The island motif in the fiction of L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Laurence, Margaret Atwood, and other Canadian women novelists
By: Theodore F. Sheckels.
Series: Studies on themes and motifs in literature,; v. 68
Publisher: P. Lang
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Subjects: Montgomery, L. M. 1874-1942 -- Settings.; Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939- -- Settings.; Laurence, Margaret -- Settings.; Canadian fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; Islands in literature.; Women and literature -- Canada -- History -- 20th century.
Description: "Islands, both literal and figurative, recur in fiction authored by many prominent Canadian women writers. Using a critical lens based on Northrop Frye and Julia Kristeva, this book closely examines fourteen novels by eight twentieth-century authors, emphasizing works by L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood. Several of the novels, such as Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Laurence's A Jest of God and The Diviners, Atwood's Surfacing and Bodily Harm, Alice Munro's The Lives of Girls and Women, and Gabrielle Roy's The Tin Flute, are among Canada's most well-known. Some of the works discussed present the island as a redemptive retreat, but in most cases the island's role is ambiguous, ranging from a temporary respite from life's pressures to a nightmarish trap."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-202) and index.