Governor General's Award Winners

One of the trends CASP has taken note of has been the way in which recent Shakespearean adaptations have generated considerable plaudits in the form of national awards. Astonishingly, in the course of ten years, from 1990 to 2000, three English language adaptations of Shakespeare won Canada's most prestigious literary prize.

In this section we include images from three winners of the Governor General's Award: Djanet Sears's Harlem Duet (1998), Ann-Marie MacDonald's Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (1990), and Timothy Findley's Elizabeth Rex (2000). These adaptations of Shakespeare have all won the Governor General's Literary Award in the drama category. Moreover, recent adaptors of Shakespeare have also won Governor General's Awards, though not necessarily for Shakespearean adaptations, Normand Chaurette's play Le Petit Köchel (which won the 2001 Drama award in French language theatre) being a good example. Nor can we forget Gwethalyn Graham's 1944 novel Earth and High Heaven, which also won a Governor General's Award for Fiction, and which detailed a Romeo and Juliet style love story based on a Gentile/ Jew relationship in Montreal in 1942. Graham's outspoken stand against Canada's abysmal immigration policies towards Jewish refugees from the Nazis and her novel's concern with anti-Semitism in Montreal high (read WASP) society, makes the story an interesting blend of Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet.

"For over 60 years, the Governor General's Literary Awards have celebrated and promoted Canadian authors," announced Jean-Louis Roux in his comments about the Governor General's Awards for 1999. Roux was Chair of the Canada Council and is also a noted adaptor of Shakespeare. "The Awards recognize the diversity and incredible scope of Canadian writing in English and French" Roux stated. "If today Canadian voices in literature are heard throughout Canada and around the world, it is in no small measure due to the support of these Awards." The awards, then, signal the potent alignment of national self-promotion, Shakespeare, and adaptation as a cultural force that this page recognizes visually. Two of the three awardees who have done Shakespearean adaptations are women, two are gay, and one is a woman of colour––facts that suggest the diverse cultural sources of adaptation in Canada. All three plays have won a number of other awards as well.

Harlem Duet

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