A Tale of Monstrous Extravagance: Imagining Multilingualism

By Tomson Highway and Christine Sokaymoh Frederik

From his legendary birth in a snow bank in northwestern Manitoba, through his metamorphosis to citizen-artist of the world, playwright, pianist, polyglot, storyteller, and irreverent disciple of the Trickster, Tomson Highway rides roughshod through the languages and communities that have shaped him. Cree, Dene, Latin, French, English, Spanish, and the universal language of music have opened windows and widened horizons in Highway’s life. Readers who can hang on tight—Highway fans, culture mavens, cunning linguists, and fellow tricksters—will experience the profundity of Highway’s humour, for as he says, “In Cree, you will laugh until you weep.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: The University of Alberta Press
• Release date: Jun 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781772120691

Tomson Highway

TOMSON HIGHWAY is a Cree author, playwright, and musician. His memoir, Permanent Astonishment, won the 2021 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. He also wrote the plays The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, and the bestselling novel Kiss of the Fur Queen. He is a member of the Barren Lands First Nation and lives in Gatineau, Quebec.

Book preview

Published by

The University of Alberta Press

Ring House 2

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada   T6G 2E1

www.uap.ualberta.ca

and

Canadian Literature Centre / Centre de littérature canadienne

3–5 Humanities Centre

University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada   T6G 2E5

www.abclc.ca

Copyright © 2015 Tomson Highway

Introduction copyright © 2015 Christine Sokaymoh Frederick

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Highway, Tomson, 1951–, author

A tale of monstrous extravagance : imagining multilingualism / Tomson Highway.

(Henry Kreisel memorial lecture series)

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77212-041-7 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-77212-071-4 (pdf).—ISBN 978-1-77212-069-1 (epub).—ISBN 978-1-77212-070-7 (kindle)

1. Multilingualism and literature. 2. Language and culture. 3. Highway, Tomson, 1951—Anecdotes. I. Canadian Literature Centre, issuing body II. Title. III. Series: Henry Kreisel lecture series

First edition, first printing, 2015.

First electronic edition, 2015.

Digital conversion by Transforma Pvt. Ltd.

Copyediting by Peter Midgley.

Cover design by Alan Brownoff.

Cover photo: Jorge Cueto. Used by permission.

The Cree language feedback for the Highway lecture was provided by Solomon Ratt of First Nations University, William Dumas of Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre, and Arden Ogg of the Cree Literacy Network.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written consent. Contact the University of Alberta Press for further details.

The Canadian Literature Centre acknowledges the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for the Henry Kreisel Lecture delivered by Tomson Highway in March 2014 at the University of Alberta.

The University of Alberta Press gratefully acknowledges the support received for its publishing program from The Canada Council for the Arts. The University of Alberta Press also gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Government of Alberta through the Alberta Media Fund (AMF) for its publishing activities.

FOREWORD

The CLC Kreisel Lecture

In this event we come together, listen with more than our ears, remove blinders and become part of the celebration, expand our thinking and feeling of inclusion, and build relationships.

—CHRISTINE SOKAYMOH FREDERICK[1]

THE FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVE of the Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture Series could not be better summarized. This series realizes most fully the Canadian Literature Centre’s mission: to bring together authors, readers, students, researchers and teachers in an open, inclusive and critical forum. Kreisel lecturers already include Joseph Boyden, Wayne Johnston, Dany Laferrière, Eden Robinson, Annabel Lyon, Lawrence Hill, Esi Edugyan, and now the awe-inspiring showman par excellence, Tomson Highway. Take the fine points about social oppression, cultural identities and sense of place by Boyden, or Johnston’s reflection on the tumultuous encounter of history and fiction. Consider with Laferrière both the pains of exile and the joys of migrancy, or the personal and communal ethics of Aboriginal storytelling that Robinson presents. Antiquity and the present come together through Lyon’s lecture about the creative process of historical fiction. Hill