The Social, Aesthetic, and Medical Implications of Performing Shame

Performing Shame shows how simulations of shame by North American writers and artists have the power to resist its withering influence.

Marlene Goldman is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She specializes in Canadian literature, age studies, and medical humanities. Her book Forgotten: Age-Related Dementia and Alzheimer's in Canadian Literature (2017) explores narrative and pathological modes of forgetting associated with trauma, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. Goldman is also the author of Paths of Desire (1997), Rewriting Apocalypse (2005), and (Dis)Possession (2011). Goldman has also written, directed, and produced three short films. The first, about dementia, is entitled Piano Lessons (2017), and is based on Alice Munro's short story In Sight of the Lake, from her collection Dear Life (2004). Her second film, Torching the Dusties (2019) adapted from Margaret Atwood's story of the same name, addresses aging and intergenerational warfare. Her most recent film, Mani Pedi (2021), is based on the eponymous story by Souvankham Thammavongsa.