Writing in the father's house: the emergence of the feminine in the Quebec literary tradition

Abstract

Glancing at above titles, one can see that any attempt to review these seven books as part of unified project would prove reductive and futile. To generalize about these works would be to deny their individual strengths and weaknesses. Taken together, they reflect multiple voices, divergent critical approaches to various texts, and wide - ranging analyses. This said, however, it may be useful to note few similarities among them.Three of these volumes are collections of essays by different authors; three sustain focused argument across several works; two examine oeuvre of individual writers; only one is concerned exclusively with single novel. Three of seven books cover early texts; in fact, as its subtitle indicates, Re(dis)covering our Foremothers is devoted to works of nineteenth century. The remaining books deal with contemporary writing in Canada, while Smart's book is concerned with Quebec writing. With exception of Double Talking, which includes essays on writing and art by both women and men, works are concerned primarily with female writers, female characters, and issues pertaining to women. To describe these texts as consistently feminist in their orientation, however, would be misleading.Let me begin with Woodcock's carefully focused study of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing. As its subtitle tells us, this is a reader's guide to Atwood's watershed novel, and its format and style are particularly suited to its predominantly undergraduate audience. The fourth in Canadian Fiction Studies series brought out by ECW Press, it shares shelf space with similar treatments of other important novels, such as As For Me and My House, The Stone Angel, and The Wars. Woodcock's study conforms to format established for books in series. He provides chronology of author's life, followed by chapters that consider importance of novel, its critical reception, and interpretation of text, most substantive part of his book. The annotations provided in final works cited section unfortunately are too limited to be of any real value to students who will be consulting this work.In familiar Woodcock fashion, author positions himself as an expert - here as an Atwood scholar -- and quotes himself liberally throughout text. What emerges is strong sense of Woodcock persona which tends, at times, to overpower his subject, partly due to hispenchant throughout book to designate universal writer with male pronoun despite its female subject. I am not suggesting, however, that Woodcock's analysis is ill - founded. His close reading of Atwood's novel plumbs its surface and points to several ambiguities. Especially illuminating is his consideration of work's dominant metaphors of submersion and surfacing; birth, death, and embryo; survival; and drawings and photographs; and his examination of narrator as the voice of lost personality which finds its identity as story proceeds (45).Since Surfacing is work often taught in literature courses, this volume likely will prove indispensable to students seeking an informed, detailed study of an often difficult text. Woodcock's book undoubtedly will assist their understanding of Atwood's novel. It is hoped, however, that readers will recognize voice that so compellingly dominates this work and will choose to question it rather than simply yield to its authority.Critical Approaches to Fiction of Margaret Laurence is one of plethora of recent essay collections devoted to author's work. Since her death in 1987, Laurence canon has come under intense scrutiny of critics who appear driven to consider enduring value of her writing. Since only five of its 15 contributors are academics, this collection offers predominantly foreign perspective on Laurence. Regardless, it adds little that is either new or interesting to ongoing critical discussion. …