ABSTRACT
This excursion into the world of personal narrative, prompted by the reading of Canadian east coast stories and a retrospective examination of transformative life events, examines the fi ctional case of the mean boy against a background of autobiographical memory and experience. Using a theoretical framework drawn from Bakhtin’s (1986/1992) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays as well as The Dialogical Imagination: Four Essays (1981/2000), I offer my particular reading of Lynn Coady’s (2006) novel Mean Boy. The novel chronicles the transition of a young man from the safety of his rural home to the hallowed halls of the university where he undertakes studies in the English department. The novel itself acts as a node or transit point for recounting personal memories or life stories, which in this case provide insight into the emergence of an ambivalent intellectual. The ambivalence is stated as an outgrowth or a consequence of trauma.
