ALTERNATIVE CANONICAL FORMALISM FOR THE WESS-ZUMINO-WITTEN MODEL

We study a canonical quantization of the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) mode l which depends on two integer parameters rather than one. The usual t heory can be obtained as a contraction, in which our two parameters go to infinity keeping the difference fixed. The quantum theory is equiv alent to a generalized Thirring model, with left- and right-handed fer mions transforming under different representations of the symmetry gro up. We also note that the classical WZW model with a compact target sp ace has a canonical formalism in which the current algebra is an affin e Lie algebra of the noncompact type. In addition, there are some nonu nitary quantizations of WZW model in which there is invariance only un der half the conformal algebra (one copy of the Virasoro algebra).