Moral Metafiction The Novels of Timothy Findley

Examines Findley's novels, from "The Last of the Crazy People" through "The Telling of Lies," for the ways in which their use of metafictive devices pose specifically ethical challenges for readers. Findley's novels dramatize the process of interpretation and interrogation of dominant discourses from the point of view of those subjects either already marginalized by history or who choose to repudiate dominant texts and thus become marginalized. As revisionist texts, these novels tell history from the losers' point of view, and in the process of explicating how dominant discourse is constructed, they create the possibility of other constructions and seek to express counterdiscourses. But they also make clear that such expressions are themselves constructions: their ethical challenge lies in problematizing readers' knowledge of dominant history and in asking readers to choose their constructions carefully.Pennee, Donna Palmateer is the author of 'Moral Metafiction The Novels of Timothy Findley' with ISBN 9781550221381 and ISBN 1550221388.