Constructions of Identity in Alistair MacLeod's Fiction

121 Pages·2011·1.14 MB·English

http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/

Research Commons at the University of Waikato

Copyright Statement:
The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand).
The thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the
Act and the following conditions of use:
 Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private
study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person.
 Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author’s right
to be identified as the author of the thesis, and due acknowledgement will be
made to the author where appropriate.
 You will obtain the author’s permission before publishing any material from the
thesis.
‘His great heart remained behind’:
Constructions of Identity in Alistair MacLeod’s
Fiction

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of

Master of Arts
in
English

at

by
Freya Hill

———
The University of Waikato
2011

i

Table of Contents

Table of Contents i
Abstract ii
Acknowledgements iii-iv
Dedication v

Introduction:
A Beginning 1 - 19

Chapter One:
A Kingdom of the Mind: Scotland 20 - 41

Chapter Two:
Stepping Forward, Looking Back: Journeys 42 - 62

Chapter Three:
Horse and Hound: Animals 63 - 82

Chapter Four:
Burdening Bodies: Death 84 - 103

Conclusion 104-108

Bibliography 109-113
ii

Abstract

Alistair MacLeod‘s short stories and novel (No Great Mischief) are widely read and
critically praised. His writing focuses on the lives of the people of 20th century Cape
Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and many of his characters are of Scottish descendent. He
writes of the Island‘s miners, fishermen and farmers, as well as the younger generation
who increasingly leave their island homeland to pursue higher education and greater job
opportunities. As a result of this out-migration, much of MacLeod‘s work mourns the
passing of the Island‘s traditional, rural culture. MacLeod‘s writing combines detailed
and compelling physical description with metaphor and symbolism. This thesis looks at
the ways in which the identity of the Islanders is constructed in MacLeod‘s work; and
how the myths of the Islanders‘ minds collide with the physical reality of their lives. The
four main themes that are analysed in the thesis are: Scotland, Journeys, Animals, and
Death. Scotland is depicted as both a physical location, and a mythical ‗homeland‘,
synonymous with the exile and victimisation associated with the Scottish Diaspora. The
Islanders‘ lives are defined by the journeys they make to and from the Island. The modes
of transport that enable these journeys are explored, including boats, cars and aeroplanes.
Physical journeys often support the emotional journeys of the characters. ‗Horse and
Hound‘, the chapter on animals, provides a unique analysis of MacLeod‘s depiction of the
human-animal relationship (seen especially with horses and dogs), and animal symbolism.
The deaths and ill treatment of whales, bulls and dogs are linked to the demise of the
Island‘s traditional culture. Violent and premature deaths occur in many of MacLeod‘s
works. This thesis discusses how a dead body is both a symbol of a life lost, but also a
physical object which the families must deal with in their isolated island locations.
iii

Acknowledgements

The process of researching and writing this thesis has been made so much more enjoyable
thanks to my delightful and dedicated supervisors, Dr Mark Houlahan and Dr Kirstine
Moffat. Thank you for your enthusiasm on the topic; for your encouragement of travels
beyond the Waikato in the name of research; for wading through many drafts and ‗pre-
drafts‘ of the chapters; and for asking to hear more about ‗the dog‘, a request which
sparked the creation of ‗Horse and Hound‘.
Thanks to the English department staff and post-graduate students, who are a lively and
dedicated group of scholars. Special thanks to Rowena McCoy for proof-reading the
thesis.
I have been privileged to receive financial support for this thesis from the University of
Waikato, and from the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand
(ACSANZ). I am very grateful for these scholarships.
Thank you to the staff of the Gorsebrook Research Institute for Atlantic Canada Studies,
St. Mary‘s University (Halifax) for making my research trip to Halifax so rewarding and
fruitful.
I am blessed to have wonderful friends who listened to my rambles about the joys and
trails of ‗thesising‘. My particular thanks to Aimee Stevenson, Hannah Mueller and Sarah
Knox, for their love, humour, and our shared adventures around the Waikato; and to
Lénie Tessier-Beaulieu for making November the very best time of year to visit Canada.
To my brother Orlando and sisters Sophie and Gabrielle Hill, whose diverse talents and
achievements are inspiring and whose friendship is much valued.
iv

Finally, my greatest thanks to my parents, George and Susan Hill, for their unwavering
understanding and love throughout years of my academic triumphs, tears and tantrums.
Your support in countless ways has made this degree possible. Thank you so very much.
v

‗All of us are better when we‘re loved.‘
No Great Mischief, Alistair MacLeod

Dedicated to those who love me, and make me better for it.
1

Preface

Throughout the course of researching this thesis, many people have asked how, as a
student at a New Zealand university, I came to be studying the works of a writer from
Nova Scotia. Some people have assumed that the stories I have been studying can only
have relevance to those from the Cape Breton of which Alistair MacLeod writes, or who
have experienced the lives and losses which inspired him. It is true that you can read
MacLeod‘s works as being from Cape Breton, from Nova Scotia, from Canada, but only
if you choose to view them through such lens. What young person reads MacLeod‘s
earlier stories, like ‗The Vastness of The Dark‘, and cannot relate to the bittersweet
feeling of leaving home? For myself, I read ‗The Boat‘ and think of my grandfather, who
spent a lifetime farming in the King Country of New Zealand. I think of an intelligent but
illiterate man who sacrificed an education in order to farm because it was a means for him
to support his family, and, as MacLeod puts it, it is ‗braver to spend a life doing what you
really do not want than selfishly following forever your dreams and inclinations‘ (21).1 I
also think of my father‘s decision to pursue a university education, and thus escape the
physical labouring life that his father had endured.

I see my own family in MacLeod‘s stories because his stories are universal. He writes of
the human journey, which is irrespective of time or place. His stories focus on the daily
tragedies and triumphs as well as the larger events which mark our lives. He captures the
loss of innocence in ‗Second Spring‘, the first lie told in ‗Winter Dog‘, and the
bittersweet reunion of a family around a hospital bed in ‗As Birds Bring Forth the Sun‘.
MacLeod‘s use of language and imagery transforms deformed miners into modern
Highland warriors and the description of a dead seal into ‗something more arresting than

1 All references to MacLeod‘s short stories come from Island: Collected Stories (London: Vintage,
2002). All page references given in parenthesis.
2

life itself‘ (260). In the beginning stages of this project, when asked why I was studying
Alistair MacLeod, I would explain that I have Canadian heritage, and like MacLeod, I am
a descendent of Scottish emigrants. But that answer is really an explanation of how I
came to read MacLeod. I studied MacLeod because his work is rich, well-crafted and
challenging, and what more could a student of English Literature ask for.