New world myth : postmodernism and postcolonialism in Canadian fiction / Marie Vautier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vautier, Marie, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canadian fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Canadian fiction.

Postmodernism (Literature)--Canada.

Postmodernism (Literature).

Canada.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 339 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1998.

Summary:

In this Comparative study of six Canadian novels Marie Vautier examines reworkings of myth in the postcolonial context. While myths are frequently used in literature as transhistorical master narratives, she argues that the novels she examines destabilize the traditional function of myth in their self-conscious reexamination of historical events from a postcolonial perspective. Through detailed readings of Francois Barcelo's La Tribu, George Bowering's Burning Water, Jacques Godbout's Les Tetes a Papineau, Joy Kogawa's Obasan, Jovette Marchessault's Comme une enfant de la terre, and Rudy Wiebe's The Scorched-Wood People, Vautier situates New World myth within the broader contexts of political history and of classical, biblical, and historical myths.

Contents:

Postmodern myth and post-European history : thematics and theory in the New World

Making myths, playing God : the narrator in Jacques Godbout's Les Tetes à Papineau and Rudy Wiebe's The Scorched-wood people

Reshaping religions, challenging cosmogonies : Jovette Marchessault's Comme une enfant de la terre and Joy Kogawa's Obasan

Magic realism and postcolonial challenges to history : George Bowering's Burning water and François Barcelo's La Tribu

Imagining myth in the New World : George Bowering's Burning Water and François Barcelo's La Tribu.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [297]-331) and index.

ISBN:

0773516697

OCLC:

43751755