LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 17:12 December 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Influence of Manawaka in the Life of Hagar Shipley:
A Study of Margaret Laurence’s The Stone Angel

Dr. Sumathy K. Swamy
Reshmi KV, Ph.D. Scholar
P.S.G.R. Krishnammal College for Women Coimbatore


Abstract

Margaret Laurence is a short-story writer and an essayist of Canadian literature. She is one of the major novelists in Canadian literature. She is well-known for her Manawaka novels- The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire-Dwellers (1969) and The Diviners (1972), which are the classics of Canadian literature. Margaret Laurence has given much importance to the portrayal of background in her novels. The archetypal Canadian grassland town Manawaka, acts as a background for her novels and it has a close resemblance to Neepawa, Manitoba where Margaret Laurence was born. It acts as a seminal control over the lives of all the major female protagonists in these novels. Initially, Manawaka values are considered as emotional repression, but during the course of their lives, they do recognize the Manawaka values. The novelist uses Manawaka as an essential perception to demonstrate the negative and harmful influences of a place that figure prominently in the personality of her characters for several generations. The present paper examines The Stone Angel and the existence of its vital character Hagar Shipley, who at the age of ninety observes that her being is shaped by Manawaka. Her personality is being influenced by the Manawakan values. At the last stage of her life she accepts the role of the reformer setting in motion the reorganizing of her independence.

Keywords: The Stone Angel, background, Manawaka, Puritanism, repression, Margaret Laurence, reformation.

Introduction

Margaret Laurence has revealed enormous concern and has been very particular about the preference and illustration of background in her works. The level of acceptance of the characters of Margaret Laurence about environment is correlated to her knowledge of this place. Laurence’s attentiveness is developed through her life experiences. It is observed in her writings that her place is the small exemplary Canadian grassland town of her time, Manawaka, has been created on the model of Neepawa, Manitoba where Laurence was born and brought up. It is an imaginary town that is used as a location for her Canadian based fiction, which is at times uncertain, but at the same time acts as an active force. Neepawa was settled in the late 19th century by the people of the Scots-Presbyterian background from Ontario. The Manawakan principles are based on Puritan background and the literary skill of Canadian literature is also influenced by Puritanism. Manawaka plays a major role in both the physical and biographical background of Laurence’s novels such as The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, The Fire Dwellers and The Diviners. The Manawakan heritage acts as a link between the novels as well as the characters. Though the protagonists are very different in the aspects of life Hagar, Rachel, Stacey and Morag belong to the product of the same background. They display a lot of comparable descriptions.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Sumathy K. Swamy
Associate Professor
sumathykswamy45@gmail.com

Reshmi KV, Ph.D. Scholar
reshmienglish@gmail.com

Department of English
P.S.G.R. Krishnammal College for Women
Coimbatore 641004
Tamilnadu
India

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