Margaret Laurence writes Africa and Canada / Laura K. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Laura K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Laurence, Margaret--Criticism and interpretation.

Laurence, Margaret.

Criticism and interpretation.

Africa--In literature.

Africa.

Canada--In literature.

Canada.

National characteristics, African, in literature.

National characteristics, Canadian, in literature.

Decolonization in literature.

Nationalism in literature.

Physical Description:

xvi, 177 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, [2017]

Summary:

Many of the Canadian characters in Margaret Laurence's writing are divided subjects who are not quite members of their ancestral "imperial" cultures and at the same time not quite "native" to Canada. Laura K. Davis shows how Laurence and her characters negotiate complex tensions between "self" and "nation," and she argues that Laurence's African and Canadian writing demonstrates a divided Canadian subject who holds significant implications both for the individual and for Canada. Margaret Laurence Writes Africa and Canada is the first book to examine how Laurence addresses decolonization and nation building in 1950s Somalia and Ghana and in 1960s and 1970s English Canada. Focusing on Laurence's published works as well as unpublished letters not yet discussed by critics, the book articulates how Laurence and her character are poised between African colonies of occupation during decolonization and the settler-colony of English Canada during the implementation of Canadian multiculturalism. This book offers an original interpretation of Laurence's work and reveals how she displaces the simple notion that Canada is a sum total of different cultures and conceives Canada as a mosaic that is in flux and constituted through continually changing social relations. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Writing about Africa

1 Cultural Conflicts in The Prophet's Camel Bell and This Side Jordan 23

2 Toward Cross-Cultural Understanding: Africa in The Tomorrow-Tamer 45

Part 2 Writing about Canada

3 Community and the Canadian Nation in The Stone Angel and A Bird in the House 75

4 Narrating Nation in The Diviners 107.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-163) and index.

Other Format:

Davis, Laura K. Margaret Laurence writes Africa and Canada.

ISBN:

9781771121460

1771121467

9781771121477

1771121475

OCLC:

963393661