Licia Canton - Antonio d’Alfonso: Essays on His Works

ANTONIO DALFONSO

Essays on His Works

ESSENTIAL WRITERS SERIES 50

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ANTONIO DALFONSO

Essays on His Works

Edited by

Licia Canton

TORONTO BUFFALO LANCASTER (U.K.)
2019

Copyright 2019, Licia Canton, the contributors, and Guernica Editions Inc.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.

Licia Canton, editor

Michael Mirolla, general editor

Joseph Pivato, series editor

David Moratto, cover and interior design

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First edition.

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2018956517

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Antonio DAlfonso : essays on his works / edited by Licia Canton.

(Essential writers series ; 50)

Includes bibliographical references.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77183-361-5 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77183-362-2 (EPUB).

--ISBN 978-1-77183-362-2 (Kindle)

1. DAlfonso, Antonio, 1953- --Criticism and interpretation.

I. Canton, Licia, 1963-, editor II. Series: Essential writers series ; 50

PS8557.A456Z85 2019 C811.54 C2018-905163-9 C2018-905164-7

Joseph Pivato

Licia Canton

Lianne Moyes

Domenic Beneventi

Mariam Pirbhai

Lucie Lequin

Nancy Giacomini

Connie Guzzo-McParland

Joseph Pivato

Licia Canton

Simon Harel

Domenic Cusmano

Licia Canton

Joseph Pivato

T his collection of essays is devoted to the work of Antonio DAlfonso, a pivotal figure in the bilingual history of Canadian literature. This timely and necessary volume gives DAlfonso recognition for the important contributions he has made to Canadian writing over a career of nearly fifty years. In both Quebec and Ontario, he has worked as a writer, editor, translator and filmmaker. He identifies as a bilingual writer, but he is much more than that since he speaks and writes in Italian as well. And he has translated work from both French and Italian into English and from English into French.

Let me briefly explain the achievements of Antonio DAlfonso in a number of areas which will clearly indicate that a volume such as this one is needed. Each contributor to this volume is a witness to the literary accomplishments of DAlfonso.

First, DAlfonso is a remarkable writer in his own right and his experiments with genre alone demand critical analysis. He writes poetry, fiction and essays in both English and French. DAlfonso grew up in Montreal and attended English and French colleges because he was bilingual. He began writing poetry at an early age and experimented by composing in French and English. His first book of poems, La Chanson du shaman a Sedna (1973) was in French, followed by Queror (1979) in English. His prose-poem collection The Other Shore (1986) was also published in French as Lautre rivage (1987) and was a finalist for the Prix Emile-Nelligan for Quebec poetry. His first novel, Avril ou lanti-passion (1990), appeared in English as Fabrizios Passion (1995) and was later translated into Italian, La passione di Fabrizio (2002). In 2004 his novel Un vendredi du mois daot won the Trillium Award for French fiction in Ontario. Other original works written by DAlfonso are discussed in this collection of essays.

Second, Antonio DAlfonsos extensive work in translation has helped to bring many Quebec authors to English readers. These authors include Philippe Haeck, Claude Beausoleil, Louise Dupr, Stefan Psenak, Paul Blanger, Claudine Bertrand, and Michel Chion. He was also instrumental in getting other Quebec writers translated into English including Nicole Brossard, Andr Roy, Sylvie Caput, Jean Royer, Suzanne Jacob, France Thoret, and Yolande Villemaire.

Third, Antonio DAlfonsos work as an editor and director of the bilingual Guernica Editions has transformed Canadian literature by publishing many Quebec writers in English translation and English language writers in French. He was the first to publish a significant number of Italian-Canadian writers and authors from other ethnic minority groups in Canada including: Arab, Dutch, Hungarian, Spanish, Czech, Estonian, Portuguese, and German. Of particular note is Elizabeth Dahabs Voices in the Desert: An Anthology of Arabic-Canadian Women Writers (2002), the first collection of this kind in North America.

Fourth, under Antonio DAlfonso, Guernica Editions has published many first-time writers who went on to win recognition and prizes. These include Rea Tregebov (1982), Dore Michelut (1986), Fulvio Caccia (1983), Marco Micone (1984), Raymond Filip (1994), Gianna Patriarca (1995), and Karen Shenfeld (2001). He has been a strong supporter of young writers such as Halli Villegas, Desi Di Nardo, Clara Blackwood, Jim Johnstone, and Catherine Black.

Fifth, DAlfonsos work as a literary reviewer and critic has contributed to the debates about the nature of Canadian writing and French writing in Quebec. He was one of the three founders of the trilingual cultural magazine, Vice Versa, based in Montreal. The critical articles and creative work in this magazine argued for a transcultural approach to writing that went beyond the borders of language and national cultures. In 1996 he published In Italics, a collection of some of his many essays, articles and reviews. With poet Pasquale Verdicchio, DAlfonso wrote Duologue: On Culture and Identity (1998), a series of dialogues on a number of specific cultural questions.

Sixth, Antonio DAlfonso has also worked on films over many years. His early training at the Universit de Montral was in film. Guernica Editions has published several books on film criticism such as Reel Canadians (2003), The Great Dictators (1999), The Films of Jacques Tati (1997), Films dAfrique (1991), and Le Cinma aujourdhui (1988). DAlfonsos work on several independent films was vindicated when his film, Bruco, won the award for Best International Film at the New York International Film Festival (2010), and he won the award for Best Director of a Feature Film.

It takes a particular mind to work in all of these dimensions. I could use a clich like Renaissance man to describe Antonio DAlfonso, but that would not recognize the subtle anti-modernist elements in ethnic minority writing. In an early essay, The Road Between: Essentialism, DAlfonso explored these anti-modernist directions in the writing of a number of writers in his circle. The alternative title for this essay was The NeoBaroque and so an alternative title for this collection of essays could have been