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Locating the Author and the Narrator in David Adams Riceards' Miraniichi Trilogy

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Locating the Author and the Narrator in David Adams Riceards' Miraniichi Trilogy NEW RIVER STRAIN: LOCATING THE AUTHOR AND THE NARRATOR IN DAVID ADAMS RICEARDS' MIRANIICHI TRILOGY by David C. Lindsay Submitted in partial fuifillment of the requüements for the degree of Master of Arts Dalhousie University Hatifax, Nova Scotia September 1997 8 Copyright by David C. Lindsay, 1997 National ljbrary Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. tue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 OtbwaON K1AOW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une ticence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fÎom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenivise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. For Amy, who helpeà in every way. TABLE OF CONTENTS vi Acknowledgements vii viii INTRODUCTION hting Richards: The Reputation of a Miramichi Regionaiia CHAPTER ONE Determinism and Determination: Mghts Below Stdon Streef CHAPTER ïW0 The Cruci-fiction: Evening SmWiU Bnng Such Peace CHAPTER THREE Outside of Life: For ïbse PMu, Hunt the Wounded DM CONCLUSION The End of Regionalism: Hitch Your Horse to This 'Post' Works Cited ABSTRACT This thesis is an exposition of the discourse on regionalism in David Adams Richards' Miramichi trilogy. It examines the connection between the author's personai attachment to the d community he fictionalks, and the increasingly self-reflexive narrative voice he employs in his series of novels. The Introduction presents various critical approaches to Canadian 'regionai literature, ' and, more specifically, to Richards' work. Proceeding chronologicaiiy, in tems of both Richards' publications and his fictionai time hune, this study devotes one chapter to each of the books in the trilogy: Nighrs Bebw Station Street (1988), Evening SmWiII Bnng Such Peace (1991), and For %se Who Hunt the Wuunded Down (1993). A number of Richards' characters are interpreted as storyteller figures whose versions of events raise questions about loyalty , accuracy , objectivity , authority , and authenticity - questions which the author makes relevant to his own roIe as an artist. The novelist's perspective is seen to evolve in order to represent a culture which is no longer identifiable as 'rural' according to standard tropes of the pastorai. This thesis concludes with the suggestion that Richards' vision is final1y 'post-regional .' 1 would Iike to achowledge the support and assistance of my supervisor, Dr. Aadrew Wainwright, who made this project possible; 1 am grateful. vii I'm tiding on that new river train I'm riding on that new ver Wn It's the sume old train that brought me here Is gow tuke me back again Darün', you cun't love one Darün', you cudt love one You can't love one and have any fun Darün', you can 't love one Darünt, you cantt Iove but two Darün ', you can't love but wo You can't love two and still be me Darh', you can't love but two from the traditional American Song "Nav Ih'ver Trainn viii INTRODUCTION Locating Richards: The Reputation of a Miramichi Regionalist One of the main sources of artistic tension in the work of David Adams Richards is the novelist's loyaity to the commliaity he fictionalizes. Most of Richards' &es are set squarely in the rurai Miramichi region of New Bmnswick where he was boni and raised. As a writer, he can indulge neither nostaigia nor cynicism, for he has remaineci an insider. Though he will not admit to accepting the roie of spokesperson for the region of his childhood, he is sensitive to criticai claims that he has misrepresented this region or betrayed the people who live there. He says that people who debate the accuracy of his representations of the Miramichi are "arguing about something that doesn't even exist." Insisting upon the universality of his rural se tting s, he says , [In] a sense al1 my work is outside the Miramichi. Not only that, but also it's my own rivers, my own places, and in so many instances it doesn't have that much to do with the real Miramichi. A lot of times [critics] don't how what to put their finger on in my work, and so they Say, "he must be a regionalist." Another thing they say is "he must be a social dist because he's saying stuff that doesn't happen to us but oniy happens in the Maritimes, so he must be a social realist regiodist because this is what happens down there, " but that' s really not tme because, and 1 say this without batting an eye, what happens to Arnold, in Roud to the Stilf House, happens to everyone, and that's why 1 wrote about Arnold. 1 didn't write about Arnold because it only happened in this littie house in the centre of nowhere, but because it also happens to people on Bloor Street in Toronto. ("He Must Be" 159-60) But a novel like Road fo the Stik Houe, perhaps the most grim of Richards' works, is almost excmciatingly specific, describing the abject lives of characters whose marginalkation is partial1y a function of their geographicai isolation; the characters in this book are, emphatically, situatecl in a small wrnmunity, on a bleak road that cuts through the New Brunswick woods. The universal themes underlying the action in al1 of Richards' texts are powerful, but there is an atmosphere, partïcularly in his early works, of direct experience. The ambiguities of 'realism' have always presented complex questions about the reception and interpretation of his novels. Richards' personai attachent to his fictional worid is still obvious. In an essay written after the cornpletion of his recent trilogy, he discusses the importance of his childhood experiences in determining his vocation, stating, "1 had a need to dte about and remernber my tembie youth" ("The Turtie" 71). He laments the "maligning of intentn by critics who claimed "that 1 wrote bad things about rny river and my peoplen (72). It is because of this loyaity that the tem 'regional writer' is useful in discussions of Richards' work. The label should not refer to the scope or even to the style of his fiction, but only to the milieu Richards represents, which is his own. In a way, the writer embraces the label in his recent mlogy by tackiing problems surrounding regiondism. And in doing so he proves kyond any doubt that he is not limited in thematic breadth, artistic imagination, or intellectmi rigour. Richards ultirnately refuses to submit to the tyranny of post-modemism which critics like Donna Pennee and David Creelman seem to endone; he questions his own powers of representation, but he will not fdly relinquish his personal connection to a real world - a connection which is, after dl, the source of his moral wncem for such Richards has demo~l~tratedartistic courage partiy by seerning to dare the critic to dlhis work auachronistic. He bas renewed the controversy about regionalism, which was a topic of considerable critical discourse even before he was born. In 1945, the influentid literary cntic Desmond Pacey lamented the preponderance of historical and romance novels among the works of fiction king produced in Caaada. He called for a nationai literature which would accurately reflect "life as it is lived here and now," and which wouid represent, without sentimentality, the concerns of real people: What is needed, then, is not merely more novels which apat the contemporary Ca~dianscene, but more novels which treat it in a realistic and critical spirit. We need to see the festering mes in our social body, as well as iu areas of healthy tissue. ("The Novel in Canada" 161-62) In the following year, Hugh MacLennan penned an essay demanding that Canadian authors "stop writing regional novels . and pennit fhemselves only universal themes." MacLennan asked rhetoricaily if Canadian Iiterature might be "doomed to lie haif stagnant in the backwaters of regionaiismN (qtd. in Lynes, Wyile 119). These two perspectives represent the terms of a debate about literature in Canada which has carried on throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, and which is not yet 4 When David Adams Richards attained sudden prominence in 1974, with his fim novel, ZkComing of Wnter, he canot have been unaware of this ongoing dialogue about 'regionalism' and rdpeople in Canadian literature - particuiarly since he himself had recently wme to Fredericton from his hometown in the Miramichi. Studying Arts at Saint Thomas University, Richards mua have gained some sense of intellectual and academic attitudes toward communities like the one where he had grown up. While the decision to set his fiction in the Miramichi was not reactionary, it was surely a choice made with an understanding of its critical and commercial implications. When Richards won the 1988 Governor General's Award for his fifth novel, Nights Below Station Street, many journalistic accounts focused on the fact that this writer was still living in New Brunswick, was still writing about the people of the Miramichi, and had somehow, through perseverance, proved a point by 'beating' Margaret Atwood to the prestigious prize. Of course, cntical dissent arose in the form of reviews such as one by Dom Pennee titled "Still More Social Realism," which cailed Richards' novel "a regional fictive documentary, " and, like MacLennan's essay, bewailed the state of Canadian Readers accustomed to some degree of selfansciousness in fiction today will find littie, if anything , to interest them in Nights Below Stdon Street.
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