Neither Here Nor There: Redirecting the Homeward Gaze in Nino Ricci's 'Lives of the Saints', 'in a Glass House' and Where She Has Gone (Critical Essay‪)‬

ABSTRACT/RESUME This paper argues that Nino Ricci's trilogy moves beyond the nostalgia for an originary home and expresses instead a nostalgia for origins in a new home--for origins in Canada rather than Italy. Ricci uses his trilogy to refute the myth of a homogenous Canadian identity by giving voice to the experiences, both personal and communal, of Italians in Canada. The trilogy explores the complex process of forging an authenticating mythology that will allow Italian migrants and their descendants to add their stories to Canada's national narrative while establishing their place in the nation. Ricci offers, however, no definitive conclusions, for the trilogy ends in a liminal space that reveals his own ambivalence toward the very kind of myth-making strategy in which he engages.