Esi Edugyan - Dreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home

Obsevations on Home

ESI EDUGYAN

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS

Henry Kreisel Lecture Series

Published by

The University of Alberta Press

Ring House 2

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E1

www.uap.ualberta.ca

and

Canadian Literature Centre /

Centre de littrature canadienne

35 Humanities Centre

University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E5

www.arts.ualberta.ca/clc

Copyright 2014 Esi Edugyan

Introduction copyright 2014 Marina Endicott

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Edugyan, Esi, author

Dreaming of elsewhere : observations on home / Esi Edugyan.

(Henry Kreisel memorial lecture series)

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-0-88864-821-1 (pbk.).

ISBN 978-0-88864-838-9 (pdf).

ISBN 978-0-88864-836-5 (epub).

ISBN 978-0-88864-837-2 (kindle)

1. Edugyan, EsiTravel. 2. HomePsychological aspects. I. Canadian Literature Centre, issuing body II. Title. III. Series:

Henry Kreisel lecture series

PS8559.D795Z465 2014C813.6

C2013-908395-2

C2013-908396-0

First edition, rst printing, 2014.

First electronic edition, 2014.

Copyediting by Peter Midgley.

Cover design by Alan Brownoff.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Cover image: Barbara Milne, Valley, 2001. Oil on panel. 107 138 cm. Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Used by permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written consent. Contact the University of Alberta Press for further details.

The Canadian Literature Centre acknowledges the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for the Henry Kreisel Lecture delivered by Esi Edugyan in April 2013 at the University of Alberta.

The University of Alberta Press gratefully acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from The Canada Council for the Arts. The University of Alberta Press also gratefully acknowledges the nancial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Multimedia Development Fund (AMDF) for its publishing activities.

Photographs on pages 23, 1213, and 2627 by Esi Edugyan.

For Kofi and Abena and as ever, for Steven.

The Henry Kreisel Lecture Series is the flagship event of the Canadian Literature Centre. The series originated in 2007 shortly after the creation of the CLC, which was made possible thanks to a leadership contribution from Edmontons respected bibliophile and patron of the arts, Dr. Eric Schloss. Every year since the inaugural lecture, the return of spring is ushered in with a widely-attended public address given by one of the countrys most respected, talented, and internationally acclaimed authors. The Henry Kreisel Lecture is an event where the mission of the CLC is represented eloquently as it unites readers, writers, students, professors, and people from all spheres within the various cultural communities of Edmonton in their shared passion for a culture that is never more alive than when it is experienced as such: immediate, vibrant, diverse, and bristling with vital questions.

The CLC is extremely proud to welcome Esi Edugyans elegant, heartfelt, and insightful lecture as part of this prestigious series that has, throughout the years, become a distinctive home to original pieces by Canadas top writers. Edugyans erudite observations on the fate of home in a post-colonial world is preceded by Lawrence Hills reflection on the contemporary autodaf and the persistence of censorship; Annabel Lyons musings on the challenges of representing women in antique times; Eden Robinsons insights on community and inspiration; Dany Laferrires thoughts on exile in the francophone world; Wayne Johnstons text on the pitfalls of history; and Joseph Boydens considerations on place, citizenry, exclusion, and social oppression. Together these lectures offer a portrait of the diversity and vitality of Canadian culture in the early twenty-first century. They illuminate how the work of the author, perhaps today more than ever, is a public endeavour that plays an active role in the evolution of society. The authors in the Henry Kreisel Lecture Series speak to all of us. Some are explicitly attached to the Canadian landscape and experience, others find their inspiration elsewhere. But they all share a concern about what it means to live in a world where borders have become increasingly mobile and intangible. The book you hold in your hands is the latest addition to this exceptional collection of cutting-edge literary thought in Canada.

The Henry Kreisel Lecture Series was founded to honour the memory of a foremost Canadian intellectual. Author, University Professor and Officer of the Order of Canada, Henry Kreisel was born in Vienna into a Jewish family in 1922. He left his homeland for England in 1938 and was interned in Canada for eighteen months during the Second World War. After studying at the University of Toronto, he began teaching in 1947 at the University of Alberta, and served as chair of English from 1961 until 1970. He served as Vice-President (Academic) from 1970 to 1975, and was named University Professor in 1975, the highest academic award bestowed on faculty members by the University of Alberta. Professor Kreisel was an inspiring and beloved teacher who taught generations of students to love literature and was one of the first people to incorporate the immigrant experience to modern Canadian literature. He died in Edmonton in 1991. His works include two novels, The Rich Man (1948) and The Betrayal (1964), and a collection of short stories, The Almost Meeting (1981). His internment diary, alongside critical essays on his writing, appears in Another Country: Writings by and about Henry Kreisel (1985).

The generosity of Professor Kreisels teaching at the University of Alberta and his influence on modern Canadian literature inspires the CLC in its public outreach, research pursuits, and continued commitment to the ever-growing richness of Canadian literatures. The Centre embraces Henry Kreisels no less than revolutionary focus on the knowledge of ones own literature. The CLC advocates for understanding the complicated and difficult world that informs Canadian writing, a world that can be simultaneously bettered and transformed by such works.

DANIEL LAFOREST

Director, Canadian Literature Centre

Edmonton, February 2014

Les confrences Kreisel constituent lvnement le plus en vue du Centre de littrature canadienne. La premire dentre elles a eu lieu en 2007, dans la foule de la cration du CLC lanne prcdente grce au don directeur du bibliophile illustre edmontonien, le docteur Eric Schloss. Chaque anne depuis, le retour du printemps est devenu synonyme de ces confrences trs populaires offertes par certains des plus illustres et talentueux auteurs au pays. Lvnement incarne au mieux la mission du CLC puisque sy runissent lecteurs, crivains, tudiants, professeurs, et membres des diverses communauts de Edmonton autour dune passion partage pour une culture vivante, mouvante, et traverse par des questionnements cruciaux.