Creatures settled, creatures settling or what haunts in Canadian literature

Abstract

1IntroductionEach nation has its modes of presenting ghosts inhabiting its literature. Two authors chosen for this sketch, Margaret Atwood and Andre Alexis, represent different generations and different literary milieus. Atwood belongs to most celebrated and most recognizable names on the Canadian literary map. In her works, consistently realistic and rooted in 'here and now'1, she frequently refers to 'Canadianess' and uses tropes and themes that can be considered as belonging to the Canadian scope. Alexis refers to the land where he was born, Trinidad, and via incorporating images, customs, and concepts infrequent for Canadian oeuvre adds new facets to the concept of 'Canadian eerie'. Both authors address the problem of internal duality, or even multiplicity, inherent to heterogeneous nations and the consequences of these divisions for the identity of particular individuals. The authors present the origins of the fissures in one's identity and the methods of coping with them.2The Robber BridePublished in 1993, Atwood's The Robber Bride is set in the early 1990s Toronto and presents three friends, or rather companions in misery, united by a cataclysm that mauled them all. Tony, a historian dealing with medieval battles; Charis, a medium, medicine woman and spiritual healer; and Roz, prosperous businesswoman and magazine owner don't have much in common except the catastrophe that brought them together, if Zenia can be called a catastrophe; but over they've developed a loyalty to one another, an esprit de corps (Atwood 2001:29).2They meet once a month for lunch in a place bearing a meaningful name, Toxique, to catch up with the latest news. rely on these meetings and treat them as a kind of assurance that their enemy no longer poses any threat. It was the sole reason they participated in her funeral, which took place five years prior to the beginning of the book. They wanted to see the end of Zenia, make sure she was now fully (Tony's word) inoperative. Charis's word was peaceful. Roz's was kaput. (Atwood 2001:11) Since then Zenia has received special treatment, or rather the lack thereof. Since the burial by unanimous consent, they never mention her name, decide to give her no time as Roz puts it (Atwood 2001:29). This silence, however, does not mean that Zenia has left; on the contrary: the more silent they are about her, the more tangible she seems to be. Since there was no body, only a small urn (she was supposed to die in a bomb attack in Lebanon), Zenia's departure seems hard to believe.The state of this 'blissful limbo' comes to an abrupt end when one day their nemesis materializes:Tony feels a chill. The door must have opened. She looks up, and into the mirror.Zenia is standing here, behind her, in the smoke, in the glass, in this room.Not someone who looks like Zenia: Zenia herself.It's not a hallucination. The leopard-skinned waitress has seen her too.She's nodding, she's going over, she's indicating a table at the back. Tony feels her heart clench, clench like a fist, and plummet. [...]Zenia strides past their table as if they aren't there, as if nobody is. Tony senses them all fading in the glare that spreads out from her. The perfume she's wearing is unrecognizable: something dense and murky, sullen and ominous. The smell of scorched earth. [...]Zenia [...] looks, as always, like a photo, a high-fashion photo done with hot light so that all freckles and wrinkles are bleached out and only the basic features remain [...] Her hair, a dense cloud of it, blown around her head by the imperceptible wind that accompanies her everywhere, moulding her clothes against her body, fitfully moving the dark tendrils around her forehead, filling the air near her with the sound of rustling. In the midst of this unseen commotion she sits unmoving, as still as if she were carved. Waves of ill will flow out of her like cosmic radiation. …