The digitization of this finding aid was made possible - in part or entirely - through the Canadian Culture Online Program of Canadian Heritage, the National Archives of Canada and the Canadian Council of Archives.
| Fonds/Collection Number: | F0211 |
| Title: | Tessera fonds |
| Dates: | 1981-2006 |
| Extent: | 4.72 m of textual records 3 audio cassettes 2 photographs |
| Biographical Sketch/ Administrative History: | Tessera was founded in 1981 as result of conversations among its founding editors, Barbara Godard, Daphne Marlatt, Kathy Mezei and Gail Scott at a York University conference on feminist literary theory in Canada. Their goal was to foster the development of new modes of writing both creative and critical texts which was being pioneered in Quebec. Tessera began publishing in 1984 out of Simon Fraser University and Stong College at York University. The first four issues of Tessera appeared as special issues of already established periodicals, "Doubleness in language" (Room of one's own); "Reading as writing/l'ecruture comme lecture" (La nouvelle barre du jour); "fiction/theorie" (Canadian fiction magazine) and "The state of feminist criticism/la situation de la theorie litteraire feministe"(Contemporary verse II). Between 1988 and 1993, Tessera explored poststructuralist theory in conjunction with feminist poetics in such issues as "Translating women" (1989) and "Performance/transformance" (1991). In 1993, a new editorial collective was formed by Katherine Binhammer, Jennifer Henderson and Lianne Moyes. Adding "feminist interventions in writing and culture" to the journal's title, the new collective invited contributors to include cultural studies and began to profile feminist visual artists such as Ginette Legare, Joanne Todd and Jamelie Hassan on its covers and in portfolios included within the journal. Since 1988, Tessera has been an independent publication appearing twice a year in a book-size format, printed at Coach House Printing in Toronto, and supported by grants from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. |
| Scope and Content: |
The fonds consists of records relating to the editing, production and publishing of the Tessera journal including submissions, manuscripts, drafts and proofs, correspondence, advertising files, subscription files, financial records and grant files. |
| Restrictions on Access and Use: | Until 1 January 2008, all records closed unless written permission is obtained from the donor. Inquiries must be directed via the University Archivist. Researchers must sign the access and use agreement form before viewing any material. Written permission is required prior to any kind of reproduction of material in the fonds. |
| Finding Aid: | File lists are available. |
| URL of Finding Aid: | http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000211.pdf |
| Accruals: | The fonds comprises the following accessions: 2000-055, 2001-001, 2001-029, 2001-065, 2006-024. Further accruals may be expected. |
| 2000-055 2001-001 2001-029 2001-065 2006-024 |
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| Immediate source of acquisition: | Acquired from Dr. Jennifer Henderson, Dr. Barbara Godard, and Kathy Mezei in 2000, 2001 and 2006. |
| Provenance Access Points: | Tessera |
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Date of creation: 2002/04/08 Date of last revision: 2006/06/09 |
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