Negotiating Place : Explorations of Identity and Nature in Select Novels by Contemporary Canadian Women Writers

Abstract

In my thesis, I explore this dynamic through close readings of select novels by contemporary Canadian women writers. Specifically, I examine the representations of non-human nature and landscape in their novels, and the respective characters' engagement with place in order to question how these writers interrogate alterity, subjectivity and the culture/nature dichotomy. The novels in this study include : Daphne Marlatt's "Ana Historic," Aritha van Herk's "Places Far From Ellesmere," and Lee Maracle's "Ravensong." Each of these texts is notable for its engagement with place, landscape, and non-human nature in relationship to the human characters portrayed. The three novels in this study depict often intimate engagements with "place," with place encompassing the interaction of the body with the non-human world, and a relational sense of self.