Strategies of the Canadian Historical Novel

Authors

  • Marcello Potocco

Keywords:

literature and history, Canadian literature, poetry, Pratt, E. J., historical novel, national identity

Abstract

The article is grounded in the premise that the historical narrative in Canadian literature strives to either forge a unifying national myth or deconstruct it. It opens by discussing two examples of historical narrative in the form of the long poem. John Newlove historicizes the Native American mythology that he deploys by adopting the perspective of historical accounts (by G. Hyde and D. Thompson) and by referring to historical events (the North-West Rebellion). E. J. Pratt attempts to create a national mythological narrative in his renowned long poems Brébeuf and His Brethren and Towards the Last Spike. Although he extensively paraphrases and quotes the historical sources on the subject, they are unobtrusively woven into the narrative. Pratt thus conceals the fictional additions and the omissions of historical references, and consequently constructs a bicultural national myth at the expense of suppressing the perspective of the indigenous peoples as well as the historical trauma of French Canadians. Following the 1960s, when Canadian nationalism reached its apex and the national interpellation was dispersed into various cultural institutions, fiction lost momentum as a creator of national myth. For example, an analysis of Leonard Cohen’s Beautiful Losers and Rudy Wiebe’s The Scorched-Wood People and The Temptation of Big Bear shows that both authors employ a narrative strategy comparable to the one used by Pratt by extensively paraphrasing and quoting historical sources, but the effect is rather to deconstruct the existing national myth into a play of various possible histories (Cohen), or to construct an alternative, previously suppressed version of history (Wiebe). The article argues that despite the change in the function of the narrative strategy, Pratt may be seen as one of the sources for the use of paraphrasing and quoting.

References

Atwood, Margaret. »On Writing Poetry: Waterstone’s Poetry Lecture«. O. W. Toad – Margaret Atwood Reference Site. 1995. Splet 13. 7. 2005. http://www.owtoad.com/.

– – –. Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature. Toronto, Ontario: McClelland & Stewart, 1996.

Buitenhuis, Peter. »E. J. Pratt and His Work«. Canadian Writers and Their Works: Poetry Series. Ur. Robert Lecker, Jack David, Ellen Quingley. Toronto: ECW Press, 1987. 109–156.

Cameron, Barry. »Theory and Criticism, Trends in Canadian Literature«. Literary History of Canada. 2. izd. Ur. William New. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Cohen, Leonard. Beautiful Losers. London: Panther, 1972.

Djwa, Sandra. »Introduction«. Complete Poems of E. J. Pratt: A Definitive Edition. Ur. Sandra Djwa, Gordon Moyles. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989. Vol. 1. xi–xlviii.

Fee, Margery. »Romantic Nationalism and the Image of Native People in Contemporary English-Canadian Literature«. The Native in Literature: Canadian and Comparative Perspectives. Ur. Thomas King, Cheryl Calver, Helen Hoy. Toronto: ECW Press, 1987.

Flynn, Kevin. »The Railway in Canadian Poetry«. Canadian Literature 174 (2002): 70–95.

Frye, Northrop. Anatomija kritištva. Ljubljana: LUD Literatura, 2004.

– – –. »Conclusion«. Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English. Ur. Carl F. Klinck. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965. 821–849.

– – –. The Bush Garden. [Toronto]: Anansi, 1971.

Gadpaille, Michelle. »Thematics and Its Aftermath: A Meditation on Atwood’s SurvivalPrimerjalna književnost 37.3 (2014): 165–177.

Harker, W. John. »Canadian Literature in Canadian Schools: From the Old to the New Internationalism«. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue canadienne de l’éducation 12.3 (1987): 417–427. Splet 17. 5. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1495233?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.

Hatch, Ronald. »Narrative Development in the Canadian Historical Novel«. Canadian Literature 10 (1986): 79–96.

Heidenreich, C. E. »Huron – Wendat«. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2011. Splet 8. 6. 2011. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/huron/.

Hillmer, Norman. »Statute of Westminster: Canada’s Declaration of Independence«. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2013. Splet 30. 3. 2015. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/statute-of-westminster-canadas-declaration-ofindependence-feature/.

Hodgetts, A. B. What Culture? What Heritage? A Study of Civic Education in Canada. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1969.

Hutcheon, Linda. »Beautiful Losers: All the Polarities«. Canadian Literature 59 (1974): 42–56.

Jurak, Mirko. »Northrop Frye in Margaret Atwood: njun odnos do kanadske samobitnosti in kulture«. Zbornik ob sedemdesetletnici Franceta Bernika. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU, 1997. 227–240.

Klinck, Carl, ur. Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965.

Lecker, Robert. »The Canonization of Canadian Literature: An Inquiry into Value«. Critical Inquiry 16.3 (1990): 656–671. Splet 14. 6. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343645?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.

Massey, Vincent. »Report of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences«. Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences 1949–1951. Library and Archives Canada. 1951. Splet 14. 6. 2011. https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/massey/h5-400-e.html.

McKenzie, Stephanie. Before the Country: Native Renaissance, Canadian Mythology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.

McKinnon Pfaff, Catherine. »Pratt’s Treatment of History in Towards the Last SpikeCanadian Literature 97 (1983): 48–71.

Murray, Jennifer. »Historical Figures and Paradoxical Patterns: The Quilting Metaphor in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace«. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne 26.1 (2001): 65–83. Splet 13. 4. 2015. http://www.academia.edu/11122999/Historical_Figures_and_Paradoxical_Patterns_The_Quilting_Metaphor_in_Margaret_Atwood_s_Alias_Grace.

Newlove, John. Apology for Absence: Selected Poems 1962–1992. Erin, Ontario: Porcupine ‘s Quill, 1993.

Nyland, Agnes C. »Pratt and History«. The E. J. Pratt Symposium. Ur. Glenn Clever. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1977. 105–116.

Pacey, Desmond. »The Writer and His Public«. Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English. Ur. Carl F. Klinck. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965. 477–495.

Parkman, Francis. The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1879. Splet 1. 4. 2015. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t7rn3z72x;view=1up;seq=7.

Parrott, Zach. »Iroquois Wars«. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. 2006. Splet 3. 4. 2015. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iroquois-wars/.

Potocco, Marcello. Nacionalni imaginariji. Literarni imaginariji. Različice nacionalnega poziva v literaturi in v literarnih kontekstih. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut, 2012. Splet 10. 6. 2013. http://www.pei.si/UserFilesUpload/file/digitalna_knjiznica/Dissertationes_20_ISBN_978-961-270-132-1_PDF/DK_CC%202.5_Dissertationes_20_ISBN_978-961-270-132-1.pdf.

Pratt, Edwin J. Complete Poems 2. Ur. Sandra Djwa. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

Rae, Ian. From Cohen to Carson: The Poet’s Novel in Canada. Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008.

Rajan, Bachalandra. »Theory and Criticism, Trends in Canadian Literature«. Literary History of Canada. 2. izd. Ur. William New. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990. 133–158.

Redekop, Magdalene. »Authority and the Margins of Escape in Brébeuf and His Brethren«. Open Letter 6.2–3 (1985): 45–60.

Ricoeur, Paul. Oneself as Another. Prev. Kathleen Blamey. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Ross, Malcolm. The Impossible Sum of Our Traditions: Reflections on Canadian Literature. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986.

Selby, Joan. »The Transmutation of History«. Canadian Literature 6 (1960): 32–40.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610–1791. Vol. 8. Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1897. Splet 3. 4. 2015. http://archive.org/details/cihm_07542.

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610–1791. Vol. 10. Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1897. Splet 3. 4. 2015. https://archive.org/details/jesuitrelationsa10thwa.

Thompson, Lee Briscoe. »Lands Without Ghosts: Canadian and Australian Historical Poetry«. The History and Historiography of Commonwealth Literature. Ur. Dieter Riemenschneider. Tübingen: G. Narr, 1983. [167]–175.

Thompson, Lorraine. »Canadian Learning Materials in Elementary and Secondary Education - A Literature Review«. SSTA Research Centre Report #S16. Saskatchewan School Boards Association. 2011. Splet 20. 5. 2011. http://www.saskschoolboards.ca/old/ResearchAndDevelopment/ResearchReports/Curriculum/s16.htm.

Tschachler, Heinz. »The Cost of Story. Ideology and Ambivalence in the Verse Narratives of E. J. Pratt«. Canadian Literature 122–123 (1989): 93–106.

Vautier, Marie. »Fiction, Historiography and Myth: Jacques Godbout’s Les têtes à Papineau and Rudy Wiebe’s The Scorched-Wood People«. Canadian Literature 110 (1986): 61–78.

Weingarten, J. A. »‘A Half-Understood Massiveness’: Revisiting John Newlove’s ‘The Pride’«. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne 38.1 (2013): 113–135. Splet 1. 4. 2015. http://www.sciary.com/journal-scientific-canadianliteraturearticle-190115.

Wiebe, Rudy. The Scorched-Wood People. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1977. (The New Canadian Library.)

Wood, Susan. »Participation in the Past: John Newlove and ‘The Pride’«. Essays on Canadian Writing 20 (1980): 230–240.

Wyile, Herb. Speaking in the Past Tense: Canadian Novelists on Writing Historical Fiction. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2007.

– – –. Speculative Fictions: Contemporary Canadian Novelists and the Writing of History. Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002.

Published

2017-11-01

Issue

Section

Thematic section