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Stories of Canada: National Identity in Late-Nineteenth-Century English-Canadian Fiction" (2003)

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Stories of Canada: National Identity in Late-Nineteenth-Century English-Canadian Fiction The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fogler Library 2003 Stories of Canada: National Identity in Late- Nineteenth-Century English-Canadian Fiction Elizabeth Hedler Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd Part of the Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Hedler, Elizabeth, "Stories of Canada: National Identity in Late-Nineteenth-Century English-Canadian Fiction" (2003). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 193. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/193 This Open-Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. STORIES OF CANADA: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN LATE-NINETEENTH- CENTURY ENGLISH-CANADIAN FICTION Elizabeth Hedler B.A. McGill University, 1994 M.A. University of Maine, 1996 A THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in History) The Graduate School The University of Maine May, 2003 Advisory Commit tee: Marli F. Weiner, Professor of History, Co-Advisor Scott See, Professor of History and Libra Professor of History, Co-Advisor Graham Cam, Associate Professor of History, Concordia University Richard Judd, Professor of History Naorni Jacobs, Professor of English STORIES OF CANADA: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN LATE-NINETEENTH- CENTURY ENGLISH-CANADIAN FICTION By Elizabeth Hedler Thesis Co-Advisors: Dr. Scott W. See and Dr. Marli F. Weiner An Abstract of the Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in History) May, 2003 The search for a national identity has been a central concern of English-Canadian culture since the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. In the late nineteenth century, English-Canadian concerns about Canadian identity and the need for distinctively Canadian stories resulted in the creation of a body of fiction that attempted to define Canadian nationhood and identity by depicting Canadian scenes, people, and situations. In the late nineteenth century, writers of fiction focused on defining the impact of Canada's unique land and heritage upon Canadian identity. Based on an extensive reading of these novels, this dissertation explores the way English Canadians defined Canadian identity in relation to the land, race, and gender in the late nineteenth century. The intensive study of the fictional literature of late-nineteenth-century Canada gives a unique insight into the world view of middle-class English Canadians. When writing fiction, authors are especially prone to reflecting the beliefs and assumptions of their society. The investigation into the specific elements of Canadian national creation as reflected in English-Canadian fiction illuminates an important aspect of Canadian cultural history. The national community imagined in English-language novels was based upon ideas about Canadian's relationships to their land and heritage. Authors shaped a view of Canada's climate, geography, and landscape as unifying elements in Canadian culture. They emphasized Canada's northern location and wilderness areas as unique factors in the creation of Canadian identity. Novelists also idealized the process of settlement as essential to the creation of Canadian culture. English-Canadian writers also attempted to create the idea of a shared heritage as an essential ingredient in Canadian nationality. By incorporating French history and culture into Canadian history, by describing the nation as the result of the mixture of Scottish, English, French, and Indian heritage, and by embracing a British imperial identity, English-speaking Canadian authors at tempted to construct a historical and racial inheritance for a new nation. These ideas, as expressed in novels, became a basis for English-Canadian ideas about themselves and their nation throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Any undertaking of this nature could not be completed without the aid and support of a variety of individuals and organizations. In my case, the Department of History at the University of Maine provided important financial assistance in the form of a three-year Teaching Assistantship. Research Fellowships from the Canadian-American Center and the Graduate School also aided in the completion of this dissertation. I would like to thank my advisors, Scott See and Marli Weiner- without you, this project would never have taken its present shape. The staff of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine have been unfailingly helpful and supportive throughout the research and writing of this dissertation. In particular, Dave Clark never failed to cheer my research with a song and a reminder of the essential insanity of historical research. I remain personally and professionally indebted to my many fellow employees of the Maine Folklife Center over the years. Pauleena MacDougall, Pamela Dean, Sandy and Bobby Ives, Jamie Moreira, Beth Hill, Kevin Marsh, Rex Norris, Erica Risberg, Anu Dudley, and Bethany Haverlock have been friends, intellectual sounding boards, and cornrades in affliction. I would also like to thank the member's of Clio's Daughters, Anu Dudley, Erica Risberg, Nancy Alexander, Cynthia Richardson, and Sara Martin, for their advice and support. I would like to thank Shoshanah Webber for her constant friendship and reinforcement of my belief in myself. I leave my greatest indebtedness to the end. To my parents, Robert and Patricia Hedler, for unfailing support, understanding, and general wonderfulness. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.......................................................................................... .ii Chapter INTRODUCTION: WRITING AND READING CANADA .................... 1 NORTHMEN OF THE NEW WORLD: LANDSCAPE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF CANADIAN CHARACTER ................................... 30 WILDERNESS AND GENDERED CANADIAN IDENTITY................. 61 CANADA AS A GENDERED SETTLER SOCIETY .................................. 99 IMPERIALISM, ANTI-AMERICANISM, AND CANADIAN NATIONALISM.. ......................................................................................... .I44 ETHNICITY AND RACE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CANADIAN IDENTITY .............................................................................. 189 THE IMAGINED FRENCH: MSTORY, RACE, AND RELIGION IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF A UNITED CANADIAN IDENTITY.. ....................................................................................................-229 CONCLUSION: NOVELS AND NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CANADA. ...................................................................................................... -258 BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR ........................................................................... 325 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION: WRITING AND READING CANADA In 1867 the British North American colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Canada combined to become the Dominion of Canada. With the passage of the British North America Act, a political nation had been created, but the question of how this would translate into a cultural nationality remained to be solved. As literary historian Claude Bissell pointed out in 1950: Confederation was not so much a solution as a posing of the national problem. To many observers, the factional manoeuvering that had preceded Confederation and the grave problems that immediately followed it made it apparent that national unity had to be founded on something more stable than the niceties of political compromise. Was it not possible, they asked, to sink political divergence in a disinterested concern for the cultural life of the new nation?l Thus, in the years after Confederation, English Canadians attempted to create a distinctively Canadian national cultural identity. Both Bissell and nineteenth-century Canadians realized that nations are not just political constructs. They knew, as Benedict Anderson pointed out, that the central facet of a nation's identity was that each citizen be able to imagine that he and his fellow citizens had something in common.2 In the late nineteenth century, English-speaking Canadians were engrossed in trying to imagine the common traits that all Canadians shared. English-Canadian nationalists were eager to identify characteristics that were both typical of Canadians and l~laudeT. Bissell, "Literary Taste in Central Canada During the Late Nineteenth Century," Canadian Historical Review 31, (September 1950): 238-239. 2~enedictAnderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Na tionalism (London: Verso, 1983), 15. different from any other national group. From these characteristics they hoped to define what made Canadians unique, different from all other national groups. In their desire to describe their state as a national community, English Canadians were part of a world-wide intellectual movement-the development of nationalism as a central defining aspect of people's lives. Beginning in Europe and the British Isles in the eighteenth century, nation- states increasingly became the primary focus of group identity throughout the world.3 Scholars attribute the rise of nationalism to various factors, including industrialization and the increased mobility of people that began to take place in the seventeenth century.4 An important aspect of this mobility was the creation of colonial
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