The Carpathians - University of British Columbia

Mennonite background will find this volume
stimulating reading. The editors' decision
to combine academic papers with
poetry and stories adds to the volume's
appeal and comprehensiveness, and
attempts to bridge the often artificial gap
between academics and writers.
The collection manages to give a sense of
the broad range of writing done by
Mennonites in Canada, but also of the
range of topics and perspectives currently
addressed in research. The establishment of
a literary tradition of this minority culture
is an underlying concern in Al Reimer's
paper on "The Role of Arnold Dyck in
Canadian Mennonite Writing," Harry
Loewen's exploration of "The Beginning of
Russian-Mennonite Literature in Canada,
with a Focus on Gerhard Loewen," and
Clara Thomas' essay on "Western Women's
Writing of "The Childhood" and Anne
Konrad's The Blue Jar." At the same time,
many myths integral to much of the earlier
literature, together with the myth of constructing
a coherent literary tradition, are
questioned by other contributors. Both
papers on the father image in poetry by
Victor Doerksen and Magdalene Redekop's
exploration of images of the mother expose
fundamentals on which the Mennonite
community has depended for a long time
but that are challenged by many contemporary
writers. One of the foremost concerns
of many papers is language, how it has been
used and colonized, and how it can be
decolonized by Mennonite writers.
Viewpoints differ concerning the purpose
and implications of using (Low) German
phrases or syntax in a predominantly
English text, of using plain speech and/or
the art of "derjche Bloom rade," a form of
conversational irony ("literally, speaking
through the flower,"). According to Hildi
Froese Tiessen, for example, the use of
(Low) German adds to the creation of barriers
that separate Mennonites from the
contemporary social order, while W.J. Keith
argues for the "non-verbal message" of the
German insets whose meanings—or so he
suggests—do not really matter. A similar
tension is created between the need
expressed for autobiographical writing and
the self-conscious look in the mirror
(Magdalene Redekop, Di Brandt), versus
those who warn against too much navelgazing
(Rudy Wiebe) or an over-valuing of
one's community at the expense of seeing
literature as art in the world (David
Arnason). Overall, the reader will discern
different, often competing directionss: a literary
community trying to set itself apart,
attempting to integrate itself into the mainstream,
and/or negotiating given literary
categories themselves.
Cultural Transformation
Samuel Hynes
A War Imagined: The First World War and English
Culture. Bodley Head $39.95 cloth
Elizabeth A. Marsland
The Nation's Cause: French, English and German
Poetry of the First World War. Routledge $93.00
cloth
Lynne Hanley
Writing War: Fiction, Gender & Memory. U of
Massachusetts P $24.95 cloth; $12.95 paper
Reviewed by Evelyn Cobley
Samuel Hynes's A War Imagined is a
painstakingly researched study of the social
and cultural transformation produced by
the events of the First World War. Hynes
documents this transformation through
well-chosen examples from fiction, newspapers,
parliamentary debates, art criticism,
diaries, letters, poetry, drama,
painting, film, and music. From the
arrangement of his examples there emerges
a picture of the first three decades of this
century whose comprehensiveness does not
interfere with the narrative power of the
story he tells.