|
|
Article: "That 'ere Ingian's one of us!": orality and literacy in 'Wacousta.'
- Article from:
- Studies in the Novel
- Article date:
- December 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 University of North Texas. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Once famous and now forgotten internationally, Wacousta endures in Canadian literature not only as a curiosity but because of its preoccupations with the garrison-versus-wilderness theme, which marks so much other Canadian writing; because its world of violence, terror, and-sexual disturbance is so congenial to students of literary modernism; and, finally, because of its sheer exuberance of plot and action. (Duffy, p. 816)(1)
Neither the lover of amorous adventure, nor the admirer of witty dialogue, should dive into these pages. Room for the exercise of the invention might, it is true, be found; but ours is a tale of sad reality, and our heroes and heroines ...