Beyond Hodgins and Kroetsch : other spaces of English-Canadian magic realism

Title: Beyond Hodgins and Kroetsch : other spaces of English-Canadian magic realism
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2005, vol. 5, iss. [1], pp. [7]-17
Extent
[7]-17
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
The article offers a tentative analysis of six recent magic realist novels written in English by Canadian female writers of different ethnic origin, and set in different parts of the country, and beyond it. The female authors use magic realist techniques to open up for examination new spaces as they intertwine with the "classic" magic realist concern with memory. The condition of exile, which in many different planes dominates in some of the novels, often generates, but also results from, nostalgie approaches to the past. At stake is the recovery of memory, in all its different aspects; the memory lost as a result of social and/or personal trauma, but often encoded in the landscape itself. Significantly, in the process of negotiating the identities of the protagonists in multicultural contexts, all novels to a certain degree both criticize and revalorize the traditionally female spaces of family, domesticity, and spirituality, often redefining them at the same time. The writers are interested in particular in the self-construction of their protagonists within this domestic/multicultural context.
Cet article offre une analyse expérimentale de six nouvelles du realisme magique écrites en anglais par des auteurs féminins canadiens d'origine ethnique différente, qui se déroulent dans des parties différentes du pays et en dehors. Les auteurs féminins utilisent des techniques magico-réalistes pour s'ouvrir à l'exploration de nouveaux espaces qui se lient à la préoccupation magico-realisté "classique" avec la mémoire. La condition de l'exile, qui prévaut souvent dans quelques unes de ces nouvelles sur beaucoup de niveaux différents, mais aussi est le résultat d'une approche nostalgique du passé. La récupération de la mémoire est mise en cause, sous tous ses aspects différents ; la mémoire perdue résultant d'un trauma social et/ou personnel, mais souvent codée dans le paysage même. D'une manière significative, dans le procès de négociation des identités des protagonistes dans des contextes multiculturels, toutes les nouvelles critiquent et remettent en valeur les espaces traditionnellement féminins de la famille, de la vie familiale et de la spiritualité en les redéfinissant en même temps. Les écrivains s'intéressent particulièrement à l'auto-construction de leurs protagonistes au sein de ce contexte familial/multiculture.
References
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