Alistair MacLeod, "As Birds Bring Forth the Sun" (1986)
Issue: MacLeod is from a 'colonized' culture -- western Scotland, Gaelic-speaking natives who were dispossessed during the Highland clearances, many of whom emigrated to eastern Canada (emigrants began arriving in Cape Breton from the 1780s). How different does this make the story? -- in terms of:
- the double perspective of two cultures
- language, signs of it being adopted
- use of time
Double perspective:
- contrast of legendary Gaelic story and modern-day Toronto/Montreal
- indeterminacy of setting until the last section: Highland? (either western Scotland or Cape Breton?)
- incorporates a foreign language
- very little dialogue (hence less specific, more mythic in effect)
- covers a long span of time (six generations)
- folklore-like introduction ("Once there was a family . . ."), contrast with modern situation
- nameless characters, no time location (at first)
- legend, haunting by dog, given oddly up-to-date descriptions: "a genetic possibility"; man's descendents are "like careful hemophiliacs"; liability is like a "repeated cancer" (223)
Language:
- story is graphic, descriptive (e.g., last para. p. 220 about helping dogs mate)
- use of Gaelic language: term for "big grey dog" more effective, makes it more of an icon/monster
- "You cannot not know what you do know" (224 [+ 218]): language and legend of dog interconnected
- Gaelic language a part of MacLeod's background, rhythms evident in his English
- language: sentence construction largely from sequential phrases (avoiding subordinate phrases); frequent use of "and" to start phrases or sentences -- traces of oral story-telling language (memory limitations in contrast with reading print text)
Time:
indefinite past of opening, "Once there was . . ." (219); "they were into summer and fall and winter and another spring" (221)
chronology: 3 sections:
- the dog (219-223, line 2)
- family history (223-4, line 2)
- the deathbed (224)
MacLeod's comments:
- his "theory"? the presence of history in a moment, "what it is like to be living a certain kind of life . . ." (361)
- "writer should care or 'feel' deeply about his subject" (362)
- the power of story: above passing critical trends, "different religions" (362)
- that great literature seems to emanate from 'bad places' (362)
Links: Celtic Reader Musings; brief profile; index of other links (dmoz)
Document created November 4th 2002