| dc.description.abstract | The idea of the “self’ as an autonomous whole is no longer sufficient in
contemporary discussions of identity. Individuals are “subjects,” defining themselves
against and through other subjects and their environments. A definitive self is impossible
to achieve—the process is ongoing, fluid, and relational, without a final destination. The
focus of this thesis is an examination of the quest for identity in two novels by Annie
Proulx— The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes.
To facilitate this discussion of the quest for identity, I employ the writings of
Mikhail Bakhtin, and of the dialogic critics that he has influenced. The notion of
“dialogue,” in its broadest sense, reveals that the quest for identity is not a solitary quest.
Each questor is a product o f his or her surroundings, and these surroundings shape the
quest. The quest for identity is a dialogue with place, including both the environment and
the people within it. The situatedness o f the quest for identity is also compounded by
time. Bakhtin’s notion of the “chronotope” (“time-place”) further extends the
interconnectedness of the quests for identity. Characters are dialogically related to each
other through time, as past, present, and future quests intersect. All o f these aspects
illustrate the inconclusivity of the quest for identity.
Chapter 1, “Introducing the Quest,” outlines the critical framework that I use
throughout my thesis. I explore Bakhtin’s notions of “polyphony,” “dialogue,”
“carnivalesque,” and “chronotope,” and explain their relevance both to Proulx’s novels
and to the quest for identity.
Chapter 2, “Untying the Knots: The Shipping News,” applies this framework to
The Shipping News. I focus primarily on Quoyle’s quest for identity, though the quests of the other characters in the novel are important in the dialogic model I employ. To
structure this chapter, the “knots of narrative”—structure, place, and relationships—are
shown to be central to defining the quest for identity.
Chapter 3, “Listen to the Music: Accordion Crimes,” discusses Proulx’s depiction
of the immigrant experience in America. This novel is different from The Shipping News
in that the protagonist is not a human questor but a green button accordion. As the
accordion moves through its various owners, many perspectives of the quest for identity
are presented. I use the metaphor of the “unfinished symphony” to examine this novel,
emphasizing the polyphony of the text, as well as the unfinalizability of the subject.
Chapter 4, “Colouring the Quest,” brings these two novels together and
summarizes their similarities and differences by comparing the major symbols of each
novel—the green house in The Shipping News and the green button accordion in
Accordion Crimes. | |
