Untitled

LATVIJAS UNIVERSITÂTES RAKSTI. 2004. 666. sçj.: LITERATÛRZINÂTNE, FOLKLORISTIKA,
MÂKSLA, 158.–163. lpp.
Bordercrossings in Janice Kulyk–Keefer’s Novel
“Honey and Ashes”
Robeþpârejas Dþenisas Kuïikas–Kîferes românâ
“Medus un pelni”
Edgars Oðiòð (Latvia)
Department of Literature and Culture,
Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Latvia
Visvalza 4a, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia
e–mail: edosin@lanet.lv
The book Honey and Ashes published in 1998 by the Canadian writer of Ukrainian and Polish
origin, literary critic and university professor J.Kulik–Keefer is devoted to the investigation of
a family history and ethnic roots. In order to write a family history the author has not only to
write down the stories of grandparents but also to read books on history, to investigate geography
maps and archive materials. During this process the author has to cross borders between
countries, between the present and the past, the imagination and the reality and to overcome
language barriers. Though the village by the name of Staromisczyna (in translation – the Old
Place) still exists in the place where it has been for hundreds of years everything in it has
changed and there is no possibility to visit the past. Travels in imagination and visits to the
archives in the Ukraine and Poland discover new discrepancies and tragic events in the lives
of people and whole nations which previously have been hidden and not spoken about. Looking
from the transcultural point of view chosen by the author it is impossible to find a clear
cut and unambiguous answers to a large number of questions about the past or the present.
Instead of that it is necessary to try to live without the burden of past wrongdoings and biases
and not to impose one’s views on the future.
Keywords: borders, Ukrainian, Polish, Canadian, past and present, transcultural fictions.Janice
Kulyk Keefer, a second generation immigrant writer, is an outstanding representative of the
so–called hyphenated Canadians – her roots are largely Ukrainian and also Polish. She is the
author of more than ten books – poetry, fiction and criticism (Reading Mavis Galant, Under
Eastern Eyes: A Critical Reading of Canadian Maritime fiction etc.). She is also a professor
of English at Guelph University, Ontario.
The full title of the novel, published in 1998 is Honey and Ashes: A Story of
Family. The author has explored aspects of her Eastern European heritage in other,
earlier writings – a number of short stories, scholarly articles, interviews and her 1996
novel The Green Library. Keefer is also a frequent transatlantic traveller and has visited
many countries of the world. Her fiction is largely written from a transcultural
perspective, bridging different ethnic discourses, past and present, written history and
the oral tradition. Elisabeth Marald in her study of Keefer’s transcultural travels points
out that her fiction it is affirmative rather than nostalgic, “does not hide its less admirable
legacies” and brings into light and interrogates “the prejudices held by one’s
own group” 1
The transcultural topic is also conveyed by Keefer’s literary technique. By means
of different border–crossing structures, the literary discourse proves to be an alternative
means of unmasking cultural assumptions. Spiral narratives, narrative voice,