (Honours) (First Class Honours and Albert Lucas Prize for Highest Standing in French Honours Programme) and PhD from the University of Manitoba, and his MA from the University of Toronto where he was a Canada Council Special MA Scholar and Massey College Junior Fellow. His doctoral research led him to Paris, where he explored the école sémiotique de Paris at the Bibliothèque nationale de France as a Boursier du Gouvernement français. Professor Meadwell served as Department Chair for thirteen years, initially as Chair of the Department of French. During that time, he initiated significant curriculum evolution. Under his leadership, this led to the creation of the Department of French Studies, then the Department of French Studies and German Studies, and ultimately the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, in 2005. In 2009, Professor Meadwell was awarded the Robin H. Farquhar Award for Excellence in Contributing to Self-Governance, notably for his creation of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. In his later career, he served as Acting Chair of the Department of Philosophy.
Professor Meadwell has been an Invited Professor of Canadian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Duke University and La Universidad de La Laguna in Spain, as well as the external evaluator at MA and PhD thesis defences. While at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Meadwell developed and taught the first course in Israel, in French, on francophone Canadian literature, on the Québec novel. At the University of Winnipeg, he developed and taught the first French-language course for post-French immersion graduates, as well as a sequence of courses at the second, third and fourth-year level in francophone Canadian literature, with an emphasis on the evolution of the modern Québec novel. Professor Meadwell was selected as "Popular Prof" by Maclean magazine's Guide to Canadian Universities for five consecutive years (2002-2006).
With over 100 articles and 3 books to his credit, including a much-heralded monograph on the mysterious Québec novelist, Réjean Ducharme, Professor Meadwell has been Director and Treasurer for the Alliance française du Manitoba, Francophone Canadian Literature Editor for The Literary Encyclopedia, a frequent reviser of curriculum materials for Manitoba’s Bureau de l’Éducation française, Adjunct Professor with the Programme de maîtrise en études canadiennes at the Université de Saint-Boniface, member of the pilot team overseeing the creation of the curricular project, Building Futures in Manitoba/Bâtir un futur au Manitoba, Vice-President of Les Éditions du Blé, the oldest francophone publishing firm in Western Canada, and evaluator for such agencies and journals as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Presses de l’Université Laval, Fonds de recherche du Québec and Québec Studies.
In 2013, Professor Meadwell was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques de la République française for his remarkable and longstanding contribution to the promotion of French literature, language and culture. In 2014, the University of Winnipeg named him Professor Emeritus of French Studies in recognition of his exceptional service to the University and community-at-large. In 2015, he served as a jury member for the Prix du Gouverneur général du Canada in the category “Essais”, and in 2020 for the Isbister Prize/Prix Isbister for non-fiction. His photography was featured in UWinnipeg’s What We Make III Community Art Exhibition.
Professor Meadwell continues his research in the construction of identity through memory and its effects on subjectivity. He also continues his peripatetic adventures, dividing much of his time between Europe and South America, with recent explorations of the influence of the Moors on Andalusian identity, and of the diversity of tribal identities in Colombia, exemplified by pre-Columbian gold masks from Bogotá to Cartagena de Indias. Professor Meadwell can be seen in a recurring role in the CBC/BET series, The Porter. His voice can be heard in a variety of national radio and TV spots promoting governmental programs.
The Meadwell Scholarship in French
In 2002, Professor Meadwell created the Meadwell Endowment Fund in honour of the 75th birthday of his mother and the 80th birthday of his father. His parents were fervent supporters of education; the Liberal Arts tradition; the study of languages, literatures and cultures; and Canadian Studies.
This endowment awards annually and in perpetuity the Meadwell Scholarship in French (current value $1,000) which supports an outstanding Basic French (40S) Manitoba high school graduating student who enrols in six credit-hours of French Studies at the University of Winnipeg in the academic year following high school graduation.
In 2022, the endowment celebrated the milestone of having assisted twenty meritorious Manitoba students. It will continue to do so for decades to come.
The scholarship is administered by the UW Awards Office. For more information, students can contact awards@uwinnipeg.ca.
Teaching Areas:
French literature of Canada; modern and contemporary Québec novel; literary analysis and theory; translation; terminology.
Research Interests:
French literature of Canada; modern and contemporary Québec novel; literary theory; modern poetry of France; alterity, subjectivity and identity.
Publications:
Selected Publications:
“Poesis and Translation”. Canadian Literature 238 (Special Issue 2019): 157-158.
"La littérature-mosaïque". Canadian Literature 235 (Winter 2017): 131-132.
“Les voix singulières d’Alexandre Amprimoz: sapientia et eloquentia". Voix plurielles 12.2 (2015): 9-10.
Les voix de la mémoire et de l’altérité. Co-edited with Maria Fernanda Arentsen. Winnipeg: Presses universitaires de Saint-Boniface, 2013. 227 p.
Narrativité et voix de l’altérité. Figurations et configurations de l’altérité dans le roman canadien d’expression française. Ottawa: Éditions David, Collection Voix savantes, 2012. 182 p.
“Fugues, retrouvailles et recommencements ”, Préface, Un Piano dans le noir de Simone Chaput. Winnipeg: Éditions du Blé, Collection Blé en poche, 2011. 7-11.
“Perspectives narratives identitaires et ipséité dans L’Avalée des avalés ”. Présences de Ducharme. Élisabeth Nardout-Lafarge, Élisabeth Haghebaert and Andrée Beaudet, editors. Québec: Éditions Nota bene, 2009. 181-192.
“La Migrance de l’Autre dans le récit canadien d’expression française : La Mémoire de l’eau de Ying Chen”. Migrance comparée. Comparing Migration. Marie Carrière and Catherine Khordoc, editors. Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2008. 91-106.
“La Transformation identitare de l’Autre dans Le Soleil du lac qui se couche de J.R. Léveillé”. Plaisir du texte, texte de plaisir : l’œuvre de J.R. Léveillé. Lise Gaboury-Diallo, Rosmarin Heidenreich and Jean Valenti, editors. Winnipeg: Presses universitaires de Saint-Boniface, 2007. 131-147.
“Fragmentation et unification. Cantique des plaines, fiction identitaire individuelle et collective”. L’un et le multiple. Zsuzsa Simonffy, editor. Budapest: TINTA Könyvkiadó, 2006. 50-59.
“Ludisme et clichés dans L’Avalée des avalés de Réjean Ducharme”. Ducharme en revue. Élisabeth Haghebaert and Élisabeth Nardout-Lafarge, editors. Québec: Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2006. 71-77. Invited reprint of article published originally in Voix et Images 41 (Hiver 1989): 294‑300.
“Pour une typologie de l’altérité dans le récit canadien d’expression française: la crise identitaire de l’Autre dans La Belle Bête de Marie-Claire Blais”. Identités en métamorphoses. Fridrun Rinner, editor. Aix-en-Provence: Presses de l’Université d’Aix-en-Provence, 2006. 45-52.
“Prolégomènes à une typologie de l’altérité dans le récit canadien d’expression française: le cas de Cantique des plaines de Nancy Huston”. L’Autre en mémoire. Dominique Laporte, editor. Ste-Foy: Presses de l’Université Laval, 2006. 277-296.
“De la réflexion à l’œuvre: analyse des dossiers scriptique et scénarique du Passager de Gilbert La Rocque”. Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne (2003): 125-139.
“Lecture du dossier génétique de Serge d’entre les morts de Gilbert La Rocque: analyse des stratégies narratives et discursives”. Études francophones 17.2 (automne 2002): 101-112.
“L’œuvre en devenir: une lecture des dossiers génétiques scénariques de Serge d’entre les morts, Les Masques et Le Passager de Gilbert La Rocque”. Canadian Literature 168 (Spring 2001): 105-119.