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Articles

Volume 03, Number 2 (1978)

"Between One Cliche and Another": Language in The Double Hook

  • Barbara Godard
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1978-06-06

Abstract

The Double Hook is a dramatization of the beginnings of language and cultural order; the revolutionary qualities in Sheila Watson's writing are a consequence of her ‘femaleness.' Working with the idea of women's linguistic alienation by ‘masculine' grammatical rules and syntax, readers can view The Double Hook as a transitional text to the work of Helene Cixous, Gagnon, and Nicole Brossard. Watson attempts to base fiction on an interrogation of the origins of language through the use of metalanguage, abstraction, condensation, dislocation, repetition, and leitmotifs.