Wednesday Talk: January 22 , 2025, at 2-4pm. It is in-person and on Zoom

Wednesday Talk: January 22 , 2025, at 2pm. It is in-person and on Zoom

Speaker: Anne Urbancic, Italian; Semiotics, Victoria College, U of T

Title: “Large Double Double: How Tim Hortons Coffee Ritualizes Canadian Identity”

Abstract: My study takes as a point of departure a rather generous definition of ritual, not necessarily sacred and serious as Emil Durkheim and other scholars might have it, but certainly a series of activities encompassing food that are repeated annually and in recognizable patterns particularly in the Canadian winter and summer. Because these are unwritten, informal, secular traditions that are regularly enacted, they have become identifiable markers of Canadian culture and social deportment. In a country such as Canada where we pride ourselves on acceptance of cultural diversities but cannot define what exactly our culture is, we can count on one unifying icon that connects us all from east to west coast, from the Arctic to the US border: Tim Hortons coffee shops. The ubiquitous signs in their patriotically Canadian red and white are often the main feature of small towns and hamlets and are surely an unavoidable landmark of cities, in both official languages, with a supporting lexicon.  If you don’t know that a double double/deux deux is brewed coffee, with double cream and double sugar, you are likely not a Canadian. Tim Hortons Coffee emporium does not simply sell coffee. Along with its sweets and sandwiches it also offers Canadian culture, especially winter culture. We do have plenty of that. While it does not overtly make claims to ritualization, it implicitly promotes an ideology that comes with its own rituals and rules; while these keep up with new fast-food trends, they also represent a deliberately crafted and ritualized nostalgic ethos of rural-type camaraderie, culture, and coffee, even in downtown Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver.

In my talk I describe some of the ritualistic behaviour understood and embraced by Tim Hortons guests and devotees. I will offer a brief history of the company, and then parse some of the cultural considerations that are implied when Tim Hortons Coffee is the topic of discussion. I will explore how buying and drinking Tim Hortons coffee is a marker of Canadian identity that speaks beyond the need for alimentary sustenance, or even a craving for coffee; it is, rather, a coming together to nourish and build culture and collective memory. I will also say a few words about who serves the coffee, because there as well, Tim Hortons has supported and fostered Canadian traditions and rituals. I will use primary and secondary sources to focus on the ritualistic considerations of Timbits, Iced Capp, Roll-up-the-Rim, and the overall hockey-ness of Tim Hortons (pardon the neologism). Finally, I will ask you two questions I’d like to hear your opinion about.

Bio: Anne Urbancic is an award-winning instructor of language, culture and semiotics; her research interests focus on the Italian Tuscan author Mario Pratesi (1842-1921) and on the works of Annie Vivanti (1866-1942). Most recently she has also studied Italian foodways and cookbooks. She has published widely in North American and European journals. Among her publications are Reviewing Mario Pratesi: The Critical Press and its Influence (University of Toronto Press, 2014), Mario Pratesi’s lost manuscript, All’ombra dei cipressi (SEF, 2018) and Literary Titans Revisited (Dundurn Press, 2017). Together with Giuliana Sanguinetti Katz, she has translated three novels, and two plays.

Her interest in archiving and historiography has resulted in the online publication of the vast correspondence of Mario Pratesi whose letters and notebooks were found in Toronto and donated to E.J. Pratt Library. She is also a founding member of the Canadian Slovenian Historical Society and Archives. Her interest in how we practice the spaces of everyday life includes studies like the topic of today’s plenary; an earlier version of this study appeared in the proceedings of the 2023 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery.

The link to register is https://forms.office.com/r/pxkiVKSL3k

The deadline to register is the Monday before the event at noon.  The Zoom link will be sent to registrants only.