PhD Dissertation Abstract:
Anti-Imperialism, Feminism, and Margaret Laurence
This thesis understands Margaret Laurence's developing anti-imperialist and feminist ideologies by examining how they intersect with one another in both Africa and Canada. It situates Laurence's anti-imperialist and feminist beliefs within theory regarding Western constructions of Africa, and specifically looks at how such Western constructions of Africa are outlined and critiqued by theorists such as V. Y. Mudimbe, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Anne McClintock. This thesis delineates how Laurence confronts Africa as she confronts a personal and collective history, and in the case of her memoir, how she seeks to understand Africa as she seeks to understand herself as a constructed feminine subject. Regarding Laurence's Canadian work, this thesis demonstrates how the Canadian works of fiction express Laurence's unease with the continual subordination of First Nations and Métis peoples. Laurence's Canadian works of fiction reveal her nationalist belief that Canada should distinguish itself from Britain and the practice of British cultural traditions. Laurence's feminist alignment with the politics of first-wave feminists such as Nellie McClung, the thesis argues,
cannot be reconciled with the oppression Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Chapter one outlines the methodology for the thesis, while chapters two and three analyse Laurence's novel about Africa, This Side Jordan (1960), her memoir about Africa, The Prophet's Camel Bell (1963), and her collection of short stories about Africa, The Tomorrow Tamer (1963). These chapters demonstrate how Laurence is both caught within a history of Western feminism that denigrates the African woman, and yet aligned with African "womanists," such as Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, who are as concerned with race as they are with gender. Chapter four considers Laurence's The Diviners (1974) in relation to emerging multiculturalism in Canada, the new open-door immigration policy, and the impending Canadian constitution. Chapter five considers Laurence's collection of political and travel essays, Heart of a Stranger (1976), and her correspondence with Imperial Oil in 1974. Essentially, the thesis argues that Laurence occupies a fraught subject position as an anti-imperialist who is often aligned with a history of imperial
practices both in Africa and Canada.
cannot be reconciled with the oppression Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Chapter one outlines the methodology for the thesis, while chapters two and three analyse Laurence's novel about Africa, This Side Jordan (1960), her memoir about Africa, The Prophet's Camel Bell (1963), and her collection of short stories about Africa, The Tomorrow Tamer (1963). These chapters demonstrate how Laurence is both caught within a history of Western feminism that denigrates the African woman, and yet aligned with African "womanists," such as Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, who are as concerned with race as they are with gender. Chapter four considers Laurence's The Diviners (1974) in relation to emerging multiculturalism in Canada, the new open-door immigration policy, and the impending Canadian constitution. Chapter five considers Laurence's collection of political and travel essays, Heart of a Stranger (1976), and her correspondence with Imperial Oil in 1974. Essentially, the thesis argues that Laurence occupies a fraught subject position as an anti-imperialist who is often aligned with a history of imperial
practices both in Africa and Canada.
Laura K Davis, Ph.D.
Writer | Educator | Scholar
Writer | Educator | Scholar