A voice of one's own: the construction of identity and gender in Margaret Laurence's "Manawaka cycle" texts

Abstract

Mnohoznacny nazev diplomove prace, "Svuj vlastni hlas: Konstrukce identity a genderu v textech Manawaka cyklu Margaret Laurence," naznacuje dvoji cH: v prvni fade se prace zabYva zkoumanim psychologickeho vYvoje postav, zejmena procesem pfekonavani vnejsich definid identity a doprovodnych genderovYch rolf a formulovanim vlastniho nezavisleho sebeurceni. V druhe rovine prace projednava analogii mezi procesem sebeurceni postav a vznikem nezavisle kanadske literatury v ramci postkolonialniho paradigmatu. Prace stanovi tezi, ze zkoumany proces sebeurceni je obdobnya v oblasti problematiky genderu plati dvojnasob. V uvodnf kapitole je nastinena problematika a stanoveny dIe. Vzhledem k tomu, ze Laurence ve sve tvorbe vychazi do znacne miry z autobiograficke zkusenosti, zacina druha kapitola strucnym zivotopisem spisovatelky, kratkYm pfedstavenfm vYznamu del Manawaka cyklu a strucnym shrnutfm deje textu, ktere budou rozebirany podrobne, tj. romanu The Stone Angel (Kamenny andel) a The Diviners (HledaCi pramenu).1 Dale tato kapitola pfiblizuje kulturni pomery v Kanade v sedesatych letech dvacateho stoleti a nastirmje rozsah pfinosu Laurenceove. Tfeti kapitola se zabYva konstrukd identity ve vybranych textech. Zkouma napeti mezi "strukturou a pusobenim," a mezi objektivnimi a subjektivnimi prvky formovani identity v...

Margaret Laurence (1926-87) has been called "Canada's most successful novelist,"l "the most significant creative writer in Canadian literature,"2 as well as "the most renowned writer in Canadian literary history."3 A bearer of the distinguished Molson Prize, and of the Governor General Award twice,4 a Nobel Prize in Literature nominee in 1982,5 a receiver of a number of honorary doctorates from prestigious Canadian universities, and a Companion of the Order of Canada,6 she played a key role in establishing the canon of the newly emergent Canadian literature and placing it on the global literary map. As Kristjana Gunnars argues, Laurence "has been a founding mother of Canadian literature. She has given voice to the Manitoba prairie. She has raised the value of all sectors of society by showing the full humanity of the most neglected and forgotten among us. From her example, we have learned the value of Canadian literature and culture; the importance of art to that culture; the necessity of honesty in a dangerous time in history; the truth of fiction and poetry."?