Voices of Exile in Contemporary Canadian Francophone Literature

Over the last four decades, the largest French-speaking state in North America, QuZbec, has nested more than a dozen vibrant modes of French expression created by members of the varied cultural communities that have settled there. Voices of Exile in Contemporary Canadian Francophone Literature examines the works of several first-generation Canadian authors originating from Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and the Maghreb, who produced a trilingual literature that reflects the diversity of their cultural backgrounds. By casting a critical eye on the works of Saad Elkhadem, Naim Kattan, Abla Farhoud, Wajdi Mouawad, and HZdi Bouraoui, F. Elizabeth Dahab explores themes, styles, and structures that characterize the oeuvre of those authors. Dahab demonstrates that their mode is exile, and in so doing, she reveals the ways in which these writers seek to shape their art, using a host of innovative techniques that engage their renewed cultural identity.

Voices of Exile is a ground-breaking study of Arab-Canadian writing and opens up a new, exciting arena in Canadian literary studies. Elizabeth Dahab's pioneering work highlights the history of Arab immigrants' contribution to the literary map of Canada., F. Elizabeth Dahab has written an informative, ambitious book which should serve as an admirable introduction to works of the 'other' Canadians, writers of North African and Middle Eastern origin who have produced a burgeoning literature in French, English, or Arabic . . . This book is warmly recommended as an introduction to a group of writers who are symptomatic of a global, universalizing potential which is usually inadequately recognized in Canada., Dahab's choice of writers provides diversity in genres, topics and expression. The volume is marked by solid research and analysis. Recommended., The originality of this monograph resides in the bringing together of corpuses traditionally thought of as distinct. . . . Elizabeth Dahab's work also has the merit of underscoring points of convergence. . . . Dahab's work makes us rethink our notions of belonging —, those places in which are inscribed works that are not only far from being marginal but also beg important questions related to identity and literary filiations., In this compelling study, Professor F. Elizabeth Dahab explores the works of five Canadian writers, all of whom come from the Arab world. Her analysis forcefully brings out the impact of exile, whether it was chosen or forced, on their writing. Displacement leads to a specific relationship to words, the ultimate locus of reterritorialization, when both space and past are irremediably lost. These writers thus interweave the echoes of their histories within modern Canadian literature, inscribing it with their own marks. Such a book has been long awaited. It undoubtedly opens new perspectives.

F. Elizabeth Dahab is professor of comparative literature at California State University, Long Beach.