Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who must make their way in the world without any place to call their own. The irreducible complexity of the very idea of home is especially at issue in the stories Gallant has written about Montreal, where she was born, although she has lived in Paris for more than half a century. Varieties of Exile, Russell Banks's extensive new selection from Gallant's work, demonstrates anew the remarkable reach of this writer's singular art. Among its contents are three previously uncollected stories, as well as the celebrated semi-autobiographical sequence about Linnet Muir—stories that are wise, funny, and full of insight into the perils and promise of growing up and breaking loose.

Isolation, remoteness from one's native land, and the loss of language are but a few of the themes that recur in the literature of exile written over the centuries. In this book, the first study of the theme of exile in Canadian literature, Hallvard Dahlie brings together a broad spectrum of Canadian writers -- writers from the Old World who have become exiles to Canada, but also Canadians who have exiled themselves for varying periods from Canada.

Mavis Gallant has been described by Michael Ondaatje as «one of the great short story writers of our time.» Since 1950, her short stories and novels have commanded the interest of readers in North America and Europe alike. Varieties of Exile: New Essays on Mavis Gallant approaches her work from a variety of perspectives, with particular emphasis on the key role that irony plays in her writings. The contributors include some of the world's leading authorities on Gallant, as well as her finest translators. This book features a discussion of the issues involved in translating Gallant's prose from English to French. In a question and answer session, Mavis Gallant speaks about her art, reminisces about some events in her life, and reflects on the workings of memory.

The different contributions of this body of work attemp to demonstrate that the concept of diaspora (exile) has acquired a renewed currency among scholars by examining that to be in exile, at least in some way, is to live a disjoint life. Thus, to live in exileor diaspora implies to take up the difficult task of kee-ping one`s dignity and one ́s story, despite the on slaught of a colonial power. The relationship with a past, often through stories of the mother/land or through remembrance and (re)creation, becomes a means of survival. Futhermore, the sense (or absence) of community, and the positioning in language generate an ever more complex and dialogic definition of Canadian and American nationalities and identities.

The Literature of Emigration and Exile is a collection of works from various writers that explore the literature of emigration and exile. These writers examine poetic, fictional, and biographical voices from settings such as Turkey, renaissance Italy, modern Spain, Central and South America, Eastern Europe, China, Canada, and elsewhere.

Mavis Gallant has been a leading literary figure in Canada since her first short story, published in 1951, and has grown to be considered internationally as a modern master of the genre. Her writing is nuanced, sensitive, gifted, deep and concise. She leaves everything open for the hidden potential that can always be discovered. Times change; society, history, politics may develop out of recognition. Cultures metamorphose. Literary landscapes and theories are renewed. But the classics of our time stay where they are, pillars of that which is solidly about us. Mavis Gallant's work is of that calibre: her writing will remain interesting and relevant no matter what else happens. This book is an exploration of what Gallant's readers are thinking now: where they place her in the panorama of literature and what meaning she has for them now. Scholars continue to probe into the stories, their characters, the capsules of history they present, and continue to find them challenging. As with Shakespeare, no amount of scrutiny will yield the final answer. That is how complex Gallant's writing is. Especially now, when the positioning of her characters is a more prominent condition in general, we need to review Gallant's artistic insights. As Francine Prose says in Harper's Magazine: Gallant's cast of characters are a "motley assortment of refugees, fugitives, and travelers" and "displaced persons scrambling on the margins of a society they will never belong to." This is the modern condition. As with other great writers, Gallant shows herself to be prophetic in cutting down to the roots of the sensibility of our era. We are reading her work, and we are thinking about it and talking about it. This book is part of that large conversation. Contributors are: Neil Besner, Di Brandt, Nicole Côté, John Lent, Gerald Lynch, Maria Noëlle Ng, Peter Stevens, Simone Vauthier, Per Winther.

Using detailed studies of fifteen exiled royal figures, the role of Exile in European Society and in the evolution of national cultures is examined. From the Jacobite court to the exiled Kings' of Hanover, the book provides an alternative history of monarchical power from the 16th to 20th century.