Oldal 55 [55]
THE RESONANCE OF MANAWAKA:
LANDSCAPES OF RECONCILIATION IN MARGARET
LAURENCES MANAWAKA SERIES
——o—
PAVLiINA STUDENA
Abstract
During the 1960s and 1970s, Prairie fiction and literary criticism predominantly
adopted a regionalist perspective. However, with gender, class, and ethnicity
in the spotlight, this perception of the region has shifted from a preoccupation
with physical landscapes toward the explorations of individual spaces of peo¬
ple inhabiting this distinct region and their inner landscapes. In Margaret
Laurence’s Manawaka series, the vast expanse of the Canadian Prairies serves
as a transformative literary landscape in which Laurence weaves together the
stories of settlers and the Métis, representing both the dominant and margin¬
alized communities. Laurence challenges the prevailing Pioneer myth of
conquering uninhibited land by emphasizing the role of the landscape as a
catalyst for transformation for her protagonists. By interweaving the region’s
mythological past into the protagonists’ journeys towards self-discovery,
independence and dignity, Laurence conveys the idea of reconciliation on both
personal and national levels. This paper focuses on the opening and conclud¬
ing Manawaka novels, The Stone Angel (1964) and The Diviners (1974), aiming
to trace how Laurence employs various landscapes, whether Prairie, mytho¬
logical, ancestral, or imaginary, as potent instruments aiding the protagonists
— and metaphorically Canada itself - in the process of transformation and
liberation. These landscapes also symbolize reconciliation with nature, colonial
history, and Indigenous heritage.
Keywords: identity; landscape, Manawaka, Margaret Laurence, prairie
fiction, reconciliation, transformation
Résumé
Au cours des années 1960 et 1970, la fiction et la critique littéraire des Prairies
ont surtout adopté une perspective régionaliste. Cependant, avec la mise en
lumiére des questions de genre, de classe et d’ethnicité, cette perception de la
région est passée d’une préoccupation pour les paysages physiques à l'exploration
des espaces individuels des habitants de cette région distincte et de leurs
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