"Trading magic for fact", fact for magic : myth and mythologizing in postmodern Canadian historical fiction / Marc Colavincenzo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colavincenzo, Marc, 1968-

Series:

Cross/cultures ; 67.

Cross Cultures ; 67

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical fiction, Canadian--History and criticism.

Historical fiction, Canadian.

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

Canadian fiction.

Physical Description:

xxii, 239 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; New York, NY : Rodopi, 2003.

Summary:

This study brings together three major areas of interest - history, postmodern fiction, and myth. Whereas neither history and postmodern fiction nor history and myth are strangers to one another, postmodernism and myth are odd bedfellows. For many critics, postmodern thought with its resistance to metanarratives stands in direct and deliberate contrast to myth with its apparent tendency to explain the world by means of neat, complete narratives. There is a strain of postmodern Canadian historical fiction in which myth actually forms a complement not only to postmodernism's suspicion of master-narratives but also to its privileging of those marginal and at times ignored areas of history. The fourteen works of Canadian fiction considered demonstrate a doubled impulse which at first glance seems contradictory.

Contents:

1 Historical Discourse as Myth 1

Mythologies and Historical Discourse 1

Constructing the Myth of Historical Discourse 13

Objectivity 13

What Really Happened! 19

Selection

This is Worth Being Told 26

Historical Discourse as Nature 38

2 "Trading Magic for Fact": Postmodern Historical Fiction 43

Limiting the Term "Postmodern Historical Fiction" 43

Mythologies and Postmodern Historical Fiction 48

Deconstructing the Myth of Historical Discourse 55

Subjectivity 55

What Really Happened? 62

What Else is Worth Being Told? 68

Historical Discourse as Constructed 77

3 Trading Fact for Magic: Mythologizing History in Postmodern Historical Fiction 85

Myth Versus Mythologizing 86

Mythologizing History

Forms and Techniques 99

4 Mythologizing History in Postmodern Canadian Historical Fiction 107

Mythic Patterning 107

Keeping the Myth Alive 132

"Magicking the Real" 159

The Ordinary and the Extraordinary 184.

Notes:

Originally presented as the authors thesis (Justus Liebig University).

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9042009365

9042009268

OCLC:

52746798