Tomson Highway - A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance: Imagining Multilingualism

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.abclc.ca

Copyright 2015 Tomson Highway

Introduction copyright 2015 Christine Sokaymoh Frederick

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Highway, Tomson, 1951, author

A tale of monstrous extravagance : imagining multilingualism / Tomson Highway.

(Henry Kreisel memorial lecture series)

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77212-041-7 (pbk.).ISBN 978-1-77212-071-4 (pdf).ISBN 978-1-77212-069-1 (epub).ISBN 978-1-77212-070-7 (kindle)

1. Multilingualism and literature. 2. Language and culture. 3. Highway, Tomson, 1951Anecdotes. I. Canadian Literature Centre, issuing body II. Title. III. Series: Henry Kreisel lecture series

First edition, rst printing, 2015.

First electronic edition, 2015.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Copyediting by Peter Midgley.

Cover design by Alan Brownoff.

Cover photo: Jorge Cueto. Used by permission.

The Cree language feedback for the Highway lecture was provided by Solomon Ratt of First Nations University, William Dumas of Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, and Arden Ogg of the Cree Literacy Network.

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 Tomson Highway in March 2014 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 Media Fund (AMF) for its publishing activities.

FOREWORD

The CLC Kreisel Lecture

In this event we come together, listen with more than our ears, remove blinders and become part of the celebration, expand our thinking and feeling of inclusion, and build relationships.

CHRISTINE SOKAYMOH FREDERICK

THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE of the Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture Series could not be better summarized. This series realizes most fully the Canadian Literature Centres mission: to bring together authors, readers, students, researchers and teachers in an open, inclusive and critical forum. Kreisel lecturers already include Joseph Boyden, Wayne Johnston, Dany Laferrire, Eden Robinson, Annabel Lyon, Lawrence Hill, Esi Edugyan, and now the awe-inspiring showman par excellence , Tomson Highway. Take the fine points about social oppression, cultural identities and sense of place by Boyden, or Johnstons reflection on the tumultuous encounter of history and fiction. Consider with Laferrire both the pains of exile and the joys of migrancy, or the personal and communal ethics of Aboriginal storytelling that Robinson presents. Antiquity and the present come together through Lyons lecture about the creative process of historical fiction. Hill invokes the need for an informed conversation about book censorship. And in these pages, Highway makes a compelling argument for the truly liberating, and joy-giving, aspects of knowing other and others languages , including, if not foremost, the language of music.

The lectures in the Kreisel series confront questions that concern us all in the specificity of our contemporary experience, whatever our differences. In the spirit of free and honest dialogue, they do so with thoughtfulness and depth as well as with humour and elegance, all of which characterize, in one way or another, the eight incredibly talented writers featured so far.

These public lectures set out to honour Professor Henry Kreisels legacy in an annual public forum. 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 scholarly award bestowed on its 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 bring the experience of the immigrant 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 profoundly inspires the CLC in its public outreach, research pursuits, and continued commitment to the ever-growing richness and diversity of Canadas writings. The Centre embraces Henry Kreisels no less than pioneering focus on the knowledge of ones own literatures. The CLC pursues a better understanding of a complicated and difficult world, which literature can reimagine and transform.

The Canadian Literature Centre was established in 2006, thanks to the leadership gift of the noted Edmontonian bibliophile, Dr. Eric Schloss.

MARIE CARRIRE

Director, Canadian Literature Centre

Edmonton, August 2014

LIMINAIRE

Les confrences Kreisel du CLC

loccasion de cet vnement, nous nous runissons, nous coutons avec plus que nos oreilles, nous retirons nos illres et nous nous intgrons la fte, nous enrichissons notre pense et notre sentiment dinclusion, et nous crons des relations.

CHRISTINE SOKAYMOH FREDERICK

ON NE SAURAIT PAS MIEUX SYNTHTISER les objectifs essentiels de la Srie des Confrences Henry Kreisel. Cette srie ralise tout au mieux la mission du Centre de littrature canadienne: celle de runir auteurs, lecteurs, tudiants, chercheurs et professeurs dans un forum ouvert, inclusif et critique. Parmi les confrenciers de la srie Kreisel lon peut dj compter Joseph Boyden, Wayne Johnston, Dany Laferrire, Eden Robinson, Annabel Lyon, Lawrence Hill, Esi Edugyan, et dsormais limpressionnant showman par excellence, Tomson Highway. Pensons aux fines observations de Boyden sur loppression sociale, les identits culturelles et le lieu; ou la rflexion de Johnston sur la rencontre tumultueuse de lhistoire et la fiction. Tenons compte avec Laferrire des preuves de lexil et des joies de la migrance; ou de lthique personnelle et communautaire du rcit autochtone que nous prsente Robinson. Lantiquit et le prsent se runissent dans la confrence de Lyon au sujet du mode cratif de la fiction historique. Hill plaide le besoin dune conversation informe sur la censure des livres. Et dans les pages qui suivent, Highway dfend de manire captivante lapprentissage librateur et heureux dautres langues, de la langue des autres , y compris le langage de la musique.