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Asian Heritage in Canada
Authors
Kogawa, Joy
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Best known for her Canadian classic,
Obasan, Joy Kogawa is also a widely
anthologized poet. Born in Vancouver in 1935, she was relocated
with her Japanese Canadian family during the second world war.
Kogawa's contribution to Canadian life and letters has been
recognized by several honorary doctorates. Since 1986 she has
been a Member of the Order
of Canada, and was named to the Order of British Columbia in May 2006. Kogawa lives in Toronto. |
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Fiction
Itsuka (reissued in 2005 as: Emily Kato)
Toronto: Viking, 1992.
9th floor PS8521
.O44 I8 1992
Toronto: Penguin, 1993
9th floor PS8521
.O44 I8 1993
Publisher's Synopsis (Penguin, 1993)
In Obasan, Naomi's childhood was
torn apart by Canada's betrayal of Japanese Canadian citizens
during the 1940s. Now, years later, Naomi's scars have left
her fragile and uncertain. Quietly teaching school on the
prairies, she watches as her family slips away from her. Then
Naomi's Aunt Emily brings her to Toronto and encourages her
to become involved in the Japanese Canadian fight for redress. |
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Fiction (Juvenile)
Naomi's Road
Drawings by Matt Gould.
Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1986.
New, expanded ed.
Drawings by Ruth Ohi.
Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2005.
Publisher's Synopsis (from Fitzhenry & Whiteside website)
... Naomi’s Road is the story of a girl whose Japanese-Canadian family is uprooted during the Second World War. Separated from their parents, Naomi and her brother Stephen are sent to an internment camp in the interior of British Columbia. For the young girl growing up, war only means that she can no longer return to her home in Vancouver, or see her parents. Told from a child’s point of view and without a trace of anger or malice, Naomi’s Road has been praised as a powerful indictment of the injustice of war and the government’s treatment of Japanese-Canadian citizens, both during and well after World War II. |
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Fiction
The Rain Ascends
Toronto: Knopf Canada, 1995
9th floor PS8521
.O44 R35 1995
Publisher's Synopsis
The Rain Ascends tells the story of a woman -- the loyal,
devoted daughter of an eminent and popular minister of the
Church -- who discovers in middle age that the elderly father
she adores has abused small boys throughout his life.
Awards and Honours
1996 Ethel
Wilson Fiction Prize (Nominated) |
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Poetry
A Choice of Dreams
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974. |
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Poetry
A Garden of Anchors: Selected Poems
Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 2003.
9th floor PS8521 .O44 G37 2003
Publisher's Synopsis
This volume contains carefully selected poems from previously
published books. It also includes a number of new poems, as
well as re-writes of previously published works. |
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Poetry
Jericho Road
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
9th floor PS8521
.O44 J47 1977
Publisher's Synopsis
Whether writing of strangers or loved ones, of angst or anguish,
of tenderness or despair, Joy Kogawa achieves a powerful fusion
of images that adds special impact to her verse. These are
poems arising from a finely tuned sensibility, poems crafted
with exacting precision and weighted with emotional substance,
and solidity. Jericho Road is a
search for answers to the ancient question, "And who
is my neighbour?" |
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Poetry
A Song of Lilith
Vancouver: Polestar Book Publishers, 2000. Poem by Joy Kogawa.
Artwork by Lilian Broca.
9th floor PS8521
.O44 S62 2000
Publisher's Synopsis
According to biblical legend, Lilith and Adam were created
out of clay to be equal partners in Eden. In this wise, contemporary
and spirited retelling, Lilith flees Eden when the equality
of her partnership with Adam is shattered by his desire for
power and control. |
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Poetry
Woman in the Woods
Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 1985.
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Selected Criticism and Interpretation
Adams, Bella. "Joy Kogawa, Obasan (1981)." In her Asian American Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.
9th floor PS508 .A8 A33 2008
Beauregard, Guy Pierre. "Asian Canadian Literature: Diasporic Interventions in the Work of SKY Lee, Joy Kogawa, Hiromi Goto, and Fred Wah." Ph.D. diss., University of Alberta, 2000.
Available from Proquest Dissertations and Theses
Darias-Beautell, Eva. "Obasan:
Subject to/of Memory, Silence, (M)Others." In her Graphies
and Grafts: (Con)texts and (Inter)texts in the Fiction of
Four Contemporary Canadian Women, 29-47. Bruxelles:
P.I.E.-Peter Lang, 2001.
9th floor PS8089.5
.W6 D37 2001
Davidson, Arnold. Writing Against the Silence: Joy Kogawa's Obasan. Toronto: ECW Press, 1993.
9th floor PS8521 .O44 O23 1993
Dobson, Kit. "Multiculturalism and reconciliation in Joy Kogawa's Obasan." In Transnational Canadas: Anglo-Canadian Literature and Globalization. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009, 91-103.
9th floor PS8071 .D62 2009
Goldman, Marlene. "Broken Letters: Obasan as Traumatic Apocalyptic Testimony." In her Rewriting Apocalypse in Canadian Fiction, 128-160. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005.
9th floor PS8191.A65 G64 2005
Harris, Mason. "Joy Kogawa and Her Works." In Canadian Writers and Their Works. Fiction Series. Vol. 11, ed. Robert Lecker, Jack David and Ellen Quigley, 137-211. Toronto: ECW Press, 1996.
9th floor PS8187 .C375 v.11
Harry, Leanne Marie. "(Re)membering the Subject: The Politics of History, Memory, and Identity in Maria Campbell, Joy Kogawa, and Larissa Lai." M.A. diss., Simon Fraser University, 2000.
Available from Proquest Dissertations and Theses
Wong, Cynthia F. "Joy Kogawa." In Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson, [161]-167. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
9th floor PS153 .A84 A825 2000
Xu, Wenying. "Enjoyment and Ethnic Identity in No-No Boy and Obasan." In Eating Identities: Reading Food in Asian American Literature, 18-36. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008.
9th floor PS153 .A84 X8 2008
Yan, Qigang. "A Comparative Study of Contemporary Canadian and Chinese Women Writers." Ph.D. diss., University of Alberta, 1997.
Available from Proquest Dissertations and Theses
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Links
Penguin Group (Canada)
has information about several of Kogawa's books
Publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside
An organization is trying to save Kogawa's
childhood home in Vancouver. The site includes lots of
photographs and historical information on the Japanese-Canadian
relocation during the Second World War. Also included is a bibliography prepared by Chris Kurata. The Land Conservancy of BC has made an offer on the home and is raising funds to preserve the property.
Karin Beeler's bio-bibliography of Kogawa
Jane Evans Braziel's study guide to Obasan, "Spiritual Autobiography, Comparative Literature" on the ACLAnet website |
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