Abstract

Spanning a century of Canadian culture, Ephemeral Territories examines the manner in which the imaginary of the nation in Canada is constructed and disseminated. Using Canada as its point of departure, the text explores the limitations and contradictions within the vocabulary of the nation-state, critically invoking the exclusive gestures inherent in the discourse of the nation. From Canadian art to Canadian cinema and literature, Ephemeral Territories negotiates the underlying cultural influences inherent in the notion of Canadian identity. Ephemeral Territories then proceeds to displace these accepted definitions of national identity by contrasting them with recent cross-cultural events that place into question the imaginary of the homogeneous nation. With the assistance of categories such as that of the home, racism, alterity, gender and ethnicity, Ephemeral Territories demonstrates how the Canadian "nation" is continually being re-invented by "immigrants" who question the parameters of the home into which they have entered. By problematizing the discourse of the home within the larger parameters of the nation-state, Ephemeral Territories allows us to imagine ways in which a re-contextualization of home-spaces encourages us to re-think the dynamics of the nation