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Behind the Bench, Sports

Varsity Report Card: Winter 2025

by Clara Smyrski, Alex Hawes Silva, & Reuben Noam on

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Martlets Artistic Swimming: A

Synchronized swimming had an outstanding season marked by dominance, consistency, and poise in the pool. The Martlets brought home 17 titles, culminating in a silver medal finish at the Canadian University Artistic Swimming League (CUASL) nationals in Victoria, B.C. They made waves at every invitational they entered, earning multiple golds in all varieties of routines. Led by standout swimmer and serial medalist Sonia Dunn, McGill proved to be a force each time. Dunn was recognized individually on March 23 for her triple-medal performance at nationals. Head coach Lindsay Duncan won the Anne Smeeton Award for significant contributions to the CUASL. Despite a season this decorated, and a national podium finish to cap it off, Martlets Artistic Swimming are used to bringing home the gold. For that reason, the team earns a solid A for 2024-2025.

Martlets Badminton (10–2): A-

Martlets Badminton had an impressive season and finished with a second-place spot in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) behind the Université de Montréal (UdeM) Carabins. They started strong, sweeping their first meet in October, and in November, they triumphed over most of their competitors but fell to UdeM. At the RSEQ Championships in February, they lost in the semifinals to Université Laval (ULaval) for the first time this season in a close 2-3 loss. Senior Eliana Zhang was triumphant in the individual category, demolishing the competition and securing the final match in two straight sets (21-6 and 21-9). Zhang was named RSEQ Player of the Year and is a first-team all-star. 

Redbirds Badminton (5–7): B

The Redbirds competed in six inter-Quebec tournaments, including two RSEQ tournaments, before making an appearance at the YONEX Canadian College Championships in March. They started the season flying, with Captain Nicholas Germain taking home a silver medal in the A-elite men’s doubles division at the first individual tournament. From there, the Redbirds went 3-3 at home, 2-4 at Université de Montréal (UdeM), and placed third at Sherbrooke. McGill achieved third place at the RSEQ provincial championships, the weekend before nationals. There, the Redbirds took seventh place. The encore may have been disappointing, but it was not for lack of trying. McGill has not won the national championships since the 1981-82 season, when both Redbirds and Martlets took home the gold.

Martlets Basketball (13–12): B-

The Martlets started off the preseason with narrow wins against York University and the University of New Brunswick, but also faced tough losses to Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Ottawa. Their performance during the McGill Basketball Classic was strong, winning two of three games, including a significant 75-50 victory over the University of Northern British Columbia. Once regular RSEQ play began, the team showed some resilience. A highlight was their 66-55 win over the Concordia Stingers and a close 66-64 victory on the road at Bishop’s University. However, they also faced challenging losses to ULaval, falling in both their home and away matchups. Overall, the Martlets have demonstrated solid potential, with a balanced record reflecting both promising wins and opportunities for growth. 

Redbirds Basketball (6–22): C-

It was a sputtering season for the Redbirds. Following the preseason, they went 4-17  in all competitions, finally managing to take off with a win—by one point—in the season’s final game, away at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM). This was one of their four wins after the pre-season. Two players, Noah Sincere and Georges Lefebvre, managed to shine, earning conference rookie of the year and all-star status, respectively. The 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) draft reveal, set for April 10, will hopefully combine with an undeniably disappointing season to fuel a successful 2025-2026 campaign.

Martlets Hockey (7–24–0): C

The Martlets hockey team faced a challenging 2024-25 season, finishing with a 7–24 record. Despite showing effort and resilience, they struggled to close out games and fought through a losing streak of four matches. Offensive leaders included Taylor Garcia, who topped the scoreboard with 22 points, and Mika Chang with 13 points. Olivia Pridham and Syrine Kacem each contributed 12 points. Goaltenders Sophie Lajeunesse and Jade Rivard-Coulombe shared the workload but were under pressure in most matchups. Though the team managed to win a few tough games, they were not fully able to turn the momentum for the majority of the season. But despite the circumstances, the Martlets showed resilience and stayed competitive throughout the season. 

Redbirds Hockey (25–16–0): A-

Redbirds Hockey had a great run in their gruelling 41-game season. They battled past the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) in the Ontario University Athletics East Quarter-finals to face off against the rival Concordia Stingers in the semis, but their season ended in a heartbreaking 4-5 loss in game three of the three-game series. The season saw impressive opportunities for some star Redbirds; centers William Rouleau and Mathieu Gagnon, along with Coach David Urquhart, competed in the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire World University Winter Games in Torino, Italy, in January. Additionally, forward Brandon Frattaroli earned first team all-star pick and defenceman Igor Mburanumwe secured all-rookie. Most recently, Zach Gallant was called up to the American Hockey League for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Though the season did not end with a new RSEQ banner, Redbirds Hockey has fostered some incredible players this season. 

Martlets Volleyball (16–12): B+

The Martlets’ volleyball season may not have gone as planned—with the team narrowly missing a ticket to the RSEQ Finals—but it is a season that showed great progress. The regular season started strong with a home-court victory against UQTR, but the Martlets, unable to gain traction, fell short for the next five games. Despite these losses, the team persevered; coming back after New Year’s, they were poised to achieve an eight-game win streak in early 2025. Their triumphs were captained by pin hitter Elyssa Lajmi, who led the team with 336 points and 290 kills. They gained a spot in the RSEQ playoffs and attempted to win their second championship in the 53 years of tournament history. Unfortunately, the Martlets fell on the third of a three-game semifinal series to the reigning champions, the UdeM Carabins. Their 16–12 record does not capture the full story of this season; the Martlets’ retiring coach, Rachèle Béliveau, has much to be proud of. 

Track and Field: Martlets B / Redbirds A-

The McGill Redbirds had a fruitful season, winning the McGill Team Challenge, their first team victory at the meet since 2002, edging out ULaval in a tight finish. Standout performances of the season included Markus Geiger’s school record in the 600m, Samuel Hepworth shattering the McGill record for the 1,000m race at the Valentine Invitational, and a top-10 national time in the 4x400m relay​. The Redbirds placed second at the RSEQ Championships, while the Martlets placed third. Placing 16th out of 27 teams at the U SPORTS national championship, Donna Ntambue put the Martlets on the board with a phenomenal performance in the 60m dash. While they opened the season strong, the Martlets struggled to place highly in track events at nationals and did not have entries in several relays, which limited their overall impact at major meets. 

Swimming: Martlets A+/ Redbirds A

Both Martlets and Redbirds Swimming could not manage to lose this season and came out in the gold medal spot for every regular season cup they competed in. The combined team dominated, breaking 1,000 points and winning by a margin of at least 200 points in every regular season cup. Their success was highlighted by a group of especially strong swimmers, including seniors Naomie Lo and Elizabeth Ling, who earned five and six gold medals, respectively, at the RSEQ Championships. The future of McGill Swim looks just as bright, with rookie Loïc Courville-Fortin and sophomore Mats Baradat both earning silver and breaking school records at the National Championships. Junior Emilia Mastromatteo cannot be forgotten, as she broke multiple school records throughout the season, earned McGill Athlete of the Week four times and RSEQ Athlete of the Week. With a final standing of first in the RSEQ for both teams, as well as second in the nation for women’s and fourth for men’s, McGill Swimming has rightfully received top ratings, and The Tribune cannot wait to see what they accomplish next season. 

News, SSMU

Recap: McGill allows SSMU VP University Affairs to remain in their position following disciplinary case

by Shani Laskin on

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A precarious few weeks have come to an end as the Interim Dean of Students Tony Mittermaier communicated that Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) Vice-President (VP) University Affairs Abe Berglas could remain in their position. The decision follows the Committee on Student Discipline’s finding that Berglas had violated the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures at the start of the school year for passing out flyers detailing what they claimed were professor Douglas Farrow’s transphobic and homophobic published works. Under a new clause of the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between SSMU and the University, this violation could have deemed Berglas ineligible to be in their executive position at SSMU.

The new MoA, signed on Feb. 28, included section 14.4, which states that executives and directors at SSMU cannot have a disciplinary record at the University, including an infraction of the Code of Student Conduct. While Berglas’ demonstration took place months before the new MoA was signed, it was unclear whether or not they would be allowed to stay in their position. 

Berglas told The Tribune the stated reasoning not to remove them was that the disciplinary charge and the start of their term at SSMU occurred before the MoA was signed. Because of this, McGill will allow SSMU to decide how to proceed. The McGill Media Relations Office (MRO) declined to comment on the specifics of Berglas’ case. However, the Office noted that this case would not set a precedent for how future violations of section 14.4 will be handled.

To Berglas, this situation highlights fundamental flaws within the Code of Student Conduct, including the amount of discretion left to the committee when determining disciplinary action and a lack of specificity in certain clauses such as 10.c, the one they were found to violate. They also noted a concern for the slow timeline of their case.

“The fact that my handing out flyers happened on the first day of class and the hearing itself was […] mid-March […] I think is inappropriate,” Berglas said. “And when these students are in limbo after being accused of a disciplinary charge but not being able to have closure on the case, it can create a chilling effect.”

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV

A spotlight on the student strike for Palestinian liberation’s film screenings: ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom’

by Charlotte Hayes, Kellie Elrick on

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The arts have long been a powerful medium for human rights activism. Last week, students hosted two film screenings alongside workshops and teach-ins during the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s student strike for Palestinian liberation.

“It’s to reiterate that our education is not just happening within the classroom,” Rama Al Malah, U2 Science, said in an interview with The Tribune. “Education is happening when we’re having these discussions and these reflections within these political and cultural spaces, and it’s also part of this revolutionary study and education that we need to engage with in order to be part of this movement.”

Gaza Fights for Freedom—written and directed by Abby Martin—documents the Great March of Return protests that took place in 2018. The opening shot shows Palestinian children building sandcastles, washed away by the sea—the same sea that Israel has blockaded.

The documentary centres on Palestinian stories, faces, and voices. Poet and journalist Ahmed Abu Artema, watching birds fly over barbed wire, tells us that he hates the occupation because it goes against nature. His poetry inspired the March. Nurse and paramedic Razan Al-Najjar’s grieving family tells us how, at the end of the day, she used to tell them about every person she had saved. The Israeli Defense Forces fatally shot her in June 2018. 

“If you look at […] Black Studies, if you look at Indigenous Studies, and then you look at Palestinian Studies, documentaries have been critical for people under occupation, or people whose histories—or some parts of their histories—have been obliterated because the documentary puts you in direct contact with the people living the reality of an occupation,” Professor of Islamic History Rula Jurdi said in an interview with The Tribune.

Perhaps the power of documentary lies in its intimacy in the face of injustice: That, too often, the people who see, hear, speak, and live under occupation are not those who are listened to. From behind the camera, viewers can hear voices, some since silenced, telling us not to forget.

Gaza Fights for Freedom screened on April 2.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

The radiance and resilience of De Stiil Booksellers

by Carter Forman, Kendyl Daley on

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De Stiil Booksellers, a small independent bookstore nestled in the Plateau, is caught in the crossfire of an international trade war. In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on Canadian goods, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to act “with force” by issuing counter-tariffs taxing American products. 

While not included in the March 4 Canadian counter-tariffs, books were added to the list of commodities liable for further tariffs, a surprising move that led booksellers to, as De Stiil’s owner Aude Le Dubé put it, “freak out.” 

As the situation unfolds, the future of De Stiil—and independent bookstores across Canada—remains uncertain. 

But Le Dubé is determined not to let this affect her customers. When asked about the tariffs, she stressed that she would never raise prices by more than 10 per cent.  

“I didn’t want to worry our customers,” she said in an interview with The Tribune. “This is our problem, not theirs.” 

Though Le Dubé’s devotion to her customers is admirable, her store will absorb any extra costs, threatening already slim profit margins. 

“I don’t know anything about bookselling, and I refuse to learn,” Le Dubé joked. 

There is truth in her words; Le Dubé is not interested in maximizing profit, but in providing readers with a wonderful selection of curated literature and translations. 

Though she may not know much about the business of bookselling, she certainly knows a lot about books. Originally from France, Le Dubé is wise, worldly, and well-dressed, her charisma outshone only by her humility. She effortlessly weaves apt quotations and spontaneous gems of wit into her warm, welcoming speech. Le Dubé reads every morning and prescribes this practice to others, a treatment for the chaotic whirlwind of life. And she doesn’t dog-ear her pages—“I use a bookmark,” she said, laughing. “Are you kidding?” 

De Stiil Booksellers is a perfect reflection of its owner: Polished and inviting, intellectual and teeming with life. The store’s eclectic selection is curated by Le Dubé and her staff, giving it a personal identity that most bookstores lack. Le Dubé has high standards for her selection, guaranteeing that customers are met with mastery on every shelf—from Italian classics of yesteryear to newly published 700-page Catalan tomes, such as the one Le Dubé is currently reading. 

For her, bookstores are the last standing technology-free third places in Canada. 

“Where else are you going to sit for hours and talk to people and see life unfold around you? See people come and go, hear them talk and laugh?” she says. 

Fittingly, De Stiil hosts a weekly “Page Break” event every Wednesday at 7 p.m. In the bookstore turned silent-reading sanctuary, guests pay a $5 CAD entry fee, hand over their phones, and enjoy a glass of wine while immersed in their book. 

However, Le Dubé believes that the importance of books is not only their escapist potential. Amidst the rising global tide of violent jingoism and the seemingly endless effusion of negativity, literature’s power to foster empathy and share diverse perspectives is needed more than ever. 

“I want people to read about other ways of thinking […] that’s the only way we’re going to change people to not get into a nationalistic whirlpool,” she said. 

The best way to support independent bookstores such as De Stiil is to buy their books. But Le Dubé says she would never want anyone to feel obligated to purchase anything at her store. 

“Come to the bookstore to be around people, to read, to be around books,” she said.

It is hard to imagine walking around De Stiil and not being overcome with a love for literature and an appreciation for its owner. 

“I do believe in our mission as booksellers,” Le Dubé said. “I think we’re important […] [because we] can change something and people’s minds […] a little bit, one at a time.”

Art, Arts & Entertainment

Illusion, reality, and the aesthetic diversity of perspective

by Clara Gaede-MacLaren on

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Strolling down boul. St.-Laurent towards the McGill Fine Arts Commission (FAC) exhibition, I momentarily regretted never completing that Art History minor. Not being an educated scrutinizer of fine art, how could my perspective add anything to the artistic conversation? But as the bubbling atmosphere of jazz, artists, and gallery-goers swiftly immersed my visual and auditory senses, I felt that the space demanded nothing more than true appreciation and openness to engage with the surrounding creativity. I became aware of how much artistic perception relies on intuition instead of critical analysis and grew to appreciate the value in the singularity of each artistic expression. 

The exhibition, titled Mirage, ties visual art to the naturally occurring optical phenomenon of a mirage, exploring the fine line between illusion and reality. 

“The whole idea of Mirage is that everyone has their own reality, everyone sees something different, […] and that in itself is so unique,” Diya Senghera, FAC Co-Commissioner, explained in an interview with The Tribune.  

The exhibition brings together a wide range of perspectives, encouraging viewers to explore the boundary between imagination and reality through their interaction with the artists’ ideas and the theme of illusion. Despite the many interpretations each painting, sculpture, and film may offer, Mirage’s presentations diversify this range of interpretations even more. Mythical realms, imagined spaces and undefined objects challenge the viewer’s visual perception and play a role in most of the exhibition’s fine art. 

The majestic emanation of Mia MacLeod’s oil on canvas, titled Free Fall, caught my eye from afar. Its deep blue colour—a thematic element in the exhibit connecting art to the natural phenomenon of the mirage—and the intricate fusion of physicality and lightness in her figures are central to the exhibit’s impact. MacLeod describes her artistic vision as a combination of surrealism’s style with expressionism’s colours.

“I love spaces that aren’t settled in reality but have a mystical, magical quality to them,” MacLeod said in an interview with The Tribune. 

Kat Sun’s glazed ceramic sculpture, Reverie, plays with space differently. Its interwoven shape has an uncertainty to it; it appears to be twisting and decomposing at the same time.  

Maya Farres’s digital art similarly relates to the ambiguity between what we perceive as our imagination and the uncertainty of physical space. In Sofishticated, a shining fish swims above a young woman’s head, bubbles rising, in a space resembling water. In her inscription, the artist explains her goal to express the discernible truth that can be found in mind wanderings. 

“The piece asks the question whether the fish we swim with are subtle reflections of the physical world, or simply just daydreams,” Farres wrote.  

For some artists, Mirage relates to the illusion found in mirrors and, thus, in appearance. Phaedra’s vividly coloured painting When the Mirror was Play, depicting a young girl and her mirrored reflection in a playground setting, is part of her larger series concerning mirrors.

“The mirror transitions in its meaning as we get older to points of insecurity and judgment,” Phaedra said in an interview with The Tribune. 

Winnie-Grace Melchor’s work Lost in Reflection similarly explores the relationship to the mirror by discussing beauty standards, society’s expectations, and consumerism. 

The diversity of artworks does not end here; Aia Segal’s Self Performance displays a room filled with a jumble of imagined, fictitious objects and material items through a unique combination of oil pastel and embroidery on cotton fabric. On top of that, Mirage’s immense diversity in themes, styles and materials goes beyond visual art by incorporating a performance from Mosaica, one of McGill’s oldest dance companies. 

“There are so many different artists at McGill, and that is part of what we want to celebrate,” Katherine Squitieri, FAC Co-Commissioner, explained to The Tribune. 

Truth be told, this experience doesn’t need an Art History minor because, ultimately, it is our own perspectives that create meaning in art and bring it to life. 

Private

Rethinking environmental risk assessment for Indigenous communities

by K. Coco Zhang on

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Art, Arts & Entertainment

Exploring the etchings of women’s shame at ‘Bad Girls Only’

by Norah Adams on

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Their bodies are cast in stark black ink. Harsh cross-hatching carves out exaggerated forms featuring sagging breasts and bulging stomachs. The slight fingers of one of the women curve around a heart, pulling it to her mouth moments before taking a bite. Another’s hand grasps tightly around the hilt of a sword drawn from the sheath at her hip.

The first room of the Montreal Museum of Fine Art (MMFA)’s new exhibit Bad Girls Only: Women and the Seven Deadly Sins features preparatory drawings by Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) coupled with their matching prints created by Goltzius’ stepson, Jacob Matham (1571-1631). The second adjoining space holds another set of prints created by Flemish engraver Hieronymous Wierix (1553-1619). The pieces share a common thread: They all depict women as embodiments of the seven deadly sins. 

A TV screen at the end of the exhibit shows modern-day artist Xavier Charbonneau demonstrating the act of printmaking. He takes a pointed tool with a wooden handle called a burin and makes small marks on a copper plate. Once finished, Charbonneau applies a thick black ink to the face of the etched plate with a roller and stamps it onto a piece of paper, the image now permanent.

From gluttony to envy, the prints demonstrate society’s prevailing villainization of women. The earliest pieces in this collection were produced in the 1580s. That women still feel conscious about these ideas 450 years later reveals a terrifying durability surrounding women’s shame. The act of printmaking seems to metaphorically describe the establishment of these ideas in the Western social sphere. Originating as simple sketches, the fuzzy edges of women’s shame are subsequently carved into a metal plate and confirmed throughout time in stark ink. 

In addition to the video featuring Montreal artist Charbonneau, the exhibit’s end faces a wall of handwritten cards. Beside this wall sit slots with empty sheets and pencils, providing viewers with the opportunity to make their mark. The cards hold questions relevant to each deadly sin, asking things such as, “What is one thing that made you proud today?” answered by one museum-goer with “Being engaged and enjoying breakfast and art with my family.” Another paper asks, “Describe a food or drink that gives you comfort,” and is met with the answer “Pancakes.” These prompts act as a way for viewers to reframe their positions on shame.

“The empowerment comes from the knowledge of this period, and that internalized shame is not natural and innate; it is culturally and societally produced,” curator Mary-Dailey Desmarais said in an interview with The Tribune.

The distorted bodies of the women in the exhibit are a representation of how society has historically placed women as vessels for degradation. Seeing the artistic process of this is not an ignition of fear but a way of contextualizing such perspectives. Some Dutch man in the 1500s sat down to draw women in their most demeaning form—warnings to women about how their actions make them look to others, thus contributing to a continuing history of slandering women.

But that’s all they are: Drawings. That fact allows for a certain level of freedom. Understanding the fine-scale method it took to bring sketched-out misogyny into permanent ink provides a new sense of power. A pointed carving tool should not make women feel ashamed for eating, getting angry, or having sex. 

Facing these works, it can be easy to see yourself in them. All of the things that society tells women not to do stand embodied in front of you. By understanding the process by which these pieces came to be, however, one can see the fabricated nature of their insecurities and start to break free of how society frames them. 

‘Bad Girls Only: Women and the Seven Deadly Sins’ is on display at the MMFA until Aug.10 . Tickets are available both online and in person. Free for those aged 25 and under. 

Arts & Entertainment, Film and TV, Pop Rhetoric

Sheep are having a Pop Culture moment—and it’s unsettling

by Defne Feyzioglu on

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They’re baaaaaack—and not in a cute nursery rhyme kind of way. Sheep have tiptoed their way back into the cultural frame, not just as pastoral props but as full-blown characters, metaphors, and messengers. From a blood-streaked Icelandic hybrid in Lamb to the soft-eyed flocks in Bergers, the modern media sheep is anything but innocent.

Sophie Deraspe’s Bergers (or Shepherds) features numerous sheep, but none are quite as unsettling as the humans around them. The film follows a disillusioned Montreal advertisement executive, Mathyas, who escapes the corporate grind to become a shepherd in rural Provence. This might sound like millennial burnout-turned-farmer fantasy, but Deraspe doesn’t romanticize. Instead, she places her protagonist face-to-face with an uncompromising truth: Nature doesn’t care about your spiritual awakening​.

In Bergers, the sheep aren’t mythical, magical, or symbolic. They are bodies—vulnerable and ultimately commodified. As Mathyas learns, even this so-called simple life turns out to be unstable, challenged by a shifting climate and economic strain. He is initially drawn to the romantic notion of a pastoral life. However, he soon faces the harsh realities of herding and the struggles of adapting to a new way of life. Nature is harsh, indifferent, and, at times, violent.

Lamb (Valdimar Jóhannsson), on the other hand, could not strike a more contrasting tone. The Icelandic folk horror follows a couple adopting a half-human, half-sheep creature named Ada. On paper, it’s absurd; in execution, it’s devastating. What begins as a tender attempt to reclaim lost love spirals into horror with the arrival of Ada’s ram father. This isn’t just folklore gone feral; Lamb unfolds like a dark environmental fable: Nature, again, refuses to be rewritten.

So, why sheep? And why now?

In pop culture, sheep have long signified docility—“sheeple” being used as an insult towards conformists. But as Lamb and Bergers portray, that connotation is ready—and even destined—to change. These stories portray sheep not simply as the symbol of innocence we know from nursery rhymes or nativity scenes, nor as a symbol of docility. Instead, they use the animals to critique how humans project their desires—whether for control, comfort, or escape—onto the world around them.

A man trades his desk job for a field of bleating livestock, or a family dresses a sheep-child in baby clothes: Beneath all the absurdity lies a real discomfort. These images are too close to fantasy to be real but too grounded to dismiss. The sheep reveal just how anxious we can be about agency, autonomy, and belonging. They reflect the quiet fear of wanting to escape the systems we’re born into but having nowhere to run. Whether shepherded or anthropomorphized, sheep expose our need to make sense of disconnection through control, care, or even delusion. The unease comes not from the sheep themselves but from the human need to reshape them into what we want them to be.

The cultural fascination with sheep is never only about cinematic allegory, nor is it new. Sheep have long been used as a symbol in both fashion and pop culture. From Princess Diana’s iconic “black sheep” sweater to Lamb Chop, a 20th-century sock puppet known for her surprisingly sassy comebacks, they’ve made their mark. The image of the sheep constantly sways between conformity and defiance, obedience and disruption. Maybe that’s the point. In a media landscape increasingly obsessed with binaries—good vs. evil, tech vs. nature, us vs. them—the sheep offers something more blurred and possibly more real.

They aren’t just back—they never really left. It’s just now that they are stepping into the centre, not to lead or to follow, but to remind us that meaning often comes dressed in wool.

Arts & Entertainment, Books

A&E on the most impactful novels they’ve encountered in the classroom

by Bianca Sugunasiri, Isobel Bray, Kellie Elrick, Charlotte Hayes on

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Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin (RUSS 223: Russian Literary Giants 1) – Isobel Bray, Contributor

Eugene Onegin is a timeless novel-in-verse set in 19th-century Russia. It follows the titular aristocrat, who, after inheriting his uncle’s estate, retreats to the countryside. Eugene is bored with high society and indifferent to those around him. He meets personalities like the poet Vladimir Lensky and young, intelligent Tatyana Larina. The verse form only enhances the story, as Pushkin blends social commentary with his melodic and emotional writing. His portrayal of Russian high society is sharp and often ironic, yet never fully devoid of empathy. What stood out to me was the realism of the characters—flawed, human, and heartbreakingly self-aware. Onegin, with his cynicism, is both frustrating and strangely familiar. Lensky, the doomed romantic, is his foil: Idealistic and earnest in a world that doesn’t reward it. The narrator is a character unto himself, breaking the fourth wall with asides that feel surprisingly modern. Pushkin reflects on his own youth, writing, and memory with a tone that is both playful and melancholic. Despite being written two centuries ago, Eugene Onegin is filled with moments that speak to the present about identity, image, and the consequences of not acting when it matters.

Lolita  by Vladimir Nabokov (ENGL 227: American Fiction after 1945) – Bianca Sugunasiri, Staff Writer

Content warning: Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Sexual Assault

Fresh out of high school and heady with literary ignorance, I was met with a rude awakening in the form of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. I was thrown from my comfortable world of sheltered grade-school literature into one of the most viscerally disturbing novels I have ever encountered. The thought of devoting time to dissecting the first-person account of a repulsive pedophile was terrifying. I was further disturbed by the Vanity Fair review quote printed on the back of my copy: “The only convincing love story of our century.” Everything in me was primed to reject the novel. But one class, my professor said something that turned my perspective on its head. He challenged the notion that Lolita was a sick fantasy, but was instead designed as a rebellion from the modernist notion of “art for art’s sake.” The novel is widely known for its unexpectedly embellished prose that flows artfully like poetry. Contrasted with the uncomfortable ideas that Nabokov presents, it makes a sadistic mockery of the Aesthetic Movement. All of a sudden, the novel went from a glorification of inhuman immorality to a meticulously crafted protest for me. Although it is impossible to know what Nabokov truly intended, the man insisted that there should not be a child anywhere in the book design. This is not a love story, but an exposé of the parts of humans we deign to forget: Discomfort deliberately wielded to elicit change.

Jazz by Toni Morrison (ENGL 505: Sound, Voice, Music, Noise) – Kellie Elrick, Arts & Entertainment Editor

Content warning: Violence, feminicide

Last summer, I was on a transatlantic flight from Rome to Toronto when a fuse blew, knocking out the electricity in my part of the plane. This is how I first read Jazz—in one sitting, in close quarters, hurtling at top speed over the sea in a lightly malfunctioning airplane. It knocked me out. The narrative twisted and turned, screaming, singing, breathing. I encountered it again in a seminar in the fall and remained enraptured by the text. Jazz changed what I thought a novel could be. The narrative speaks to itself, echoing between chapters, calling and responding in non-chronological order. The present moves forward into the past, which in turn responds to the present, engaging in an oral tradition that rebels against its written form, speaking at once from Harlem in 1926 and Virginia in 1888. Morrison’s novel sings of Black womanhood, history, modernity, music, enslavement, violence, what’s unspoken, what’s heard, freedom to act, freedom to speak, freedom to be; Joe shoots his young lover Dorcas; his wife Violet slashes Dorcas’s face in her casket, and the novel shoots off into the present, past, and future all at once. It begins with a sound—sth—and ends with a call: “Say make me, remake me. You are free to do it, and I am free to let you because look, look. Look where your hands are. Now.”

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (RUSS 224: Russian Literary Giants 2) – Charlotte Hayes, Arts & Entertainment Editor

On a Wednesday night in the dead of February sometime last year, I came to a sudden, horrible realization: I needed to be on page 300-and-something of Crime and Punishment by 11 a.m. the next day—and I had yet to crack open the book. Although I’m not proud of this (and by no means endorse the following actions), what transpired over the next 16 hours was nothing short of transcendent. I sat down on my couch and just started reading. The floorboards of my empty Plateau apartment creaked. Cold air squealed through its barely sealed doors. I sat hunched on the couch, eyes glued to the page. Hours passed in a blur of plot twists, coffee, and sleep-deprived delirium. Maybe it was heart-pounding guilt-by-proxy brought on by Dostoevsky’s prose, or maybe it was just 5 a.m. Still, I’ve never felt more connected to an objectively awful person than to Rodion Raskolnikov. Reading Crime and Punishment shifted how I view literary canons. For the first time—outside of Shakespeare or a few biblical parables—I grasped how a piece of writing can ripple across art forms. From later Russian novels to the moral puzzles of ‘70s Hollywood cinema, Dostoevsky’s tale of guilt, greed, and moral ambiguity in redemption has proved enduring and unsettling. I may not have known it then, but sitting groggy in a conference on four-ish hours of sleep the next morning was exactly what I needed to round out my university experience.

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