1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910456379203321

Autore

Saul Joanne <1969->

Titolo

Writing the roaming subject : the biotext in Canadian literature / / Joanne Saul

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 2006

©2006

ISBN

1-281-99167-8

9786611991678

1-4426-8373-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (184 p.)

Disciplina

810.9809045

Soggetti

Canadian literature - Minority authors - History and criticism

Autobiographical fiction, Canadian - History and criticism

Authors, Canadian - 20th century - History and criticism

Autobiography - Minority authors

Ethnicity in literature

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Writing the Roaming Subject -- 1. Introducing the 'Biotext' -- 2. 'The shape of an unknown thing': Writing Displacement in Running in the Family -- 3. 'A story of listening way back in the body': Writing the Self in Ghost Works -- 4. Routes and Roots: The Auto/biographical Voices of Mothertalk -- 5. The Politics and Poetics of Identity: 'Faking it' in Diamond Grill -- Epilogue: (Still) Roaming -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Engaging current debates within the studies of life writing and of the nation-state, Writing the Roaming Subject focuses on a group of Canadian writers who pose questions about cultural difference and national identity while writing about their own lives and their own experiences of displacement. Joanne Saul uses the term 'biotext' to describe the unique form of writing that challenges critical practices



regarding both life writing and immigrant and ethnic minority writing by blurring the borders of biography, autobiography, history, fiction and theory, as well as poetry, prose, and visual representation.In her readings of selected contemporary Canadian biotexts - including Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family, Daphne Marlatt's Ghost Works, Roy Kiyooka's Mothertalk, and Fred Wah's Diamond Grill - Saul suggests that by crossing generic boundaries, these works illuminate the complex relationships between language, place, and self as they are manifested in textual form. Writing the Roaming Subject explores issues of identity formation, representation, and resistance in Canada and suggests that these are particularly crucial questions during a period of Canadian literary history when so many writers are insisting on new, more diverse cultural performances that resist the pull of the national imaginary.