Territories of Difference

Patricia Morley is professor emeritus of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University and the author of Margaret Laurence: The Long
Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Those who expect from this volume traditional essays on art, culture,
and the meaning of difference will be surprised, perhaps frustrated, and
certainly challenged. These writers intend to upset expectations and
staid parameters. “It is in and through difference that the ‘self’
is made,” writes editor Renee Baert in her introduction.

Contributors include Daina Augaitis, Marlene Nourbese Philip, Rachel
Weiss, and Gwaganad (Diane Brown). Most are familiar with the language,
or jargon, of postmodernism and poststructuralism. All are thoroughly
briefed on what the editor calls “such political and theoretical
configurations as feminism, post-colonialism, gay liberation and other
emancipatory movements.”

Cultural politics are also process. By challenging norms, by demanding
the acceptance of difference, these writers are forging new territories
of mind and spirit. New thoughts take shape in new ways of writing.
Poetry, poetic prose, and fierce juxtapositions shape the cross-cultural
dialogue. Connection is different from homogenization; the latter, these
writers argue, is “simply another word for whitewashing.”