Jean Rivard - University of British Columbia

'knowability' of historical reality" whereas
Canadian authors emphasize "the constructive
and re-constructive quality of historiographie
fiction." Although the volume
lacks essays on Canadian women authors,
Native American and Canadian writers,
and the French-Canadian novel, this is a
carefully edited, stimulating collection.
E.L. Doctorow, Robert Coover, and
Thomas Pynchon are, of course, among the
American writers represented in this volume.
Their oeuvres are also featured in
Metafiction, Moving Pictures, Moving
Histories: Der historische Roman in der
Literatur der amerikanischen Postmoderne,
which is based on Irmer's recent doctoral
dissertation. He defines historiographie
metafiction as a new type of historical
novel. Through the study of this much
debated genre and in particular of the issue
of representation, he also hopes to contribute
to the interdisciplinary study of
postmodernism.
Irmer's ambitious project discusses the
connections between the emergence of historiographie
metafiction and the increasing
relevance of mass media (especially film
and television but also print media and
computers) in America in the sixties and
seventies. He views Doctorow's literary
adaptations of the narrative structures of
television, especially his use of discontinuity
in The Book of Daniel, the cinematic
quality of Ragtime as well as Pynchon's use
of mixed media in Gravity's Rainbow as
part of the larger aesthetic context of a
developing new consciousness. For Irmer,
the meta-semiotics of reading history in the
novel is a form of epistemological cultural
criticism, as it is ultimately directed at the
construction of historical meaning outside
of the literary text.
Reflections on Poetry
François Dumont
Usages de la poésie; Le discours des poètes
québécois sur la fonction de la poésie (1945-1970).
Presses de l'Université Laval $27.00
Paul Chanel Malenfant
La partie et le tout: lectures de Fernand Ouellette
et Roland Giguère. Presses de l'Université Laval
$18.00
Reviewed by Sandra Hobbs
In his essay on the function of poetry in
Québec, Dumont clearly establishes the
parameters of his study from the outset.
The choice of time period (1945-1970) is
well justified: 1945 by the emergence of
post-war French discussion led by Sartre on
the role of literature in general and poetry
in particular, and 1970 by the staging of the
"Nuit de la poésie" and the publication of
Gaston Miron's L'homme rapaillé. In general,
Dumont is careful to limit his material
to the reflections of poets themselves on the
function of poetry. The approach taken is
essentially diachronic, demonstrating an
evolution in the view poets held of the
function of their work in society.
Throughout the study, Dumont emphasizes
the effects of the rapid evolution of
Québécois literature: rather than one point
of view giving way to another, Dumont
observes that approaches tend to become
superimposed. New "generations" of poets
succeed one another very rapidly. Indeed, it
was quite common for the same poet to
identify with different generations in succession,
often modifying or even contradicting
previously held views in the
process. Nonetheless, an overall progression
is distinguished, which is described in
terms of topo'r. the first is one of unity, the
second one of discordance and the third
one of rupture. In establishing these topo'i,
the role of the literary institution is emphasized
over the contributions of individual
poets. Poets are grouped around journals:
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