Beschreibung
On 25-28 April 2002, the Saarbrücken Zentrum für Kanada- und Nordameri¬kastudien / Centre for Canadian and Anglo-American Cultures (CCAC) at the Universität des Saarlandes hosted the interdisciplinary international conference "The Canadian Alternative." The idea behind "The Canadian Alternative" was to bring together anglophone and francophone scholars and writers from Ca¬nada and Germany for a frank exchange of ideas regarding multidisciplinary approaches and solutions, developed in Canada, and their possible usefulness elsewhere. In a world almost exclusively dominated by U.S.-American models in the arts and sciences, Canada, as one of the U.S.A.'s immediate neighbours and, like Germany, one of its allies, has shown remarkable resilience and resourcefulness in developing strategies of its own for coping with the demands of its specific cultural and geopolitical situation and its own brand of multiculturality. Although located in Central Europe, Germany is faced with a situation simi¬lar to Canada's, not only with regard to the United States but, maybe more directly - especially regarding the Saarland province where the Universität des Saarlandes is situated -, with active daily bilingualism in its relations with France, the immediate neighbour to the West. Moreover, it is concerned with multiculturality within its own borders and within the borders of an increasingly unified Europe. The organisers were, of course, aware that only a very few aspects of the conference's theme could be addressed. On the other hand, the very variety of the papers presented at the conference and contained in this volume, comprises a fair selection from the wide range of issues addressed and discussed. The editor, Klaus Martens, is a University Professor of English and American Studies at the Universität des Saarlandes and the director of the Saarbrücken Zentrum für Kanada- und Nordamerikastudien / Centre for Canadian and Anglo-American Cultures (CCAC). He has authored and edited many books, among them his recent biography of Frederick Philip Grove, F.P. Grove in Europe and Canada: Translated Lives (2001). He is also a widely published poet and translator.
