Carol Shields is a well-known, award-winning Canadian author.
Wait a minute! She was born in the United States! In fact, her novel
The Stone Diaries won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, an award which is only awarded to citizens of the States.
Is her work Canadian literature? She has lived in this country for more than 25 years.
Jack Whyte's Arthurian series of fantasy novels, most recently
Uther, has sold many thousands of books around the world. He lives in British Columbia. And he has the most wonderful Scottish accent you have ever heard.
Is his work Canadian literature? His writing career has been almost totally based in Canada, even though he was not born here.
The late, esteemed Mordecai Richler spent a good part of every year in London, where no doubt he did some writing. No one would ever consider his work not to be Canadian literature, even though he was not based in the country full-time.
Young poet and novelist Karen Connelly, born in Calgary, now lives abroad, when she is not visiting her family on this side of the world. She has lived in Greece, Thailand and other exotic locales. Her immersions into different countries and cultures has been an underlying factor in much of her work.
Is it Canadian literature? Let me pose another question: is it
not Canadian to write from the perspective of being a Canadian outside of the Canadian borders? (That was a rhetorical question, in case anyone was wondering).
Is it a question of citizenship? Birthplace? Subject matter?
Then again, why must we feel compelled to put borders on Canadian literature? There may be a border on the country, but certainly not on our creativity. Canada is a cosmopolitan society with many immigrants who call this land their home. And yes, Canadians also leave to live abroad, usually either for work or adventure. Our writers are a slice of life and fall into both categories.
We can't all be W. O. Mitchell and write about growing up in a particular province or region of Canada. This is just simply not in all of our experiences. And it would make for an extremely boring, redundant body of work.
Just like there is more to Canada as a country than beavers and the R.C.M.P., so also should our writers reflect so much more than can be bound by borders.
