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'THE OLD DUALITIESt: A 3ECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF THE PROSE OF ROBERT RROETSCH Dianne Tiefensee M.A., The University of British Columbia, 1986 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of ENGLISH Q~ianne Tiefensee 1991 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY July 1991 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. B~blrothequenal~onale du Canada Acquisitions and Cirectlon des acquist?lonset Bibliographic Sewlces Branch des services btbliograpt~iques 395 Welhngton Slreer 395. rue Well~ngtun Ottawa. 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ISBN 0-315-78343-5 TITLE OF THESIS 'The Old 1)ualities'. A Deconstruct ive Rdmgof the Pruse of Rl1bel.t Groetsch Examining Gnmmittee. Chair Chin Banerjee Kathy ~eiki Profisor of ~n~&h Paul Delany Professor of English Grazia Merler Internal Exterual Examiner Associate Professor of French Sherrill draw External Examiner Professor of English Ilniversity of British Columbia Date Approved. / PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my tnesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be grantcd by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Author: (s i g:ature) u ~\j /& /99/ (date) ABSTRACT Many literary critics and theorists propose that Canadian postmodernism has been \influencedt by ~erridean deconstruction and that Robert Kroetschts \deconstructive8 theory and criticism have led the way for critics who have, since the early 19701s, rebelled against the metaphysical notions of 'unityIt 'coherence,' and \identitytupon which modernist literature and thematic criticism depend: notions which are basic to a coercive humanism and a patriarchal, repressive hegemony that governs our modes of thought and our lives. The \intenttof postmodern fiction and criticism is to challenge that hegemony by disturbing the repressive patterns of thought upon which it depends, and that disturbance is to be accomplished by a paradoxical \Derrideant practice of simultaneously asserting and subverting. Unfortunately, \paradox8 is a metaphysical notion, inseparable from the \unitytand \identitytwhich dialectic is believed to achieve, and, in practice, this postmodern 'asserting and subvertingt reaffirms the logocentric philosophy these writers claim to contest. In this dissertation, I attempt to explicate Derridean deconstruction and to determine the extent to which it is relevant to Canadian postmodernism, particularly in the prose of Robert Rroetsch. I have concentrated on Kroetschts work because he is hailed as one of the \fatherst of ~anadianpostmodernism and because he has been so actively iii engaged in determining what his colleagues have come to describe as \deconstruction.' My contention is that Kroetsch reaffirms the very values, conventions, arid attitudes he claims to resist, because his thought is cazght up in the quest of the hero, the grounding myth of Western thoughtts philosophy of the Subject. The four chapters of Part I provide background in Derridean deconstruction and situate Robert Kroetsch in Canadian postmodern literary theory. Part I1 addresses the metaphysical presuppositions which govern Kroetschts criticism, literary theory, and novels, and considers the extent to which Kroetschts theoretical pronouncements have determined his critics1 readings of his work. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To my advisor, Dr. Sandra Djwa, and my committee members, Dr. Kathy Mezei and Dr. Paul Delany, I offer thanks for their reading and commenting on this dissertation. Particularly, I would like to thank them for the broadmindedness they have shown by encouraging Ee in an intellectual pursuit with which they did not always agree. For her loving support and incisive criticism of my wcrk, I am grateful to Joanne Richardson. I would like to thank my parents, Marjorie and Fred Tiefensee, for their generous support, and my daughter and son, Lisa and Rick Stowell, for their encouragement, throughout my belated pursuit of education. For their unswaying efforts to provide spaces of calm and laughter through an anxiety-ridden period, I thank all my very good friends, especially Jean and Fred Richardson. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ................................................. kii Acknowledgements.......................................... v PART I: Canadian Postmodernism. Derridean Deconstruction. and Robert Kroetsch 1. Introductory Comments and Statement of .......... 2 2. 'Writing with Two Handsf: Derridean Deconstruction ....19 3. 'Gaining Ground': Situating Robert Kroetsch in Canadian Postmodernism ................................48 4 . 'Field Notest: Robert Kroetsch and the Critics ........79 5 . 'Learning the Herof: Alibi and the Critics ...........102 PART 11: The Writing of Robert Kroetsch 6. 'A Canadian Issuef: The Canadian Story ............... 133 7. 'Unhiding the Hiddenf: Archaeology. Dialectic. Intertextuality. and Voice ........................... 160 8. 'Carnival and Violence': The Quest of Love ...........199 9 . 'Fear of Womenf: A Misogynist Erotics ................ 242 10 . 'The Disappearing Father1: Anna Dawefs Quest .................................... 264 PART 111: Canadian Postmodernism and Difference 11 . Concluding Comments ..................................295 Bibliography .............................................303 PART I Canadian Postmodernism, Derridean Deconstruction, and Robert Kroetsch When I say I can't believe in truth, it doesn't mean I believe in nothing. I guess against the idea of truth I would posit the idea of play or game. (Robert Kroetsch, in Neuman, 1981: 237-38) Chapter One Introductory Comments and Statement of Although the term 'postmodern' is as elusive as it is, of late, ubiquitous, and both French and English Canadian literary theorists have made a concerted effort to define it, I have chcsen to concentrate only on those writing in English who have responded in some tangible way to the work of Robert Kroetsch. Their attempts include the 1986 "Future Indicativew Symposium, the 1988 Learned Societies Conference, Frank Davey's Readins Canadian Readinq (1988), and Linda Hutcheon's books on postmodernism -- -A Poetics of Postmodernism (1988), The ~anadianPostmodern (1988), and Politics of Postmodernism (1989) -- as well as various works on individual authors (suck as Robert Wilson's and Robert Leckerts readings of Robert Kroetsch) and Stephen Scobie's collection Siqnature Event Cantext (1989). In accord with Robert Kroetsch's claim that lgcriticism is really a version of storygg(in Neuman and Wilson, 1982: