The Language Ghosts
p. 323
Texte intégral
When they died and I was continents away—when I walked through their empty house and packed their things—I saw the language ghosts. I saw the words everywhere in all the rooms. Unspoken words. Misspoken words. A turn of phrase I’d failed to grasp. An insult I could easily have turned aside, but helped deliver to its mark, thinking honesty was best. Did you know that words have fingers? They cling to you. They grasp your shirt sleeves as you try to move aside. They huddle miserably in corners, afraid to come forward; or they assault you in great washes of sentences, making you stumble or drown. So that you struggle to the surface, breathing in great gulps of air, as though you never tasted breath before. I saw them there. The language ghosts. I know now what my mother feared in all those empty rooms. And though I’ve sold the house and travelled to another world, I hear them still.
Auteur
University of Notre Dame, Sydney (Australia). Keynote speaker.
Gerry Turcotte is Professor of English and Executive Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Notre Dame, Australia.
He is the author and editor of numerous publications including Jack Davis: The Maker of History (Harper Collins), Writers in Action (Currency), Masks, Tapestries, Journeys (CRITACS), Canada Australia: Towards a Second Century of Partnership with Kate Burridge and Lois Foster (Carleton University Press), Compr(om)ising Post/colonialisms: Challenging Narratives & Practices, with Greg Ratcliffe (Dangaroo) and Canadian Literature & the Postcolonial Gothic with Cynthia Sugars (forthcoming, Wilfrid Laurier Press).
His creative writing includes three collections of poetry: Neighbourhood of Memory (Dangaroo), Winterlude (Brandl & Schlesinger) and Hauntings: the ‘Varuna’ Poems (Five Islands Press). His novel, Flying in Silence, was published in Canada and in Australia and was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year in 2001. His most recent creative work is Border Crossings: Words & Images (Brandl & Schlesinger).
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