Figuring grief : Gallant, Munro and the poetics of elegy / Karen E. Smythe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smythe, Karen, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grief in literature.

Gallant, Mavis--Criticism and interpretation.

Gallant, Mavis.

Munro, Alice, 1931-2024--Criticism and interpretation.

Munro, Alice.

Physical Description:

x, 213 p. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Gallant, Munro and the poetics of elegy

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1992.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The title, Figuring Grief, refers to the narrative process whereby mourning is depicted. In her textual analysis, Smythe explores various connections between representation and consolation. Drawing on genre and narratological theory, she outlines the development of the "fiction-elegy" as a sub-genre and suggests that the modernist writings of Woolf and Joyce are paradigmatic examples of the form. She then uses these paradigms as suggestive "reading models" for the interpretation of works by Gallant, Munro, and other contemporary fiction-elegists. Figuring Grief offers new readings of specific works and suggests that new ways of reading are both demanded and rewarded by a poetics of elegy.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Towards a Theory of Fiction-Elegy

Gallant’s Sad Stories

Gallant and the Ethics of Reading

Munro and Modern Elegy

Munrovian Melancholy

Forms of Loss: Contemporary Fiction-Elegy

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [195]-207) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85611-1

9786612856112

0-7735-6361-X

OCLC:

929121147