Its being is a perpetual critique, leaving assumption after assumption dissected, displayed in its forlorn misappreciation for all to see. Indeed -- and here we go postmodernistly -- is there anything other than an intellectual game involved in the linking of the Great Plains to postmodernism or postmodernism to the scholarly study of regionalism? (Kaye and Thacker 167-8).
There are important ways in which Kroetsch is like other chroniclers of the West. For him, the physical geography of the West is an essential character in his novels. His sense of place is vital in his works, and in this his novels mirror many of the literary works of other writers about the West (Luebke 28). Kroetsch describes how the open spaces of the West, and especially the prairies of Canada, have shaped the lives of the peoples who have lived there, both the people who lived there at first and the people who came later. Kroetsch describes the prairie as lovingly as a lover would describe the object of desire.
Kroetsch writes about Western Canada in a way that suggests both the perspectives of an insider and a foreigner. Lane describes this quality of Kroetsch's writing as being mazelike, a way in which the author seeks to understand his own path as well as helping the reader to empathize with the complexity of this dual identity (19). This passage from his novel Alberta demonstrates that blend of ease and constant surprise:
Maybe that did it, I thought-maybe that was one of the things that turned me into a writer-my playing [softball] far out in the field. The playing, and the watching that went with it. The listening, out there. The wanting to enter the game while fearing that someone might...
The being isolated, out there in the prairie wind and the summer light; my striking up a conversation with a near... By gopher as I watched the pitched ball. . . . The
caring so much, so enduringly, for the movements of small creatures, for the ongoing game, for all the shouting and the
laughter that are some of the various names of love.
Kroetsch writes
love songs to the prairies. But he is a lover who has seen too much of the world to be naive. He knows not only that his
beloved is not perfect, but that love itself is flawed.
Works Cited
Cronon, W. A Place for Stories:
Nature, History, and
Narrative. Journal of American History 78, 1994. 1347-76. Print
Kaye, F. And R. Thacker. "Gone Back to Alberta": Robert Kroetsch Rewriting the Great Plains. Great Plain Quarterly, 2004. 167-186. Print.
Lane, Richard. The Double Guide: Through the Labyrinth with Robert Kroetsch. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature June 28, 1993. 19-27.
Luebke, F.C. Regionalism and the Great Plains," Western Historical Quarterly 15. 1984. 24-38. Print.
Simpson-Housley, Paul and Glen Norcliffe (eds.) a Few Acres of Snow: Literary and Artistic Images of Canada. London: Dundurn, 1993.
