Talk:Dead Girls (book)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Queenala, Cultleader14.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 19:51, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Course Project Discussion

Hi All - If you decide to do Dead Girls, then there is a book review on multiple texts that includes hers here: https://canlit.ca/article/the-private-voice/. Astu260instructor 2016 (talk) 20:55, 8 March 2017 (UTC) ASTU 260instructor_2016 (Kathryn)

Please do the following before Tuesday's class: 1) update your group sandbox to reflect your finalized topic, and 2) add a note to Lee's talk page, explaining your project and inviting people to view your work on the group sandbox and offer suggestions and possible sources. --Astu260instructor 2016 (talk) 18:24, 13 March 2017 (UTC) (Kathryn)

Hi Team Lee, I thought I'd drop by to see how it is going. As you start to organize the text - you might look at how other book articles are arranged. Most have a few sections that have include an intro that explains the significance of the book, a section on the plot of the book, a section on awards, and the critical reception of the book (and always a reference section). I'm really looking forward to seeing this article! Cheers, Will (talk) 20:06, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi All - I'm checking in too. I'm noticing that for your topic, some of the terminology related to Lee's text has changed significantly since it was first published and reviewed. For example, "sex worker" is now used instead of "prostitute" (which has negative connotations), as explained here: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/why-is-the-canadian-media-still-referring-to-sex-workers-as-prostitues. And people name the neighbourhood "Downtown Eastside" or DTES (e.g., the wikipedia page on the neighbourhood: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Eastside) rather than using derogatory terms like "Skid Row." (I note that someone who is a sex worker or someone who lives in the DTES can and does choose their own terms.) For your article, when you are quoting someone directly (e.g., Lee in an interview), you would use their term, but when paraphrasing or framing, you would use the contemporary terms. Would you please revise your first reference to how many women died between 1978 and 2001 (from "several women") to "over 60," as you say below when citing one of your sources.
More broadly, I have been wondering if people have responded to Lee's collection from an Indigenous perspective, given what a substantial percentage of women Pickton murdered were Indigenous. I have looked, and found this article by Laura Moss: Moss is focusing on the ethics of who gets to tell these women's stories, and it might be productive to cite her general position as an important consideration when reading the collection. In terms of Lee's work in particular, Moss says this on page 59, "Nancy Lee’s short story “Dead Girls,” in the story collection DeadGirls, is a haunting and painful—but fictionalized—exploration of violence in the DTES. It might be said that the story raises the emotional stakes of the issues without violating an individual woman’s right to the dignity of her own stories" (59): https://topia.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/topia/article/viewFile/35268/32920. Let me know if you have any questions, as I appreciate that you are writing about a difficult topic. Best, Kathryn --Astu260instructor 2016 (talk) 20:59, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Hi Team - To invite more readers to your page, you might wish to add a link to Dead Girls on the articles for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award: both list Lee under their 2003 listings. Cheers, Kathryn --Astu260instructor 2016 (talk) 18:09, 22 March 2017 (UTC)