Finding light in cultural darkness

Author and publisher Antonio D'Alfonso gets on with politics in his latest book

Antonio D'Alfonso dreams of a pluri-cultural society, where ethnic communities exist on their own, linked to each other but basically living separately. "The future of any country is in a federation of culture," he explains, "with no centralization of government or culture." This provocative idea is he believes a lost dream, which he laments in Getting on with Politics, his latest collection of poetry. It will be released at Exile Editions' fall launch on Sunday, September 8 at Bar Italia.
Sharing the bill with D'Alfonso are John Barlow with ASHINEoVSUN, Bruce Meyer with The Spirit Bride, Neal McDevitt with One Day, Even Trevi Will Crumble: Stories, Joe Rosenblatt with Parrot Fever and Stephen Zeifman with Peripheral Vision. The launch also celebrates the reprint edition of Morley Callaghan's memoir That Summer in Paris.
Getting on with Politics presents private worlds where peace is interrupted by external societal assaults, which are sometimes horrific. In "Humewood Drive," a father's pastoral home life soon shifts to a frightening existence where he is assailed by a military presence. Class differences and assumptions are also explored. In the short and affecting poem "Saki," the reader feels punched in the gut by the callousness of a young woman to a farmer.
Born in Montreal in 1953 to parents from Molise, Italy, D'Alfonso was educated in English but grew up also speaking French and Italian. He has a degree in Communication Arts from Loyola College and an M. Sc. in Communications Studies from Université de Montréal.
In 1978 he founded Guernica Editions, where he has edited over 100 works by authors from around the world. In 1982 he co-founded Vice Versa, a trilingual magazine in Montreal. He has often lectured on literature, film and multiculturalism in Canada and also in Europe and the United States. He has written several collections of poetry, novels and essays, including L'autre rivage, In Italics: In Defense of Ethnicity, and Fabrizio's Passion. The French language companion to Getting on with Politics, Comment ça se passe, was a finalist in the 2002 Trillium Book Awards.
In the 1970s and 80s D'Alfonso was active on the Quebec political scene, a passionate voice on the meaning of multiculturalism, a discourse he feels has never truly gone on in English Canada. Since moving to Toronto in 1992 he has become more convinced of this. The main reason for avoidance of the issue he sees is the pervasiveness of ambition in this culture, for money and success.
D'Alfonso is pessimistic about his vision of multiculturalism in this society. "It's over," he explains. "I think we are in a moment of extreme nationalism. I've lost the war." He believes that least another 50 years must pass before things will really change and different ethnic communities will have a true voice in society not filtered or softened by the prevalent culture.
Not that he believes that ethnicity must be explicitly spelled out to achieve this. Unlike in some of his other works, in which D'Alfonso felt he was "screaming" his Italian heritage, he here takes a quieter approach. "I think my Italian filters out," he offers. "It took 12 years to write and I hope I have achieved something worthwhile." His Italian background colours the work; as does a lifetime of shaped by it, Montreal and disillusion in Toronto.
The war he speaks of may be lost on a community level but not on a personal one. The poetry in Getting on with Politics shows people surviving, "getting on" in spite of the politics that they swim in. A poem to his daughter, "Elisa and Politics," beautifully exemplifies this. The intimate scenes exposed in the poetry have a power. The words are moving and thoughtful, painting often arresting images.
Exile Editions' Fall Launch 2002 will be at Bar Italia, 582 College Street, on Sunday, December 8, beginning at 2:00 p.m.

Publication Date: 2002-12-01
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