SO RANDY KNOWS ABOUT NORTHERN PROVINCE?

Ishara Jayawardane

Professor Randy Boyagoda, Chair of the English Department and Associate Professor of American studies at Ryerson, is on Artscope hot seat. Most reluctant to talk about himself at length, he nevertheless conjures an image of one of those professors we love so much during the day we were students.

Randy Boyagoda

A classroom bathed in morning sunlight with dust motes swirling in the air and the room filled with the fresh smell of wood.

Professor Boyagoda, a family man, somber and calm, faces a class room with students from all walks of life, hanging on to every word he says engaging him in lively conversation concerning non fiction.

He is the difference between making the grade. What did he teach today? The Great American writers? Mark Twain? Jack London? Ah what it would be to sit in one of his classes!

Q: What appeals to you most about teaching young people?

A: I find teaching to be engaging and stimulating because of the ways in which it reveals books and ideas to me in new ways.

I won't traffic in any violin-song cliches about learning from my students as much as they learn from me.

Instead, I'll say that the very act of articulating how and why a book matters for young people, who are variously interested, bored, and hostile to the idea of reading serious literature, is a great opportunity to form and challenge them in their development as self-aware individuals and thoughtful contributors to public life, while also clarifying many of my own ideas and meanings about books, ideas, and culture.

Q: You do courses on the politics of the American novel and literary non- fiction. From where does this interest come from ? What made you interested in this field?

A: I've always been fascinated by American literature and culture because of its open-endedness. I'll explain.

We often hear about the 'American Experiment,' meaning, the future course of the United States isn't already set by its past, or something Americans largely agree upon.

While this situation may the case in any number of countries, I think Americans respond to this open-endedness in particularly creative and competitive ways, and American literature and culture both reflect and advance this lively feature of American civilization.

Q: How challenging is it being the Chair of the English Department and Associate professor of American studies at Ryerson?

A: I enjoy the combination of teaching, research and administrative work afforded by my current position, and the challenges inherent to this kind of work are mitigated by the generosity and support of my excellent colleagues (and yes I wrote that in case they come across this interview on line).

Q: Tell me a little bit about your teaching career. Why did you decide to enter the field of education? and why did you pick Ryerson as a place to work at?

A: My father my aunt, my sisters - all teachers. You could say it's running in the family. My interests in literature and culture obviously are based as much on writing as they are on teaching, and these elements integrate ideally for me as a university professor.

Ryerson picked me, and I'm glad it did! As a Toronto native then working in the United States, I was glad to come home, and Ryerson is a dynamic place to be, a rare institution that encourages its faculty to match traditional forms of teaching learning, and publishing with innovative approaches to the very same.

Q: You are a Canadian writer and critic, best known for your novels Governor of the Northern Province (2006) and Beggar's Feast (2011). What was the inspiration for these books and how do you feel about them?

A: I am proud of the work I've done to date, and grateful for the critical attention and popular acclaim my books have received. My first novel, Governor, was inspired by a news item about an African warlord who happened to have been a disco dancer earlier in his life.

I was struck by this unexpected combination and decided to imagine what his life would be like if he immigrated to Canada and started afresh. Beggar's Feast was inspired by a combination of elements, including a rather dark story from my extended family's past, and also by the works of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. I'd say more, but I'd rather readers discover the story for themselves!

Q: Have you written any other books in addition to these? What are they and how do you feel about them?

A: I've written one academic monograph, about representations of immigrants and U.S. identity in the fiction of Salman Rushdie. Ralph Ellison, and William Faulkner. It was published in 2008. I am pleased by the response to date from the scholarly community. Right now, I am working on a biography of the Catholic priest and American public intellectual Richard John Neuhaus, which will be published in 2014.

Q: Have you won any awards? If so what do they mean to you?

A: Both of my novels have been nominated for prizes - the Scotia Bank Giller Prize, a Canadian award, for Governor, and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize, an international award (with the nomination coming from the Colombo Public Library, with much thanks). Prizes generate attention for books, and I've been grateful, as such, for the new readers my prize nominations have made possible.

Q: What do you feel about your cultural roots? Because I know your parents immigrated to Canada from Sri Lanka in 1967?

A: I am grateful for my Sri Lankan heritage, though I was raised largely according to a strict logic of assimilation to suburban Canadian life.

This meant that when I began to explore Sri Lankan life and culture in a more substantial way, as a writer, I could do so from a more intellectually mature position than may have otherwise been possible.

Q: What is most challenging for you in your field of work? And do you practise any other profession ?

A: Having four kids, a full-time academic job, and a full-time writer's job is challenging enough. I don't practice any other professions, and my wife is very grateful for that.

Q: What are your future plans?

A: More of the same.