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Regions in time : Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s The cure for death by lightning and Ann-Marie Macdonald’s Fall on your knees

This thesis examines the methods through which Gail Anderson-Dargatz and Ann-Marie
MacDonald construct region in their novels The Cure for Death by Lightning and Fall on
Your Knees. These texts, like all successful regional novels, describe more than
geography. Their regions are also functions of time. I introduce the term "temporal
region" to describe the spaces created by this interdependence of time and place. I then
focus upon the specifics of descriptive and narrative approach that lead to the convincing
portrayal of the Shuswap and Cape Breton Island in the texts. Anderson-Dargatz and
MacDonald direct attention to the foddways of their regions, expressing the connection
between consumption choices and a society's historical and physical location. The authors
also articulate their regions by highlighting cultural diversity in the areas they describe. In
this way they deny the social homogeneity more sentimental regional texts often rely upon.
Finally, the novelists use an appropriately Canadian method of regional opposition to
define their temporal regions according to that which they are not ~ they are not
American, glamorous, or urban. They therefore must be Canadian, quotidian, and rural. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/10445
Date05 1900
CreatorsLewis, Tanya
Source SetsUniversity of British Columbia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis/Dissertation
Format4817667 bytes, application/pdf
RightsFor non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

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