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Confinement at Rouffignac

by Pegeen Brennan

136 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-0611; ISBN 1-4120-5713-2; US$16.00, C$18.50, EUR13.50, £9.50

Zaru, a pregnant woman in prehistoric France, during her confinement in a cave (which is now called Rouffignac), begins to weave from dream and emerging private thought a new consciousness of her individual significance; then, mysteriously, the forms of this new awareness move through her body to take shape of animal drawings on the walls of the cave (the origins of cave art). Later, she is joined by two other pregnant women who also have the seed of artistic impulse stirring within them: one creates music, the other, sculpture.

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About the Book      About the Author      Excerpts      Catalogue Information

About the Book

Confinement at Rouffignac is a poetic account of the origins of the artistic impulse. The novel's basic assumption goes counter to the accepted version that it was men who were the originators of art. Here it is three women, confined during pregnancy in a prehistoric cave (in what is now France), who experience the impulse to create art. The first woman, Zaru, though dreams and an emerging new consciousness, begins to draw animal figures on the walls of the cave. Later she is joined by a woman who creates music, first through her voice, then by blowing into cut reeds and by beating on a tramping skin (drum). The third woman is moved to combine clay with water and thereby produces figures of the human body: the first sculpture.

As well, the novel is an ironic parable of sexual politics between the People (women) and the Hunters (men). To begin with, the society is largely matriarchal, with the elder women wielding power. The sexes live separately: the girl children stay with the women, wheres as the boys are taken away and raised by the men. Zaru, who is in line to become the next leader, emerges after the birth of her baby, determined to exert a radical change in the traditions of the tribe, creating family units and ensuring equality of the sexes.

It is a poignant story of women's strengths and their power of creativity: they give birth not only to actual babies, but also to the art of painting, music, and sculpture. It is obvious throughout that a new consciousness and a turning to private thought, engendered by the confines of the cave and their solidarity with each other, are the ingredients that allow the women to find their artistic sensibility and give it expression.

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About the Author

Pegeen Brennan was born in Ashcroft, in British Columbia's Cariboo region; she spent most of her childhood years in Ontario, returning to B.C. to attend university in the Sixties.

She joined the Faculty of English at UBC in 1965; she taught courses in English Literature and Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as in Creative and Technical Writing. Since taking early retirement, she and her husband have lived in Kilpoola, B.C., near Osoyoos.

Her fiction and poetry have appeared in various literary magazines; she has published three novels, Zarkeen, Big Rock Candy Town, To Rosewood, and three books of poetry. Confinement at Rouffignac is a republication of Zarkeen.

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Excerpts

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Catalogue Information

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