SOURCE: Blodgett, E. D. “Heresy and Other Arts: A Measure of Mavis Gallant's Fiction.” Essays on Canadian Writing 42 (winter 1990): 1-8.

In the following essay, Blodgett examines Gallant's work by introducing the main points of the critical response to her oeuvre.

J'étais un enfant dépossédé du monde.

—Anne Hébert (I)

Mavis Gallant was born in 1922. If she were a professor, this special issue would be a festschrift. Gallant, however, is not a professor, and this is not a festschrift, although it is designed to celebrate critically a writer at the apogee of her career. That she has not received such a celebration yet, with the exception of a special issue of Canadian Fiction Magazine, is a reflection in part, at least, of the manner in which she chose to conduct her career. She has lived in Paris since 1950, spending the year 1983-84 as writer in...