The secret of Robertson Davies' Cornish communities

Mercedes Díaz Dueñas

pp. 141-158

in: Paula Martín Salván, Gerardo Rodríguez Salas, Julian Jiménez Heffernan (eds), Community in twentieth-century fiction, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Abstract

Robertson Davies' third trilogy, The Cornish Trilogy, poses a challenge to the idea of individuation in art—while playing with the idea of mythical transcendental predestination—which makes the notion of community particularly engaging for its analysis. The three novels—The Rebel Angels, 1981; What'sBredin the Bone, 1985; and The Lyre of Orpheus, 1988—deal with various communities, such as the university, the family, religious groups, scientists, humanists, artists and lovers. The interplay between the individual and the community confers a significant meaning to these works.