'When story people become flesh': character and identity in the fictions of Jack Hodgins

Abstract

Criticism of the works of Jack Hodgins ranges from conventional evaluation of imagery, theme, and conflict, to debates about the genre implied by his artistic of literary style Generalization is the common weakness of most of the exegeses of Hodgins’ fiction. – Hodgins’ writings, as a group, offer a contemporary example of psychological realism. Instead of assuming, as the traditional realist would, that the Vancouver Islander is a complex multi-dimensional amalgamation of various persons, Hodgins describes him or her as one-dimensional. Single dimensionality does not, however, limit the psychological complexity of the individual character. Through an examination of the identity crisis Hodgins posits that within the many roles a character plays there lies but one identity. – To read the works of Jack Hodgins is to witness the development and destruction of character identity. Characters gather a sense of meaningful existence from their own single-dimensionality only after moving from one or more of four possible states of personal being.