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32-887: The term was first used in Graeme Gibson 's Eleven Canadian Novelists (1972) to recognize an existing tendency to apply aspects of the Gothic novel to writing based in and around Southern Ontario. In an interview with Timothy Findley , Gibson commented that Findley's novel The Last of the Crazy People shared similarities with the American Southern Gothic genre, to which Findley replied, "...sure, it's Southern Gothic: Southern Ontario Gothic." Notable writers of this subgenre include Alice Munro , Margaret Atwood , Robertson Davies , Jane Urquhart , Marian Engel , James Reaney , and Barbara Gowdy . Like

64-401: A television movie . During lulls in the filming, he recounts his life, including obstacles he has overcome. He elaborates on his career as an actor traveling through Canada in the early 20th century. Dunstan Ramsay also appears in this novel. More insight is provided into the characters of Fifth Business . Dunstan Ramsay is the narrator of both Fifth Business and World of Wonders (he

96-523: A college. The epistolary novel takes the form of a letter Ramsay writes to the headmaster of Colborne College after his retirement. He feels ill used by an article about him in the school paper. He recalls how, as a boy, he ducked a snowball intended for him. It hit a pregnant woman instead, and she gave birth prematurely. This incident and related events deeply affected Ramsay's life. He tells how he came to terms with his guilt. He also tells of his boyhood friend and enemy, Percy Boyd "Boy" Staunton, who becomes

128-479: A different style. The tone and unconventional literary devices of metafiction have led some later critics to suggest the series was a precursor to what has been called " slipstream " fiction in the 21st century. Fifth Business is narrated by Dunstable (later Dunstan) Ramsay, who grows up in Deptford, a fictional town in southwestern Ontario, Canada. After World War I, he becomes a teacher and serves for decades at

160-558: A heart attack. The Manticore won the Governor-General's Literary Award in the English-language fiction category in 1972. World of Wonders tells of Paul Dempster, a boy born prematurely who is befriended by Dunstan Ramsay. He learns to conjure and, as an adult, takes the name of Magnus Eisengrim as he establishes a successful career as a noted magician . Eisengrim is to portray Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin in

192-408: A kind of levelling mechanism, rough justice for those who dare to strive for something finer." The Gothic novel has traditionally examined the role of evil in the human soul, and has incorporated dark or horrific imagery to create the desired setting. Some (but not all) writers of Southern Ontario Gothic use supernatural or magic realist elements; a few deviate from realism entirely, in the manner of

224-399: A precipitating event: a young boy throws a snowball at another, hitting a pregnant woman instead, who goes into premature labor. It explores the longterm effects of these events on numerous characters. The Deptford trilogy has won praise for its narrative voice and its characterizations. The main characters originate from the same small village. Each carries a secret that crosses the lives of

256-690: A wealthy businessman and politician. The Manticore is the story of Boy Staunton's only son, David, who undergoes Jungian psychoanalysis in Switzerland . During his therapy, he tries to understand his father and his relationship to him. The novel is a detailed record of his therapy and his coming to understand his own life. It sheds new light on many of the characters introduced in Fifth Business, including his father's friend Dunstan Ramsay, who happens to be in Switzerland recuperating from

288-407: A world famous stage magician, relates his life story to several friends and colleagues as they work to complete a film about the life of the renowned 19th century theatrical magician Robert-Houdin . As related by Eisengrim: On December 28, 1908, Paul Dempster was born prematurely after his pregnant mother was hit in the head by a snowball thrown by Percy Boyd Staunton. As a result (it is assumed) of

320-416: Is a nightmarish feeling of spiritual imprisonment in a Southern Ontario setting that is characterized by an eroding societal value system and an atmosphere that stifles and fears individual means of expression. Many sources of terror and horror are created when a character tries to break free of the strictures of established norms within these communities. This lends itself to a motif of 'Canadian' survival that

352-466: Is applied to scenarios dependent on enduring abstract horrors which originate from within a character who is often living in a small village, town or city of the region. In a review of Cynthia Sugars' book Canadian Gothic: Literature, History and the Spectre of Self-Invention , Amy Ransom claims that Southern Ontario Gothic seeks to tell the stories of generations of settlers in a way that uses elements of

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384-497: Is distinct from other forms of Gothic that are set in arbitrarily chosen places. Because colonization is a necessarily geographic endeavor, this aspect is particularly important to Southern Ontario Gothic which tends to indicate a specific location that has been colonized and is now haunted by the remnants of its past. The conflict between colonial settlers and the Canadian wild is also an important aspect of Southern Ontario Gothic. In

416-571: Is not the protagonist in the last novel). He also appears as a major character in The Manticore and as a supporting character in several other novels by Davies. Ramsay is a gentle schoolmaster with surprising depths and is probably a stand-in for Davies himself. (Since Davies has said that the main business of a writer is to be an enchanter, a weaver of spells, a magician, Dempster/Eisengrim may stand for Davies.) Ramsay counsels his students to write in "the plain style," as Davies does—to highlight

448-574: Is widely regarded as a breakthrough in Canadian experimental literature. His other novels include Communion (1971), Gentleman Death (1993), and Perpetual Motion (1982). His non-fiction included Eleven Canadian Novelists (1973) and more recently, The Bedside Book of Birds (2005) and The Bedside Book of Beasts (2009). Gibson was awarded the Toronto Arts Award (1990) the Harbourfront Festival prize in 1993, and he

480-725: The 1983 film The Wars . His environmental advocacy was largely focused around his longtime love of birds. He was a founder and chair of the Pelee Island Bird Observatory, served on the Council of the World Wildlife Fund , and with Margaret Atwood , as co-chair of Birdlife International's Rare Bird Club. He was a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society , which awarded him a Gold Medal in 2015. Gibson

512-547: The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, to the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in early 2021. Deptford Trilogy The Deptford Trilogy (published 1970 to 1975) is a series of inter-related novels by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies . The trilogy consists of Fifth Business ( 1970 ), The Manticore ( 1972 ), and World of Wonders ( 1975 ). The series revolves around

544-469: The Southern Gothic of American writers such as William Faulkner , Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty , Southern Ontario Gothic analyzes and critiques social conditions such as race, gender, religion and politics, but within the context of Southern Ontario. Southern Ontario Gothic is generally characterized by a stern realism set against the dour small-town Protestant morality stereotypical of

576-612: The early stories of Canadian Gothic, the decaying abandoned castles of traditional Gothic literature were substituted with the uninhabited Canadian wild. In this setting, white settlers are haunted by the land they have stolen and are in a constant battle to preserve their sense of “civilization” in the wild. Notable works of the genre include Davies' Deptford Trilogy , Findley's Headhunter , Atwood's Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin , and Munro's Selected Stories . Graeme Gibson Thomas Graeme Cameron Gibson CM FRCGS (9 August 1934 – 18 September 2019)

608-402: The fantastical gothic novel. Virtually all dwell to a certain extent upon the grotesque . Often, these elements are combined to highlight themes present in the wider canon of Canadian literature . An overarching sense of displacement either socially, physically or psychologically often sets the stage for supernatural elements, transgressive behavior or inner turmoil. Accompanying displacement

640-527: The main characters in Davies' novels, Paul Dempster undergoes a series of symbolic rebirths, each of which is accompanied by a name change. Magnus Eisengrim is the final name taken on by Paul Dempster in the course of story told in the Deptford trilogy. The name is derived from 'Isengrin', a wolf in the stories of Reynard the Fox . In "World of Wonders", the final book of the Deptford trilogy, Magnus Eisengrim, now

672-540: The mishap, she went insane. Paul is raised by his strict and religious father, but at age 10 Paul visits the traveling 'World of Wonders' circus, where he is raped by Willard the Wizard, a performing sleight-of-hand magician with the troupe. To protect Willard, the troupe abducts and renames Paul. Traveling with the troupe under the assumed identity of Cass Fletcher, Paul endures a long period of continued psychological and physical abuse by Willard, but he also manages to learn

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704-456: The others and drives the plot forward. Fifth Business is considered one of Davies' best novels. The second novel, The Manticore , won the Governor-General's Literary Award in the English-language fiction category in 1972. The trilogy was named for its setting in the fictional village of Deptford, Ontario . This is based in part on Davies' native Thamesville . Davies takes the view of different characters in each novel, and expresses each in

736-498: The presence of truly gothic supernatural elements in Canadian literature. A key feature of Southern Ontario Gothic is its reckoning with the region’s history of colonization. Often gothic elements like the uncanny, supernatural, and hauntings are used to reinvigorate memories of past traumas that have been covered up with revisionist history. Regional gothic literature, such as Southern Ontario Gothic, makes allusions to specific places through landmarks, architecture, vernacular, etc. This

768-530: The region, and often has underlying themes of moral hypocrisy. Actions and people that act against humanity, logic, and morality all are portrayed unfavourably, and one or more characters may be suffering from some form of mental illness. In a review of Alice Munro's Dear Life for Quill & Quire , literary critic James Grainger writes that "Violence, illness, and reputations ruined by a single indiscretion are accepted in Munro’s secretive, repressed communities as

800-575: The rudimentary skills of pick-pocketing, sleight of hand, and watch-repair. After eight hellish years, Paul escapes the World of Wonders and travels to France where, under a new assumed name, Faustus LeGrande, he becomes a traveling magician. Eventually, Willard dies. Although penniless, uneducated, and psychologically wounded, Paul, finally rid of his sodomizing tormentor, is at last able to begin shaping his own life in whatever way he wishes. After several years later, Paul makes his way to England, where, by

832-472: The story rather than the writer. Ramsay appears in Davies' novels What's Bred in the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus , two of his Cornish trilogy , and in the later novel The Cunning Man . Ramsay is not religious but he is fascinated by the lives of the saints. He writes several well-regarded treatises on saints. In the novels he is compared with Saint Dunstan in his struggle with Satan. Like several of

864-512: The taboo, the surreal and the fantastical to form a new common identity in a postcolonial world. For example, the family of prolific Southern Ontario Gothic author, Alice Munro, originally settled on Huron lands which were a basis of many of her shorter works. Writer David Ingham, in contrast, critiques Southern Ontario Gothic as having "little or nothing to distinguish it from everyday, garden-variety type realism." Likewise, critics like Gerry Turcotte, Greg Loannou, and Lynne Missen, have questioned

896-882: Was a Canadian novelist . He was a Member of the Order of Canada (1992), a Senior Fellow of Massey College and one of the organizers of the Writers Union of Canada (chair, 1974–75). He was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada , a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community. The elder son of Brigadier General Thomas Graeme Gibson, a career Army officer, and radio singer Mary (née Cameron), of Australian origin, Gibson's family frequently moved around during his childhood, going from Halifax to Ottawa to Toronto where he attended Upper Canada College . As an author, Gibson wrote both novels and non-fiction. His first novel, Five Legs (1969),

928-505: Was born there in 1976. The family returned to Toronto in 1980. Atwood and Gibson stayed together until his death in 2019. In 2017 Gibson was diagnosed with early signs of vascular dementia . Despite having written a book on birds, he could no longer identify those he liked to watch in his garden, but said "I no longer know their names, but then, they don't know my name either". He died on 18 September 2019 in London, England, where Atwood

960-462: Was made a member of the Order of Canada . An arts, environmental and social justice advocate, Gibson was one of the founders of the Writers' Union of Canada , which recognized his contribution by establishing an award in his honour in 1991. He was involved in the formation of the Writer's Trust of Canada and was a co-founder and president (1987–89) of PEN Canada. He also had a small acting role in

992-420: Was married to publisher Shirley Gibson until the early 1970s, and together they had two sons, Matt and Grae. He began dating novelist and poet Margaret Atwood in 1973. They moved to a semi-derelict farm near Alliston, Ontario , which they set about doing up and where according to Atwood they were making "attempts at farming, writing and trying to earn enough to live". Their daughter Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson

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1024-470: Was promoting her new book, five days after suffering a severe stroke. Atwood later said about his death that it had not been unexpected due to the vascular dementia, had been a good one—and in a good hospital, and his children had time to come and say goodbye—and that he had been "declining and he had wanted to check out before he reached any further stages of that". Following his death, the Writers' Trust of Canada renamed its annual fiction award, formerly

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