Professor - English

Email: w5tf@mun.ca

Phone: (709) 639-2737

 

Research interests/expertise

1. Tony Fabijančić is an interdisciplinary thinker and writer who has produced works beyond the limitations imposed by traditional academic research. He is a travel writer, essayist, scholar, fiction writer and photographer whose interests include modernity, space, vision, Croatia, the former Yugoslavia and anamorphosis.

 

Teaching

He teaches first-year English, Creative Writing, Twentieth-Century British and Irish Literature, Contemporary Fiction in English, the Western, and World Literature in Translation. He has also taught Literary Theory, Science Fiction and Canadian Short Stories. In 1996 Dr. Fabijancic became the first professor to teach film at Grenfell Campus (Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas), the first to teach lyrics from music in English and other languages (from Lightnin’ Hopkins to Tom Waits to Bijelo Dugme), and the first to introduce travel writing and experiential writing into his classes.

 

Representative scholarly contributions

He is the author of a trilogy of works on the former Yugoslavia: Croatia: Travels in Undiscovered Country (University of Alberta Press, 2003), Bosnia: In the Footsteps of Gavrilo Princip (U. of A. Press, 2010), and Drink in the Summer: A Memoir of Croatia (Athabasca University Press, 2023). These are the first literary travel books on the new Croatia and Bosnia in the English language.

He has also published numerous travel pieces, personal essays, political essays, academic essays, short stories and photographs in newspapers, academic journals and literary reviews including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, The Chronicle Herald, Mosaic, University of Toronto Quarterly, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review and Event.

 

Recent publications:

“The Secret Perspective: Anamorphosis in Hamlet." University of Toronto Quarterly 93.1 (2024).

From Anything's Better Than Dying. Horseshoe Literary Magazine 1.1 (Winter 2023): 71-74.

Review of George Elliott Clarke’s The Quest for a “National” Nationalism: E.J. Pratt’s Epic Poetic Ambition, “Race” Consciousness, and the Contradictions of Canadian Identity. Journal of Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 36.2 (Winter 2021): 312-316.

“Report from The Casket (1).” The Scarlet Leaf Review (March 2021: online)

“Black Woods Island: Korčula.” Riddle Fence 39 (Winter 2021): 17-22.

“CBC a biased echo chamber of liberal American media.” The Chronicle Herald and other Saltwire publications (Cape Breton Post, The Telegram, The Guardian) January 5, 2021 (online).

“Anamorphosis in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive.” University of Toronto Quarterly 89.2 (Spring 2020): 219-238.  

“The Old Man and the Storks.” The Nashwaak Review 44/45.1 (Fall/Winter 2020-21): 23-29.

“Jump In! Explore the swimming holes of Antigonish County.” The Chronicle Herald 27 July, 2019  Travel sec.: E6-7. (also online).

“Pedalling through the past in Croatia; Samobor Hills outside capital of Zagreb a stunning and challenging place to ride.” The Calgary Herald 22 Sept. 2018: E2 (also online).

“Where the Sea is Bluer: the Croatian island of Brač.” Vancouver Sun 22 Apr. 2017, Travel sec.: B1-B3. (also online).

“Island Memories: Newfoundland, Maui.” The Antigonish Review 190 (Summer 2017): 90-98.

“Tito and Yugonostalgia: Name Change Reveals Political Fault Lines in Croatia.” Global Politics: An International Affairs Magazine 1 January 2018 (online).

“Will the Western Balkans Ever Join the European Union?” The Globe Post 16 Sept. 2019 (online; commissioned).

 “Protesters in Serbia Lack Coherent and Political Answer to Spark Change.” The Globe Post 2 May 2019 (online; commissioned).

“Waiting for the Strike." The Windsor Review 36.1 (Spring 2003): 89-94.

 

Current research projects and grants

Old Bridge, Black House: A Diptych (novella); Anything’s Better Than Dying (novel); The Secret Perspective: Four Modes of Anamorphic Distortion in Art