Scandalous Bodies

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"Scandalous Bodies" is an impassioned scholarly study of literature by diasporic writers and the contexts of its production. It addresses topics such as the Canadian government's multiculturalism policy, media representations of minority groups, the relationship between realist fiction and history, and postmodern constructions of ethnicity. Smaro Kamboureli refrains from offering neat solutions to the issues she explores. Instead of adhering to a single reading method or systematic argument, she allows the texts and socio-cultural contexts to shape her analysis. Methodological concerns and the need for reevaluation emerge as a recurring theme throughout the work. The study is theoretically rigorous and historically situated, emphasizing close reading that reveals the text's construction rather than treating it as an isolated entity. Kamboureli employs a self-reflexive approach she terms negative pedagogy, which involves learning and unlearning the processes of knowledge production, thus avoiding a linear narrative of progress. Her critique of Canadian multiculturalism, which she describes as promoting "sedative politics," and her analysis of the epistemologies of ethnicity that influenced early ethnic anthologies in Canada provide a backdrop for her examination of the diverse discourses shaping the diasporic experience in Canada. First published in 2000, the work received the Gabrielle Roy Prize for Canadian Criticism.