Abstract

The Dying Art of Conversation is the story of a young expatriate writer living and working in present day London, England. Christine Foxton moves to London from Canada after a string of bad relationships. Two months after her arrival, unemployed and alienated, Christine is caught up in an abusive relationship with her English boyfriend, Lucas. Her whimsical and wry narration relates her struggle to escape her violent relationship, first through her writing, a screenplay adaptation of Kate Chopin's The Awakening , and finally through a burgeoning relationship with Alex, a man she meets when strolling through Mile End Park. Written in homage to Jean Rhys' book Voyage in the Dark , the text makes frequent reference to suicide, drowning, and other motifs from Rhys' and Chopin's novels. The protagonist shares the author's name in a deliberate attempt to conflate writer and speaker, adding to the sense of immediacy and realism created by the present tense narration. This echoes the writings of authors such as Sylvia Plath, Leonard Cohen, Rhys, and Chopin. Their at times confessional work was often freely conflated with autobiography, resulting in speculation which caused Rhys, Chopin and Cohen some difficulty in life, and arguably much intrigue and possible injury to Plath's reputation after her death.