kristjanagunnarswritings

If you are interested in getting behind the scenes of scholarship on Gunnar’s works, here are some selected sources you can look at



Dissertations and theses that include studies of Gunnars’ works:


Gardner, Calum. Roland Barthes and English-language avant-garde poetry, 1970-1990.  PhD Thesis, Cardiff University, Britain, 2016.

Paleczek, Elisabeth. Identity and memory in the works of Laura Goodman Salverson and Kristjana Gunnars.  M.A.  thesis, University of Vienna, Austria, 2013.

Kristjánsdóttir, Helga Sóley.  Snuðarinn.  Þýðing úr ensku á skáldsögunni The Prowler eftir Kristjönu Gunnars og umfjöllun um tengsl menningar vid þýðingar.  M.A. Thesis, University of Iceland, 2010.

Hinnerová, Katarína.  Food as a Transcultural Metaphor.  Food Imagery and Ethnocultural Identities in Contemporary Multicultural Women Writing in Canada.  Dissertation for Dept of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University of Brno, Czech Republic, 2007.

O'Flynn, Siobhan Louise.  Place and Identity in Auto-topographic Metanarrative. PhD Dissertation, University of Toronto, 2004.

Cold-Ravnkilde, Sofie.  Northern Voices Telling Histories of Danish (Post)Colonialism.  M.A. Thesis,  University of British Columbia, 2004.

Gray, Robert William.  "Melancholy Poetics: The Vagaries and Vicissitudes of Identity in Three Canadian Poetic Novels and Various Psychoanalytical Works."  Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Alberta, 2003.

Younka, Reina.  "The Negotiations of hybridity: Kristjana Gunnars's The Prowler, Maria Campbell's Halfbreed, and Dionne Brand's In Another Place, Not Here."  University of Manitoba, 2003.

Karwalaitys, Tina.  Resting Places: Making Meaning in Autobiographical Metafiction; Form, Process and Reader-Response in Kristjana Gunnars’ The Prowler and Michael Ondaatje’s Running in the Family.  M.A. Thesis,  McMaster University, 2000.

Libin, Mark Ira. Commencement Exercises: Toward Beginnings in English-Canadian Literature. Ph.D. Dissertation. U of Manitoba, 1999.

Boucher, Rémi.  A Comparative Post-Colonial Reading of Kristjana Gunnars’ The Prowler and Robert Kroetsch’s What the Crow Said.  B.A. Thesis, University of Sherbrooke, 1999.

Cook, Méira. Speaking in Tongues: Contemporary Canadian Love Poetry by Women. Ph.D. Dissertation. U of Manitoba, 1998. 

Bricker, Margaret S. Feminism, Postmodernism, and Contemporary Canadian Writing by Women (Daphne Marlatt, Aritha van Herk, Kristjana Gunnars). M.A. Thesis, Carleton U, 1996.

Budd, Adam Russell. Playing Within the Discipline: Dynamics of Authorship in Three Canadian Autobiographies. M.A. Thesis, University of Victoria, 1995.

Pálsdóttir, Anna Heiða. In the Trail of Ghosts: Kristjana Gunnars’ Improvisations on History in Settlement Poems 1 and 2 and The Axe’s Edge. B.A. Thesis, U of Iceland. 1995.

Neijmann, Daisy. Icelandic Canadian Literature. Ph.D. Dissertation. Free U of Amsterdam, Holland, 1994.

Bamber, Candace Marie. Voices in My Head: A Reader’s Reflections on Works by Gunnars, Penelope and Rich. M.A. Thesis, University of Alberta, 1993.

Malena, Anne. "The Prowler" de Kristjana Gunnars: Traduction et Commentaire. M.A. Thesis, McMaster U, 1991.

“The Guest House.”  Translated into French by Leslie Termens as part of a Masters Degree in Translation thesis for the Université Sorbonne, Paris, France.

Here is a selection of interviews with the author, culled from various journals and online sites:

Print interviews:

Eagle, Jennifer. "Myriads of Stars: an Interview with Kristjana Gunnars." Prairie Fire 15.1 (1994): 22-26.

Williamson, Janice. "In That Gap Where One Searches, the Muse Hangs Around...." Breaking the Silence: Conversations with Seventeen Canadian Women Writers. Ed. Janice Williamson. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1992. 95-109.

Gheorghe, Cristina. "Interview with Kristjana Gunnars about The Prowler." Scandinavian Canadian Studies Etudes Scandinaves au Canada 4 (1991): 51-59.

Magnusson, Sigurdur A. "Islensk skaldkona i Kanada." Tjodlif [Reykjavik] 6.4 (Apr. 1990): 28-32.

Murphy, Paul. "Kristjana Gunnars: Voicing the Silence." Gateway (University of Alberta). 2 Nov. 1989: 8-9.

Casey, Jane. "An Interview with Kristjana Gunnars." Contemporary Verse Two 8.3 (1984): 36-39.

Demchuk, David. "‘Holding Two Ropes’: Interview with Kristjana Gunnars." Writers News Manitoba / Prairie Fire 5.2-3 (1984): 32-37.

Líndal, Tryggvi V. "Gagnrýnendur - eins og tómt skothylki." Interview with Kristjana Gunnars (in Icelandic). Morgunbla x i x [Reykjavík, Iceland] 16 Aug. 1981: 20.

Valgardson, W.D. "Interview with Kristjana Gunnars." Lögberg-Heimskringla 16 Jan. 1981: 5.

On-line interviews:

McLennan, Rob. "U of Alberta writers-in-residence interviews: Kristjana Gunnars (1989-1990)".  rob mclennan's blog.  Friday, February 19, 2016.

Lemay, Shawna.  “In Conversation with Kristjana Gunnars.”  Canadian Poetries, an online poetry journal.  November 28, 2012. 

McLennan, Rob.  “12 or 20 Questions with Kristjana Gunnars.”  12 or 20 Questions, rob mclennan’s main blog.  Sunday, September 16, 2007.

NOTICES IN JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES, small selection

Labrecque, Marie.  Kristjana Gunnars: Degré Zéro.  Montréal, Québec: Voir, 28 January, 1999. 





Books that include studies of Gunnars’ works:

Gardner, Calum.  Poetry & Barthes, Anglophone Responses 1970-2000.  Liverpool University Press, 2018.  

Quynn, Kristina.  "Reading and Writing in Kristjana Gunnars's Rose Garden."  In Reading and Writing Experimental Texts, ed. Robin Silbergleid and Kristina Quynn.  Springer International Publishing, 2017, (Germany).

MacDonald, Tanis.  The Daughter’s Way; Canadian Women’s Paternal Elegies.  Ottawa: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2012.  (Finalist for the 2012 ACQL Gabrielle Roy Prize for Literary Criticism).

MacDonald, Tanis.  "Gateway Politics: West Meets West in Kristjana Gunnars' 'Zero Hour'."  In The Last Best West, Exploration of Myth, Identity and Quality of Life in Western Canada, ed. Anne Gagnon et al.  New Star Books, 2009.

Cook, Méira.  Writing Lovers; Reading Canadian Love Poetry by Women.  Montréal: McGill-Queen’s University press, 2005.  (Based on her Ph.D. Dissertation).

Moyes, Lianne.  Adjacencies.  Essay Series 49.  Montreal: Guernica Editions, 2004.

Sturgess, Charlotte.  Redefining the Subject: Sites of Play in Canadian Women’s Writing.  Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 2003.

Darias-Beautell, Eva.  Graphies and Grafts: (con)texts and (inter)texts in the fiction of four contemporary Canadian women.  Issue 3 of New Comparative Poetics, Nouvelle Poétique Comparatiste.  London: P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 2001.

Lonnecke, Annette. Anglo-kanadische Autobiographien der Postmoderne: Radikale Formen der Selbstportratierung von John Glassco bis Kristjana Gunnars. Frankfurt am Main and New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

Keahy, Deborah.  Making It Home: Place in Canadian Prairie Literature.  Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1998.

Arnason, David. The Icelandic Voice in Canadian Letters: The Contribution of Icelandic-Canadian Writers to Canadian Literature. Ottawa: Carleton, 1997.

Zimmermann, Jutta. Metafiktion im anglokanadischen Roman der Gegenwart. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 1996.

Beautell, Eva Darias.  "Memory, Experience and Difference in the Works of Some Contemporary Canadian Women Writers."  In The Guises of Canadian Diversity, New European Perspectives/ Masques de la Diversité Canadienne.  Ed. Jaunais, Serge and Marc Manafort.  Cross/Cultures 19.   Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995. 

Here is a selection of academic studies of Gunnars’ works, as well as articles that include analyses of them inside broader contexts, culled from various scholarly journals and anthologies:

Gardner, Calum.  "'I have heard of the end of writing': Kristjana Gunnars and Roland Barthes."  British Journal of Canadian Studies, Vol. 31, Issue 1.  March, 2018.  Pp. 63-79.

Guðsteinsdóttir, Guðrún Björk.  "Þýðing, sköpun, aðlögun?  Smásagan 'Guest' í The Axe´s Edge eftir Kristjönu Gunnars."  In Milli Mála, Ársrit Stofnunar Vigdísar Finnbogadóttur í erlendum tungumálum.  2nd ed.  Ed. Erla Erlendsdóttir and Rebekka Þráinsdóttir.  Reykjavík: Háskólaútgáfan, 2010.  Pp. 49-70.

Wilson, Sonia.  "Aritha Van Herk, Kristjana Gunnars and Nino Ricci: Observers and Subjects of the Ethnic Gaze."  In Nino Ricci, Essays on His Work.  Athabasca University Press, n/d. Pp. 90-98.

O’Flynn, Siobhan. “Challenging the Cartesian Self: Autobiography as an intertextual/interrelational discourse in the works of Aritha van Herk and Kristjana Gunnars.”  Routledge: Rethinking History 13.1 (March 2009): 65-78.

Rodriguez, Pedro M. Carmona.  "Beyond the Edge of the Century: The Postcolonial Imagination in the 'New' Fictions of the Canadas."  In Miscelánea: A Journal of English and American Studies 38 (2008), pp. 29-45.  University of Zaragoza, Spain.

Rodríguez, Pedro M. Carmona.  “‘A Drowning Consummation’: Jouissance, Desire and Seduction in Kristjana Gunnars’ The Substance of Forgetting and Aritha van Herk’s Restlessness.”  In Fifty Years of English Studies in Spain [...] Actas del XXVI Congreso de AEDEAN, ed. Ignacio Palacios et al.  Santiago de Compostela: U de Santiago de Compostela, 2003.  235-41.



Porter, J.S. "Kristjana Gunnars & the Book of Small." Antigonish Review 113 (1998): 77-84. Rpt. in Spirit Book Word: An Inquiry into Literature and Spirituality by J.S. Porter. Toronto: Novalis, 2002.

Neijmann, Daisy L. "‘Cracking the Boundaries’: Icelandic-Canadian Challenges to Canadian Literature." ‘The Third Solitude’: Canadian Minority Writing. Proceedings of ‘The Third Solitude’ Conference on Canadian Minority Writing. Guernica Editions [2002].

Rodríguez, Carmona M. Pedro.  “En Route: Narratives of Travel and Displacement in Contemporary Candian Writing.”  Journal of English Studies, Vol. 3 (2001-2): 21-35.

Guðsteinsdóttir, Guðrún Björk. "Stúlkan með Botticelliandlitið og ásýnd íslenskrar bókmenningar."  Heimur Skáldsögunnar, ed. Ástráður eysteinsson.  Reykjavík: Bókmenntastofnun Háskola Íslands, 2001.  (170-181)

Rosica, Karen. "How to Read Kristjana Gunnars." Bloomsbury Review 20.5 (2000): 3-4.

Neijmann, Daisy. "Icelandic-Canadian Literature and Anglophone Minority Writing in Canada." World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma 73.2 (1999): 245-55.

Verduyn, Christl.  “Stor(y)ing Cultural Difference, Rediscovering Canada.”  Paper on Kristjana Gunnars and Aritha Van Herk.  Presented to the Nordic Associaton for Canadian Studies Conference, Reykjavík, Iceland.   August, 1999.

Porter, J.S.  “Kristjana Gunnars & the Book of Small.”  The Antigonish Review, Number 113, Spring, 1998.  (77-84).

Cook, Méira. "Love and Other Unofficial Stories: Reading Kristjana Gunnars." Open Letter 10.2 (1998): 19-30.

Legge, Valerie.  “Kristjana Gunnars’ Zero Hour: ‘When Mourning Becomes Language’”.  Essays In Comparative Literature (1998): 311-325.

Keahey, Deborah. Making it Home: Place in Canadian Prairie Literature. U Manitoba P, 1998.

Guðsteinsdóttir, Guðrún Björk.  “The Legacy of Gimlé: Pacifism in Icelandic-Canadian Literature.”  Icelanders in Canada: A Story of Integration.  Ed. Daisy Neijmann.  Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1998.

Legge, Valerie.  “The Poetics of Passing in Kristjana Gunnars’ The Prowler.” Presented at the PCA/ACH Conference, San Antonio, Texas.  March 27-29, 1997.

Baldvinsson, Garðar. "Orð og Ferðatöskur." Jón á Bægisá. Ed. Sigurður A. Magnússon. No. 1, 1997. 29-46.

Arnason, David. "Community and Identity in Icelandic-Canadian Literature." Scandinavian-Canadian Studies 10 (1997): 53-75.

Padolsky, Enoch. "‘Olga in Wonderland’: Canadian Ethnic Minority Writing and Post-colonial Theory." Canadian Ethnic Studies 28.3 (1996): 16 -29.

Verduyn, Christl. "Memory Work / Migrant Writing Mediating Me / Moi: Van Herk, Gunnars, Ltaif, Bosco." Intersexions: Issues of Race and Gender in Canadian Women’s Writing. Ed. Coomi S. Vevaina and Barbara Godard. New Delhi: Creative, 1996. 244-53.

Roberson, Matthew M.  “Searching for Unity of Self: Kristjana Gunnars’s The Prowler.”  UMW Literary Studies Symposium Series, Fall 1995.

Darias Beautell, Eva. "Memory, Experience and Difference in the Works of Some Contemporary Canadian Women Writers." The Guises of Canadian Diversity: New European Perspectives - Les Masques de la diversité: nouvelles perspectives européennes. Ed. Serge Jaumain and Marc Maufort. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1995. 143-150.

Gross, Konrad. "The Burden of Memory: Ethnic Literature in Germany and Canada." Multiculturalism in North America and Europe. Ed. Hans Braun and Wolfgang Klooss. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 1995. 115-131.

Guðsteinsdóttir, Guðrún Björk. "Wakepick Weavers: Laura G. Salverson and Kristjana Gunnars." Canada and the Nordic Countries. Ed. Jørn Carlsen. Denmark: U of Aarhus, 1995.

Keefer, Janice Kulyk. "The Prowler." Brick: A Literary Journal 51 (1995): 52-57.

Woods, Gurli A. "The Space in the Margins: Suzanne Brogger’s No Man’s Land: Kristjana Gunnars’ The Substance of Forgetting and Aritha Van Herk’s Places Far from Ellesmere." Transcultural Trends: Essays in Canadian Literature and Society. Ed. Mari Peepre-Bordessa. Vol. 11 of the Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Text Series. Lund: Lund University Press, 1994. 111-125.

Adam, Ian. "Illywhacker and The Prowler: Settler Society Response to Ideas of History." Australian and New Zealand Studies in Canada 12 (1994): 1-10.

Althof, Rolf. "Kristjana Gunnars’s Alternative Realities: The Page as Stage for Narrative Paradoxes." Interplays: Works and Words of Writers and Critics. Ed. R.Althof, R. von Antropoff and K.P Muller. St. John’s Newfoundland: Breakwater, 1994. 220-230.

Coleman, Daniel. "Gender, Narrative, and Desire in The Prowler." Textual Studies in Canada / Etudes Textuelles au Canada 4 (1994): 16-27.

Buss, Helen. Mapping Our Selves: Canadian Women’s Autobiography in English. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1993. 197-99.

Gheorghe, Christina. "Intertextual Notes in a Metafictional Autobiography: The Prowler by Kristjana Gunnars." Scandinavian Canadian Studies Etudes Scandinaves au Canada 4 (1991): 43-49.

Lent, John. "Staring into Snow: Subjectivity and Design in Kristjana Gunnars’ The Prowler." Recherches Anglaises et Nord Americaines 24 (1991): 103-15.

Owens, Judith. "‘Drawing / In’: Wholeness and Dislocation in the Work of Kristjana Gunnars." Contemporary Manitoba Writers: New Critical Studies. Ed. Kenneth James Hughes. Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1990. 64-78.

Brydon, Diana. "The White Inuit Speaks: Contamination as Literary Strategy." Past the Last Post: Theorizing Post-Colonialism and Post-Modernism. Ed. Ian Adam and Helen Tiffin. Calgary: U of Calgary P, 1990. 191-203.

Hjartarson, Paul. "Transformation of the ‘I’: Self and Community in the Poetry of Kristjana Gunnars." Canada and the Nordic Countries. Ed. Jørn Carlsen and Bengt Streijffert. Vol. 2 of The Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Text Series. Lund: Lund UP, Chartwell Bratt, 1988. 123-37.

McVey, Moray. "The Emergence of a Canadian Voice in the Settlement Poems of Kristjana Gunnars." Lögberg-Heimskringla 19 Sept. 1986: 8-10.

Fairbanks, Carol. Prairie Women: Images in American and Canadian Fiction. New Haven: Yale UP, 1986.

Lane, Travis M. "Troll Turning: Poetic Voice in the Poetry of Kristjana Gunnars." Canadian Literature 105 (1985): 59-68.

Arnason, David. "Icelandic Canadian Literature." Identifications: Ethnicity and the Writer in Canada. Ed. Jars Balan. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, U of Alberta P, 1982. 52-66.