Framing Truths: Parodic Structures in Contemporary English-Canadian Historical Novels

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

This book belongs to a rather loosely organized University of Toronto
Press series entitled “Theory/Culture,” so my own unashamed—or
shameless—“resistance to theory” (as Paul de Man would say) may
explain why I approached it with some skepticism. Kuester’s
introductory chapter seems to me excessively detailed and abstract, but
I also got the sense that he was going through the motions expected of
him in contemporary critical fashion. Basically, his main point is that
parody is not necessarily burlesque but rather a structural technique,
“the taking up of literary structures from . . . preceding texts and
integrating them into a new context or frame by repeating them with a
difference, and with a purpose.”

But the proof of the theoretical pudding is in the practical-critical
eating, and, when he gets down to specific texts, Kuester shows himself
to be thoughtful, intelligent, and perceptive, even if, for my taste, he
takes over supposedly up-to-date assumptions a little too readily. In
the second chapter he applies his principles to “three Canadian novels
of ‘classical’ status”—Richardson’s Wacousta, Grove’s
Consider Her Ways, and Buckler’s The Mountain and the Valley—and in
each case produces challenging and worthwhile readings.

The main chapters are devoted to Findley’s The Wars and Famous Last
Words, Bowering’s A Short Sad Book and Burning Water, and Atwood’s
Bodily Harm and The Handmaid’s Tale. I find the first of these
excellent, one of the best discussions of Findley’s work I know. Those
on Bowering and Atwood, while interesting, encounter problems. Kuester
is a cautious—even timid—critic, and one detects an unease with
Bowering’s flippancy that he is not prepared to elaborate. With
Atwood, he ignores the fact that she is a decidedly independent feminist
and so accepts without question what I see as mainstream-feminist
simplifications of her work.

I’m not sure how confirmed theorists will react to Kuester’s book.
Others should not be daunted. One may not agree with all that he says
about Canadian parodic historical novels, but his views are always worth
pondering. Readers interested in the authors he discusses cannot afford
to ignore his arguments.