Prof to receive Order of Canada

[attach]3477[/attach]Linda Hutcheon was the first member of her family ever to attend university.

It seems the choice to pursue post-secondary education was the right path. The University of Toronto professor and author recently became an officer of the Order of Canada for her internationally acclaimed academic work in the fields of culture and the arts.

“I was totally shocked and totally delighted,” Hutcheon said from her office. “I didn’t know about the nomination, even so it was total surprise for me.”

Surprising to her, perhaps but not likely to those who have worked with Hutcheon.

The Bloor West resident’s work is as varied as her interests. She has written on subjects from feminism to opera and irony, but says she is best-known for her work in postmodernism, though she says her involvement in that field was by accident.

Her interest began when she studied postmodern architecture, which led her to wonder if there was a literary equivalent. What she discovered was an entire range of works of historical fiction that acknowledged history is written by the victors. As she researched the subject, Hutcheon ended up coining a term that caught on in her field.

“I coined a term called historiographic metafiction, which is a mouthful but it seemed to catch on for some bizarre reason,” Hutcheon said. “I did it ironically, as a joke of course, but it stuck.

“It’s always embarrassing when that happens.”

Self-described as intellectually promiscuous because of her varied interests and multiple fields of study, Hutcheon was also the first Canadian woman to become president of the Modern Language Association, a group with over 33,000 members across North America and Europe.

Hutcheon has also collaborated with her physician husband Michael Hutcheon. They wrote three books together on the subject of medical and cultural history in opera. By using operas as a window into some cultures of the past, the couple was able to make some rather interesting discoveries.

One book went after the stereotype that opera singers have to have a heavy-set physique.

“We sort of, I hope, blew apart that cliché,” Hutcheon said.

Another examined the social connotations surrounding the disease tuberculosis. Despite the fact that people knew it resulted in death, the couple wrote that it seemed to be associated with a number of positive qualities. Historically, she discovered, men with the tuberculosis were seen as great artists, while afflicted women were seen as sex symbols.

“You either become more creative if you’re male or more beautiful if you’re female,” said Hutcheon.

In spite of several warnings from friends and family members, Hutcheon says she and her husband of 40 years complement each other perfectly when collaborating on projects.

“We joke that we have between us one obsessive compulsive personality,” Hutcheon said. “We share it, he obsesses and I compulse.”

Still, Hutcheon has a hard time thinking of what she does as work.

“I decided that since I loved to read and I loved to write I thought this was the perfect career and it’s turned out to be wonderful,” she said.

“I have trouble believing that somebody has paid me all these years to talk to young people that want to hear about books and want to read, to talk to them about books that I love.

“So I just can’t believe my luck.”