| In this thesis I demonstrate that both the genre of autobiographical writing and the concept of home are historical products of humanist thinking. Consequently, those autobiographical writers who, without interrogating their very definition of the word "home," refer to their homes in order to create an autobiographical self, predetermine that this self will adhere to a humanist definition of selfhood and, in turn, be the very self that is sanctioned by the genre of autobiography. Referring to Margaret Laurence's Dance on the Earth, I show that Laurence, by contextualizing her self within the humanist home, assures the reader both that she is a subject worthy of autobiographical writing and that she lived as a "good" mother. Moreover, I argue that, in adhering to dominant mythologies in order to construct an autobiographical persona, Margaret Laurence belies the complexity of the life she undoubtedly lived. |
