The displaced cosmopolitan: Canadian nationality and world citizenship in the fiction of Mavis Gallant

Abstract

Problematic notions of Canadian identity in the work of Mavis Gallant provide an entry point into current debates on the topic of cosmopolitanism, and begin to challenge dominant modes of postcolonial and multiculturalism theory. Depictions of the cosmopolitan in her work reveal a spectrum of representation and experience, from euphoric visions of shared humanity to more complex pictures of global citizenship. The clear challenge that her work presents for literary theory and comparative study is to understand lives and ideas less settled in one culture or another.