The Realism of Laurence’s Semi-Autobiographical Fiction

Abstract

Realistic fiction, David Lodge has argued, ‘works by concealing the art by which it is produced and invites discussion in terms of ethics and thematics rather than poetics and aesthetics’.¹ Margaret Laurence’s attitude towards her own writing tends to confirm this view. Her work leaves the critic uneasy over the problem which Lodge’s statement implies: that such a mode of vision appears to grant a higher priority to the content of a novel than to its form. Laurence has characteristically asserted that ‘theorising, by itself, is meaningless in connection with fiction’.² But she has been ready to comment in detail on the ethical and thematic interest of her novels. Above all, her comments convey a deep respect for realism, for the novel as a medium which continues to represent the ordinary experiences of daily life. Perhaps her strongest conviction and most emphatic claim is represented by the simple statement that, There is a lot of history in my fiction.’³ The distrust of ‘theorising’ and the assimilation of fiction to history indicate an uncompromising commitment to a realistic procedure. This commitment, which deserves closer analysis, is most evident in the collection of stories A Bird in the House, described by the author as ‘the only semi-autobiographical fiction I have ever written’.⁴