Sounding the Iceberg: An Essay on Canadian Historical Novels by Denis Duffy (review)

15~ LEITERS IN CANADA 1986 seem less relevant to the volume's theme, though they all present some original insights and well-documented arguments. Bonheim's essay is for me the least successful, for his analysis of the 'prairie rhetoric' of Grove and Ross seems drily academic, ignoring or denying the emotional power of 'Snow' and 'The Painted Door.' When he argues, for example, that the smoke suspended above the chimney in Grove's story represents what another critic, in reference to the literature of the middle ages, calls 'the world upside down: it is clear that his understanding of a frigid, windless prairie is incomplete. Grove's point is surely that the world in which Reddiff froze to death is the normal one for all who live there, and not one that is somehow out of order. But the volume on the whole constitutes a worthwhile collection of creative, personal, and critical literary achievements, even though the editors' hope that Canadian and European perspectives would 'complement and correct each other' is not completely fulfilled. What we have is neither as predictable as this formula suggests nor as exotic as the zoometaphor implies, but rather some individual expressions of the literary possibilities inherent in the myths and realities of Canada. (HALLVARD DAHLIE) Denis Duffy. Sounding the Iceberg: All EsSilY on CalIadiaII Historical Novels ECW Press. 84. $25.00, $10.00 paper 'The oddness, the strange differences between then and now sometimes give you the feeling that here we are, the warm, living and visible tip of a cold invisible dead iceberg below the surface of time.' This quotation from AI Purdy's 'Life with Father' gave Denis Duffy the title for his survey of Canadian historical fiction in both French and English, from the publication of Richardson's Wacousta (1832) to the contemporary work ofFindley, Hebert, Gibson, and Wiebe. The works of Kirby, Aubert de Gaspe, Parker, and others, were read and valued in nineteenth-century Canada, but their genre, the historical romance, fell into disrepute under the pressures ofa critical search for 'realism' in our fiction. Then, by the 1970s, the use of historical themes and settings by some of our best and most serious writers became impossible to ignore. 'Something inherent in the nature of historical fiction must be calling forth their highest powers.' Duffy's challenge has been to discern and elucidate a certain pattern in this process. This is a slim volume. Duffy spends a minimum of time on historical contexts. He is not interested, for instance, in tracing the overpowering influence of Walter Scott on the historical novel of the nineteenth century and on the reader's concomitant expectations of that genre. The task the author set himself could have, perhaps should have, supported a much HUMANITIES 159 longer and detailed study. As it stands, however, this is a valuable, wide-ranging introduction to the subject, guaranteed to awaken curiosity about many a forgotten or neglected title as well as to startle us into a new and refreshing 'historical' perspective on many works by contemporary writers. His three chapters, divided into the periods "832-"9"9, 1919-66, and 1970-85, are given weight and further usefulness by excellent notes and bibliographies. In short, this is a starter's text - it could, and I hope will, lead to many another investigation. Duffy finds and voices an interesting contradiction at the beginning of his study: The novels here vary in many respects. In terms of the national mythologies they present, they align themselves around two poles. One group offers a national vision that is confident and inclusive, optimistic in its belief that the future holds for Canada the heap ofprizes reserved for a unified and contented people. The other group offers a continued struggle for survival. ... It might seem that the first ideology would originate in English Canada during its high imperial period, the second from French Canada. But that is not wholly correct. A perennial exception in almost any discussion of Canadian fiction confounds this neat polarity. With this encapsulating opinion clearly set forth on page 3, combined with his introduction's frank statement of limitations, Duffy goes on to consider a very wide range...