The desire to articulate desire : voice in selected works of Margaret Laurence

In this thesis, I take a close look at the operation of language in both Margaret Laurence's fictional works A Jest of God and The Diviners in conjunction with her autobiographical work Dance on the Earth and her letters to Al Purdy. My focus is on the voice(s) of Rachel Cameron and Morag Gunn in comparison to what I perceive to be Laurence's own voice. Deconstructing the language of these voices unravels the problems that the two fictional characters have with finding a voice: Rachel's struggle to articulate her self and her desires, and Morag's endeavor to formulate a parole with which to express her self. In relation to the characters' voices, I look at how Laurence expresses her own drives and self in a type of dance in the writing of her own voice. Throughout the analysis, I refer to French feminist theory on language and the body from the writings of Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray and Héléne Cixous as their particular theoretical ideas elucidate and illuminate the voices in Laurence's fiction, her memoir and her letters. At the end of my analysis, I arrive at the conclusion that author and characters share common concerns about finding a voice and articulating desire in the process of establishing identity. I am also left with the understanding of what Laurence feels it is to speak "as a woman writer".