By Mike McNeney
Jack Hodgins has some explaining to do as he stands before a group of European academics gathered this weekend (Nov. 13-15) at the University of Strasbourg in France to dissect the "invented traditions" of Canadian, Irish and Scottish literature.
Hodgins--UVic writing professor and author of Spit Delaney's Island, The Invention of the World and an upcoming novel set in a pioneer community of Canadian World War One veterans&emdash;is the lone writer addressing the three-day conference which features papers on his work as well as that of Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley and Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, among others.
The conference focuses on the differences between traditional literature and the stories created outside the so-called centres of the literary world.
But Hodgins says a writer's nationality is never as important as the presentation of the story's characters.
"I could not write about my characters if I didn't believe that they, like the real people around me, live at the centre of their/my universe, with much in common with people everywhere," Hodgins said before leaving for France. "I will of course, in passing, make reference to the fact that the topic is very Euro-centric."
Hodgins will talk and give short readings from his novel-in-progress to explain how research, memory and imagination drive the writing process and how it relates to the conference theme.
The Strasbourg conference is another indication of the growing appetite for Canadian literature in Europe. Hodgins and fellow Writing faculty member Lorna Crozier were among 10 Canadian writers fêted by the French Ministry of Culture's "Les Belles Etrangeres" last year. Professors W.D. Valgardson and Margaret Hollingsworth also make occasional trips overseas as guests of reading festivals and conferences.
Hodgins feels conferences that place a writer's work under the academic microscope offer a special kind of feedback, particularly at European events.
"A professor told me after I'd done a reading to close a conference, 'You were a living reminder of what this whole thing has been about.' When I go to these things I tend to think of myself as 'exhibit A or B' or whatever," Hodgins said. "It's gratifying to meet and talk with critics who take your work so very seriously and with such enthusiasm&emdash;and in a manner that strikes me as very different from anything you get at home in Canada, or even in my favourite 'cousin' country Australia."