ENG215H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Earthbound, Carl Jung, Role Reversal
ENG215 Lecture 6 September 25, 2018
1. Recap on Prairie Realism
a. Consider the focus on the efforts to settle, cultivate, and farm the land in the
early part of the twentieth century in Western Canada
b. Consider the sympathy for and orientation towards the female characters
c. Consider the representation of regional setting and the unique or specific
characteristics of a particular area, in this case the rural landscapes of the
prairies
i. These settings possess real interest for grove and ross
ii. These settings go beyond merely establishing the time and place of the
story and also establish the atmosphere
iii. We talked about one of the refrains: natural environments can be
disruptive to personal relationships but also a source of spiritual gain
2. Morley Callaghan
a. Move away from a specific locale: not regional
b. He is noted for wanting to set his story not in a particular space to appeal to the
widest readership
c. We can see a shift from a setting and location, to an urban one
d. There is a reference to the train in page 12 and avenue 6
e. Also see a strong focus on interiority of a character’s thoughts (start recording)
f. Object of praise and controversy
i. One of Canada’s most successful short story writers and befriended many
successful writers; also published in the top publishers
ii. But: he is more involved in modernism and more open to international
influences than most of the other Canadian writers
iii. Can contrast his story from grove and ross’ stories: not that “Canadian”
iv. His story stands out in the way at which it does not take up the themes or
issues but focus on the thoughts and thinking of the male protagonist
v. The story doesn’t take place in any place in a “Canadian way”
vi. His choice to universalise his characters and the settings helped him to
gain an international market
vii. To Canadian critics, they felt that that strategy was at the denial of his
Canadian identity
viii. This tells us the literary expectations and tastes of the middle of 20th
century
ix. There is an implied expectation that a Canadian writer had to write about
Canadian themes
g. His modern writing style
i. Plain-style realism
ii. Straight-forward descriptions of sensory experience
iii. Spare and unsentimental prose
iv. Restricted point of view (filtered through the consciousness of an
individual character) (See page 51)
1. In this case, the story is told with the assistance of a narrator
filtered through Alfred Higgins
v. Interest in psychology and the human unconscious
vi. Interest in the changes and social mores and manners that came after
WWI
1. There was a shift and a destabilization of which was considered to
be normative and stable in many aspects of social and cultural life
vii. Interest in the changes that redefine male-female relations
h. From Poe we inherit a focus in short story theories and definitions on:
i. The achievement of a single effect
ii. Unity of impression
iii. Compression
i. Poe’s theory builds a canonic model for a concept of a short story
i. Necessary concentration on a single character and event
ii. Compression of a life into a single revealing segment
iii. Integration of effect
iv. Consistency of tone
v. Necessary culminating moment -the Joycean epiphany
j. In many ways, callaghan’s story follows this model
i. Follows a single character (Alfred Higgins)
ii. Story develops a unified plot in which the action is continuous within a
single day
iii. It culminates an epiphany at the end in relation to his mother
k. Epiphany
i. From the Greek meaning “manifestation”
ii. “an intuitive grasp of reality achieved in a quick flash of recognition in
which something, usually simple and commonplace, is seen in a new
light”
iii. As Joyce says, “its soul, its whatness leaps to us from the vestment of its
appearance” this sudden insight is the epiphany.
iv. From a handbook to literature, holman and harmon
l. The story focus on Alfred’s perception: what he sees and understands, and the
shift of this perception
All the Years of Her Life
1. Page 51
a. Third person narration
b. But also focuses on Alfred Higgin’s thoughts
c. Narrator’s speech and characters’ thoughts are fused
d. We can see his thoughts and perception of his mother and Sam Carr
e. The vocabulary is consistent with and replicates Alfred’s thoughts
f. It offers interior experience and intimate access to Alfred’s mind
g. It gives us access to the way Alfred sees things and also acts of perception
Document Summary
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