Ghost Stories: A Literary Lecture with André Alexis

Special focus on Oscar Wilde’s “Canterville Ghost,” a ghost story with a moral. What is the essence of a ghost story? Must the ghost appear? Under what circumstances? Why is Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw” effective, though we never learn if the ghosts are real or not. And, most important, what do ghost stories tell us, in a world in which the sacred and the holy have a diminished resonance in public life?

André Alexis is Toronto Reference Library's Writer In Residence for fall 2024, with a focus on horror and literature of dread.

André is an author of novels, short stories, and plays. His 2015 novel, Fifteen Dogs, won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada Reads, and the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

Drop-in, no registration or ticket required.

Jack Rabinovitch Reading Room (4th floor)

6:30-7:30PM

Host or Publisher Languages & Literature Department, Toronto Reference Library