A Quarterly of Criticism and Review i^^^^^^^^fcEjfc $15

with readers' own responses to the texts.Wasserman, on the other hand, goesbeyond simply reprinting the texts themselvesto provide a wealth of additionalgrist to the critical mill. His volume, true tothe aspirations of its academic editor, providesan excellent bibliography section,including both a listing of biographical andcritical citations and a select listing ofnewspaper reviews—where possible, ofmore than one production. His generalintroduction to the volume provides a usefuloverview of developments in Canadiantheatre for the period covered by theanthology. The general introduction alsoseeks to offset the canonizing tendency ofanthology-making by providing criticalnotices of dozens of plays that are notincluded in the collection. Each of the individualplays in Wasserman's collection is, inaddition, provided with its own introduction.These describe production histories,and place each play within its author'sentire work, as well as providing a shortdescriptive and analytic critical essay. As aconsequence of all of these measures,Wasserman's volume appears very wellsuited to use as a textbook.The respective decisions to provideextensive critical apparatus for one collectionand relatively little for the other mayalso relate to the differing contents of thetwo volumes. Considerable attention is currentlybeing paid to the relative potentialsof conventional dialogue-based drama onthe one hand and monologue on the otherto give equal play to several voices—theargument being that a finished conventionaldrama usually bears the sound of asingle authorial voice and is susceptible tounified interpretation, while monologue,paradoxically, may often present a muchless unified view, thus allowing many voicesto be heard. On the surface, it might appearthat Wasserman's efforts to analyze for hisreader the dramatic texts in his collectionrepresent a need to tame and unify themultiple positions expressed in the plays—to compensate, in a sense, for their "dramatic"nature. His success in providingcogent analyses, however, may in fact indicatethe essentially "monologic" nature ofhis material: it is amenable to a unifyingview. By contrast, the absence of analysis ofthe plays in Solo may be best suited to theessentially "dialogic" nature of these monologues:their many voices must be allowedto speak separately for themselves.In compiling their anthologies, bothWasserman and Sherman have given "airtime" to many of the important writingvoices in contemporary Canadian theatreand to the various kinds of voice and numbersof voices involved. Neither Shermannor Wasserman confuses anthologizingwith canonization. These are not intendedto be "last words"; we can look forward tofurther volumes. It is interesting to note,moreover, that in neither anthology is thereany attempt (by editor or by playwright) tobe explicitly "Canadian" or to define"Canadian" or "Canada." The transcendenceof self-conscious "Canadian-ness" byboth of these volumes of Canadian playsmay be their most significant comment onthe state of contemporary Canadian drama.Littératures et altéritéUNEQDéveloppement et rayonnement de la littératurequébécoise: un défi pour l'an 2000. Nuit blanchen-P-Sherry SimonLe trafic des langues: Traduction et culture dans lalittérature québécoise. Boréal $24.95Reviewed by Alain-Michel RocheleauÀ l'aube de l'an 2000, force nous est d'admettreque les littératures nationales, historiquementliées à la définition des espacesculturels, sont désormais marquées pardiverses formes d'altérité. La littératurequébécoise, qui s'est autonomisée au fil du179