"Scandalous Bodies is an impassioned scholarly study both of literature by diasporic writers and of the contexts within which it is produced. Smaro Kamboureli explores topics ranging from the Canadian government's multiculturalism policy to media representations of cultural minorities, from the relationship between realist fiction and history to postmodern constructions of ethnicity, from the theories of the philosopher Charles Taylor to the cultural responsibilities of diasporic critics like herself. Kamboureli proposes no neat or comforting solutions to the problems she raises. If her study offers any definitive answers, they are to be found in her method of reading, which reveals the fluid nature of ethnicity and, by extension, the pitfalls of political orthodoxies."--BOOK JACKET.