Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning

Cover
Univ. of Manitoba Press, 24.09.2003 - 192 Seiten

Margaret Laurence's much admired Manawaka fiction—The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire-Dwellers, A Bird in the House, and The Diviners—has achieved remarkable recognition for its compassionate portrayal of the attempt to find meaning and peace in ordinary life. In Writing Grief, Christian Riegel argues that the protagonists in these books achieve resolution through acts of mourning, placing this fiction within the larger tradition of writing that explores the nuances and strategies of mourning.

Riegel's analysis alludes to sociological and literary antecedants of the study of mourning, including the tradition of elegy, from Derrida and Lacan to Freud, van Gennep, and Milton. The "work" of mourning is necessary to move from a state of emotional paralysis to one of acceptance and active engagement. Laurence's characters "perform the work of mourning ... returning over and over again to the key issues relating to loss," and, as Riegel's close examination of the texts suggests, are changed thereafter fundamentally and significantly.

As an important study of one aspect of Laurence's oeuvre, Writing Grief not only illustrates how Laurence's own preoccupations with mourning are figured, but also how different ways of working through grief result in renewed potential for consolation and connection, and "a renewed definition of self."

Im Buch

 

Ausgewählte Seiten

Inhalt

Mourning Work and Liminality in the Manawaka Fiction
3
Speaking the Hearts Truth Hagars Work of Mourning
21
Transgressing the Taboos Rachels Work of Mourning
45
The Crisis of Word and Meaning The Work of Mourning and the Loss of Consolation
69
Rest Beyond the River Mourning in A Bird in the House
91
The Diviners and the Work of Mourning
109
Laurence and the Elegiac Tradition
139
ENDNOTES
151
BIBLIOGRAPHY
173
INDEX
185
Urheberrecht

Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen

Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning
Christian Riegel
Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2003
Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning
Christian Riegel
Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2003
Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning
Christian Riegel
Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2003

Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen

Aritha van Herk articulation becomes Bereavement Bird Birk Sproxton Bram Canadian Challenging Territory Chicago Christian Riegel Christie Christie's Connor consolation cope creative David Staines dead death scene defined depicted discourse Diviners dying ECW Press Edmonton effect elegist elegy emotional experience exploration expression father figured final Fire-Dwellers Freud funeral Grandmother MacLeod's grief grieving Hagar Hector imagines Jest of God John John Bowlby Jules Jules's Kristjana Gunnars labour of mourning Laurence's protagonists liminal Literary critic Literature living London Luke Lycidas Manawaka fiction Manawaka series Margaret Laurence Marvin McClelland and Stewart means memories Morag mother mourners narrative Nora Stovel notes novel pain parents past person physical Poetics Prin's psychic Rachel realizes reflects reinforces response rites self-conscious sense significant social Stacey Stacey's Stone Angel story taboo tells thinks tion Tolchin Toronto understanding University of Alberta University Press Vancouver Vanessa voice words Writing of Margaret

Autoren-Profil (2003)

Christian Riegel teaches Canadian Literature, Genre Studies, and Poetry courses at Campion College at the University of Regina. He is the editor of Challenging Territory: The Writing of Margaret Laurence and A Sense of Place: Re-evaluating Regionalism in Canadian and American Writing, and has published interviews and articles about several Canadian writers.

Bibliografische Informationen

TitelWriting Grief: Margaret Laurence and the Work of Mourning
Autor/inChristian Riegel
VerlagUniv. of Manitoba Press, 2003
ISBN0887553974, 9780887553974
Länge192 Seiten
  
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