Mavis Gallant and the Politics of Cruelty

Author: Condé, M.

Source: The Yearbook of English Studies, Volume 31, Number 1, 1 January 2001 , pp. 168-181(14)

Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association

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Abstract:

Mavis Gallant is a writer with a very strong sense of the dangers of fascism. A Canadian who has lived permanently in Paris since 1975, she has in her journalism been constantly alert to French anti-Semitism. In `Malcolm and Bea' she investigates the horrifying possibilities of human behaviour through the crude and self-pitying appropriation of the word `Pichipoi', a term coined by Jewish children awaiting deportation, by an expatriate Canadian. In `In the Tunnel' the focus of her narrative of cruelty and exploitation is a painting of Judas in an abandoned chapel in the South of France.

Keywords: fascism; anti-Semitism; Malcolm and Bea; Pichipoi; In the Tunnel; Judas

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Queen Mary and Westfield College, London

Publication date: 2001-01-01

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A supplement to the Modern Language Review, this journal includes articles and reviews on the language and literature of the English-speaking world. Most of the volumes published so far are 'Special Numbers', collections of between fifteen and eighteen commissioned articles on particular topics, such as the impact of the French Revolution on English writers; literature in the modern media; and colonial and imperial themes in literature.