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Articles

Volume 09, Number 1 (1984)

Narrative Uncertainty in Duncan's The Imperialist

  • Peter Allen
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1984-01-01

Abstract

Sara Jeanette Duncan's The Imperialist has as its theme the ambiguity of Canadian identity and…the mixture of excitement and scepticism…with which we viewed our role in the British Empire. The inconsistencies in the narrative raises the question of whether it is flawed or not. The elaborate, careful construction seems to suggest that the narrative uncertainty is a conscious device, employed to parallel the theme of identity and the characters' keenly-felt tenuousness. Duncan is an eloquent and important witness to the ambiguity of our developing national identity of turn-of-the-century Canada.