Myth as a Decolonial Force in Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners

This paper examines the symbolic role of myth as a decolonial force in Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, emphasising its function in cultural resistance and identity restoration. Through a poem embedded in the novel, Laurence dramatizes the Métis people’s cultural dislocation, where children’s inability to grasp its meaning reveals estrangement from their mother tongue and ancestral identity. This linguistic rupture signifies deeper spiritual and cultural loss under colonialism. Drawing on decolonial theory and Indigenous epistemologies, the paper argues that Laurence critiques colonial erasure of Indigenous myths and collective memory while simultaneously enacting cultural recovery. Myth emerges as both a site of rupture and a source of resilience, asserting suppressed voices and restoring identity. Ultimately, The Diviners reclaims myth as a living narrative force that resists domination and affirms the necessity of preserving cultural memory.