Kate Wake

Abstract

Kate Wake is a fictional narrative about two women, one contemporary (Katie) and one historical (Kate Wake). The multi-genre, poetic account also delves into the history of psychiatric health practices on the Canadian prairies. Kate Wake is loosely guided by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. I understand this myth as a working-through of loss by an individual compelled to return to the original scene (of loss), a sort of underworld ruled by sleep, memory and the unconscious. Doing so is risky, but may also result in a movement towards recovery, reparation and renewal: even if uncertain, a future. Drawing on lexicons of music, visual art, poetry and psychoanalysis, Kate Wake develops themes of loss, hope and possibility as they might be found in the struggle of making a work of art.