Title: The vision of Montréal in Gail Scott's novels
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2002, vol. 2, iss. [1], pp. 7-14
Extent
7-14
-
ISSN1213-7715 (print)2336-4556 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/115994
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
My intention in this paper is to analyse Gail Scott's two novels Heroine (1987) and Main Brides (1993). I regard the two novels as existing in a unique symbiosis as city novels. After some theoretical clarification, I examine on the one hand how the cityscape of Montréal becomes internalized in the protagonists' psyches, and on the other hand, how it becomes a character of its own in the process of narrating its/their individual identity/ies. The paper focuses on the idiosyncratic representations in each novel of the engendered female space in which Montreal becomes a peculiar "collective" protagonist. The social, cultural, political, linguistic (bilingual) and ethnic spaces in the two novels are approached in accordance with the multifarious cityscape from a bi and multicultural point of view.
Mon intention dans le présent article est d'analyser deux romans de Gail Scott: Heroine (1987) et Main Brides (1993). Je considère que ces romans vivent dans une symbiose unique comme romans urbains. Après quelques clarifications théoriques j'examine d'une part la façon dont l'espace urbain du Montréal est intemalisé par les protagonistes, et d'autre part, la manière dont il devient un caractère propre pendant la narration de l'identité (ou des identités) individuelle(s) appartenant à soi (elle)-même. L'article met en relief dans chacun des romans les représentations caractéristiques de l'espace feminin dans lequel Montréal devient tout de même un protagoniste collectif particulier. Les espaces social, culturel, politique, linguistique (bilingue) et éthnique présents dans les romans sont traités conformément à l'espace urbain multi-colore, d'un point de vue bi-et multiculturel.
References
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[12] Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1960.
[13] Marchand, Philip. "A Novel in Theory". The Toronto Star, June 5, 1993, n.p.
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[17] Schroder-Lanz, Helmut. "Perception of Cities in Novel Writing Compared to Mental Mapping Orientation in Cities". H. Zirker and J.M. Nebe (eds.). Shaping Telling Perspectives. Schiftenreihe des Zentrums for Kanada-Studien an der Universität Trier.Tier, 1987, 71-91.
[18] Scott, Gail. Heroine. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987.
[19] Scott, Gail. Main Brides. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1993.
[20] Symons, Ellen. "Exposing the Way of Living". Capital Xtra, June 13/ 1994, n.p.
[21] Wirth-Nesher, Hana. "The Modern Jewish Novel and the City: Franz Kafka, Henry Roth, and Amos Oz". Modern Fiction Studies 24 (1978), 91-111.
[22] York M. Lorraine. "Home Thoughts or Abroad? A Rhetoric of Place in Modern and Postmodern Canadian Political Poetry". Essays in Canadian Writing (51-52-Winter 1993/Spring 1994), 321-339.
[2] Benazon. Michael. "Senses of Insecurity: Montreal Writers View Their City". Tangence 48 (1995), 49-115.
[3] Brooker, Peter. New York Fictions: Modernity, Postmodernism, The New Modern. London: Longman, 1996.
[4] Diamond, Ann. "Women stranded at the end of the century". The Gazette, 29 May 1993, 5.
[5] Diamond, Ann. "Roses". Snakebite. Dunvagen: Cormorant, 1989.
[6] Hutcheon, Linda. The Canadian Postmodern. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 1988.
[7] Fries, Marilyn Sibley. "The City as Metaphor for the Human Condition: Alfred Doblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929)". Modern Fiction Studies 24 (1978), 41-65.
[8] Gelfant, Blanche Housmann. The American City Novel. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.
[9] Godard, Barbara. "La Ville en vol/City in Flight. Tracing Lesbian E-Motion through Montreal". Tessera 16 (Summer, 1994). 42-56.
[10] Ickstadt, Heinz. "The City in English Canadian and US-American Literature". Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien 11 (1991), 163-173.
[11] Leith, Linda. "Interview with Gail Scott". Matrix 28 (1989), 23-24.
[12] Lynch, Kevin. The Image of the City. Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1960.
[13] Marchand, Philip. "A Novel in Theory". The Toronto Star, June 5, 1993, n.p.
[14] McGoogan, Ken. Interview, "Gail Scott straddles two solitudes". Calgary Herald, Saturday, 22 May, 1993, n.p.
[15] Park, Robert. The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1925.
[16] Platz, H. Norbert. "Imagining the City". Cross/Cultures 25 (1997) 1-111.
[17] Schroder-Lanz, Helmut. "Perception of Cities in Novel Writing Compared to Mental Mapping Orientation in Cities". H. Zirker and J.M. Nebe (eds.). Shaping Telling Perspectives. Schiftenreihe des Zentrums for Kanada-Studien an der Universität Trier.Tier, 1987, 71-91.
[18] Scott, Gail. Heroine. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987.
[19] Scott, Gail. Main Brides. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1993.
[20] Symons, Ellen. "Exposing the Way of Living". Capital Xtra, June 13/ 1994, n.p.
[21] Wirth-Nesher, Hana. "The Modern Jewish Novel and the City: Franz Kafka, Henry Roth, and Amos Oz". Modern Fiction Studies 24 (1978), 91-111.
[22] York M. Lorraine. "Home Thoughts or Abroad? A Rhetoric of Place in Modern and Postmodern Canadian Political Poetry". Essays in Canadian Writing (51-52-Winter 1993/Spring 1994), 321-339.