‘Singing Through the Wilderness’: Exile, Nomadic Lines of Flight and Music in Nancy Huston's Lignes de faille

Abstract

Exile is a central theme in Nancy Huston's fictional writing and her novels give voice to a range of experiences of this highly ambivalent condition. This article considers how theories of nomadism developed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari can elucidate the different expressions of exiled identity in Lignes de faille (2006). I argue that the interest which Huston, her characters and nomadic theory have in music suggest that this creative practice can facilitate the emergence of new paths, directions and nomadic lines of flight. By comparing the exiled states of two characters – Kristina and Sadie – I investigate the potential and limitations of nomadism in situations that transcend purely theoretical contexts. I consider the wider implications of the transformative potential of music and other forms of creative practice within Huston's œuvre as a whole, arguing that writing fiction is Huston's means of ‘singing through the wilderness’ of her own exiled state