Margaret Laurence's Epic ImaginationAlthough at times painfully insecure about her creative ability and achievement, Margaret Laurence nevertheless remained fiercely loyal to her artistic vision, an archetypal vision of loss, exile and redemption that sought comprehensive expression in the epic mode that shapes the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton's Paradise Lost, and ultimately the Manawaka world of Hagar Shipley, Rachel Cameron, Stacey MacAindra, and Morag Gunn. Paul Comeau traces the development of Margaret Laurence's epic voice from its tentative beginnings in her African fiction to its culmination in the epic Manawaka Cycle, a Dantesque journey through an infernal state of self-destructive pride, out of a purgatorial paralysis of self-doubt, and on to a kind of paradisal fulfillment in self-knowledge. Laurence discovered in epic a fitting mode at once to requite her debt to the ancestors and to break free of their influence to portray the world through the sight of her own eyes. In so doing, she became the enduring epic voice of a country and a generation. |
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achievement African appears archetypal become begins believe biblical Bird called Canadian characters child Christian collection context Critical cultural dance Dante Dante's death descent Diviners earth effect emotional epic exile experience face fact fall father fear feels fiction final grace Grandfather Hagar hand heart heaven hell human imagination influence ironic John Jordan kind land later Laurence's leaves liberation lives Lost Manawaka Margaret Laurence memory metaphor Milton Morag mother move narrative nature night noted novel observed once opens Paradise past pattern perhaps physical present pride promise purgatorial quest Rachel realizes redemption Reflections relate remains represents revelation River salvation seems sense setting social souls spiritual Stacey stands Stone Angel story structure struggle Studies suggests symbolic theme things tion Toronto tradition turn Vanessa vision voice Winnipeg writing
Bibliographic information
| Title | Margaret Laurence's Epic Imagination CuRRents Series Currents (Edmonton, Alta.) |
| Author | Paul Comeau |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | University of Alberta, 2005 |
| ISBN | 0888644515, 9780888644510 |
| Length | 186 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / Canadian Literary Criticism / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |