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Notes and Commentaries

Volume 06, Number 1 (1981)

Will the Real R. Mark Madham Please Stand Up: A Note on Robert Kroetsch's Gone Indian

  • Arnold E. Davidson
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1981-01-01

Abstract

The starting point for any Kroetsch novel is the recognition of the importance of the "old dualities" -- chaos/order, life/death, freedom (movement)/stasis, beginnings/endings, youth/age. Gone Indian abounds in binary distinctions; indeed, these paired opposites are also played off against each other. Moreover, one dual polarity (the difference between the real and the imagined Professor R. Mark Madham, the similarity between Jeremy Sadness and his very different professor) is so playfully presented that it may not be present at all -- which is simply another dichotomy.