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The Canadian Fiction of Margaret Laurence :A Study THE CANADIAN FICTION OF MARGARET LAURENCE :A STUDY By LINDA MARIA FERNANDES A thesis submitted to Goa Un iversity For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN X13 ENGLISH Supervised by: Dr. A.K. Joshi Professor and Head Department of English Goa University Goa University Taleigao Plateau Taleigao SEPTEMBER 1999 T- U3? CERTIFICATE I certify that the thesis "The Canadian Fiction of Margaret Laurence: A Study" submitted by Miss Linda Maria Fernandes, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English , of Goa University, is completed under my supervision. The thesis is a record of research work done by her during the period of study and has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree or diploma to her. 10r4 (1) Dr. A.K. Joshi Professor and Head Dept.of English Goa University RESEARCH GUIDE DECLARATION I declare that this thesis has been composed by me and has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or other similar titles. Miss Linda Maria Fernandes Dept. of English Goa University Taleigao Plateau CONTENTS 1. PREFACE 1 2. CHAPTER I 3 MARGARET LAURENCE: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WRITING 3. CHAPTER II 18 THE THEMATIC WEB OF LAURENCE'S FICTION 4. CHAPTER III... 40 THE STONE ANGEL 5. CHAPTER IV 123 SISTERS' NARRATIVES: A JEST OF GOD AND THE FIRE DWELLERS 6. CHAPTER V.. 179 A BIRD IN THE HOUSE 7. CHAPTER VI 216 THE DIVINERS 8. CHAPTER VII .275 MANAWAKA 9. CHAPTER VIII 301 CONCLUSION 10.APPENDICES .307 11.BIBLIOGRAPHY 334 PREFACE Margaret Laurence, a Canadian writer is a historical as well as a regional novelist who is peculiarly conscious of a personal need for the imaginative revision of history. Her work can be divided into two parts according to its setting: African and Canadian. This thesis is on her Canadian fiction which is also known as her Manawakan fiction. Accordingly, her works have been examined in chronological order (with the exception of Jason's Quest, her novel for children). I have employed a combination of critical methods to analyse aesthetic, textual and historical problems. Chapter I and II comprise Laurence's biographical information, the influences on her Canadian works and the themes behind her fiction. Together, these chapters show the links between her African and Canadian writing, the unity and continuity of her work, and the maturation of her socio-political concerns. Her basic vision is seen as religious and humanistic: Travel played an important role in Laurence's life. It helped shape her literary vision, and provided her with a central metaphor: the psychic journey towards inner freedom and spiritual maturity. The themes that shape her Canadian fiction- roots, ancestors, human complexity, acceptance of the Other and the search for inner freedom- these concerns first emerged in her African writing. Chapters III, IV, V, VI, focus on the value of Laurence's work and its relevance to contemporary literature and society. The five works set in Canada in Laurence's fictional town of Manawaka are meant to be read together. This cycle of fiction constitutes a remarkable gallery of vital individuals, a composite portrait of women's experience in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the imaginative recreation of an entire society. town of Manawaka are meant to be read together. This cycle of fiction constitutes a remarkable gallery of vital individuals, a composite portrait of women's experience in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the imaginative recreation of an entire society. The last chapter `Manawaka' shows that Laurence has turned the Manitoba town of her youth into a metaphor of universal human experience. The epic quality of Laurence's fiction and her ability to give symbolic form to social or collective life, has earned for Laurence a justified comparison with Tolstoy, while her literary vision of the two-way flow of time places her among philosophical novelists like Proust. Laurence's art builds upon the fiction of Canadian writers such as Sinclair Ross and greatly advances that tradition. No work of this scope would be possible without the help of others. My thanks go out to Professor A. K. Joshi for supervising the thesis, for offering valuable insights and clarifications, and for steadfastly refusing to hurry me, insisting instead that I take all the time necessary to write the best thesis-possible. To Shastri Institute of Indo-Canadian Studies, Delhi, University of Baroda, University of Toronto, Canada, Centre of Canadian Studies Goa University, S.N.D.T. Bombay, for research material To Principal Bhaskar Nayak, Govt. College, Quepem, my parents, brother, other members of the family and friends for extending cooperation during various stages in the completion of my thesis. Linda Maria Fernandes 2 CHAPTER I MARGARET LAURENCE : THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WRITING A. A Biographical Sketch B. Influences behind her fiction CHAPTER I MARGARET LAURENCE: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WRITING It is but appropriate that a study of Margaret Laurence's Canadian fiction should begin with a discussion of Laurence's life and work, both of which are inseparable from her Manawakan or Canadian fiction. I have divided this chapter into two parts. The first section will provide a biographical sketch of Laurence, while the second will delve into the many influences on her fiction . This chapter will provide us with the necessary background material that is required to comprehend Laurence's larger themes. A: A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss in Neepawa Manitoba. Her father was of Scottish ancestry; her mother ,nee Simpson, was Irish. Both branches of the family were Protestant which meant that the religious and cultural traditions of Puritanism were prominent features of the author's upbringing. Laurence's work can be divided into two parts according to its setting : African and Canadian. Five books are the product of Laurence's seven years in Africa and her continuing interest in that continent: A Tree for Poverty : Somali Poetry and Prose (1954), The Prophets Camel Bell (1963), The Tomorrow - Tamer (1963), This Side Jordon (1960) Long Drums and Canons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists (1968). Laurence's Canadian works, also known as Manawakan works also number five : The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire - Dwellers (1969), A Bird in the House (1970), The Diviners (1974). 3 Born on 18th July 1926, Jean Margaret Wemyss was brought up in a small town in Neepawa, Manitoba. Her father, Robert, belonged to the Scots family of Wemyss and they had their own motto "Je Pense. After her mother died in1930, and her father in 1935, she was raised bt her maternal grandfather, John Simpson and by her aunt, Margaret Simpson Wemyss, who had married her widowed father. Both were strong influences on the young girl. As a child, Margaret was a great fantasizer. 'Pretend this. Pretend that'. It was all 'Pretend'. Mind you this is the way her writing is 2 from an early age, Laurence would say "I'm going to be a writer", 3 and she would write in scribblers she always carried, 'Oh, she always carried those scribblers. She was always jotting down something.' 4 Her stepmother encouraged her to read 5 and she did and saw things which broadened her out, living at the old funeral parlour and through her reading 6 . From the time she could read, she was interested in doing some writing. This was her hobby.. Margaret liked to write stories. 7 Laurence lived in Neepawa through the depression and World War II until 1944, when she attended United College in Winnipeg. This arts and theology College was affiliated to the University of Manitoba. Clara Thomas discusses its founding institutions, Methodist and Presbyterian and its tradition of liberal thought, a tradition "particularly sympathetic to her positive affirming temperament." 8. There she studied English, published her first poems and stories "Callipoe" and "Tas des Waldes" in the college journal 'Vox', and later worked as a reporter for the Winnipeg Citizen. In these formative years, she responded to the powerfully positive, liberal idealism of the college and to the optimism of the Winnipeg Old Left with its confidence in reform, brotherhood and social justice 9 . Laurence later questioned her easy liberal attitudes, which were sorely tried in Africa, but she retained her indignation with forms of injustice, exploitation and depression. Though she grew sceptical of social solutions, she retained the compassionate, moral outlook that pervades her novels. In Winnipeg, Laurence met her husband, Jack Laurence, a civil engineer. They married in 1948 and proceeded first to England and then in 1950 to the British Protectorate of Somaliland in East Africa. 4 She wrote book reviews, a daily radio column and covered labour news. Jack Laurence was engaged to create a chain of artificial lakes on earth dams in the deserts of the British Protoctorate of Somaliland. The British Colonial Service felt that Somaliland was no place for a woman but Jack described his wife as a handy Canadian girl, "a kind of female Daniel Boone", and Laurence was permitted to go . For the next two years she lived in isolated desert camps, sometimes in a tent on land rover, and came to know and admire the nomadic tribesmen whose lives depended on courage, endurance and religious faith. Out of this soujourn came her first published work, a translation of Somali poetry and folk tales. Here she immersed herself in Somali culture. At this time her main project was to study the oral tradition of Somali and to prepare a book of translations, A Tree for Poverty (1954). This was her first published volume. Between 1952 and 1957, the Laurence's lived in the Gold Coast, later Ghana, where they had two children, Jocelyn (Born 1952) and David (Born 1955).
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