Woolner, Victoria Evelyn (2014) Scottish Romanticism and Its Impact on Early Canadian Literature. Phd Thesis
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Woolner, Victoria Evelyn (2014) Scottish romanticism and its impact on early Canadian literature. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/5071/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Scottish Romanticism and its impact on early Canadian Literature Victoria Evelyn Woolner Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English Literature School of Critical Studies University of Glasgow September 2013 (c) Victoria Woolner 2013 2 Abstract This research considers the impact of Scottish romanticism on the construction of literary identity in the Canadas prior to Confederation (1867). I argue that early Scottish dominance in literary Canada, and similarities faced by both countries in defining a sense of self—including participation in a wider empire (or Union), populations divided by language and religion, and the need for a distinct identity in the face of a dominant neighbour to the south—all contributed to a tendency on the part of Canadians to look to Scotland as a model. Through an examination of early Canadian literature and on-going British constructions of the colony, the thesis considers the manner in which Scottish romantic strategies of literary nationalism are deployed and manipulated in the process of articulating a Canadian identity. Particular attention is paid to the works of John Galt and Major John Richardson, while tropes examined include the construction of landscape and settlement narratives, stadial histories, the historical novel, national tale and the depiction of a national history, and the manipulation of a romanticised Scottish military past in constructing Canadian history. 3 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ 5 1 ‘Originate a History’: Considering Scottish Influence on Canadian Literary Identity .... 6 2 John Galt and Canada .................................................................................................... 26 2.1 North America in Galt’s Early Work ...................................................................... 26 2.2 North America: Galt, Nature, and Settlement ........................................................ 31 2.3 Galt and the Articulation of National Character ..................................................... 51 3 ‘The dark Canadian wild’: Framing the Wilderness ...................................................... 58 3.1 Landscape, the Sublime, and the Picturesque ......................................................... 58 3.2 Early Constructions of Canadian Landscapes ........................................................ 62 3.3 Military Topographies ............................................................................................ 68 3.4 Fictions of Discovery and Settlement ..................................................................... 79 4 Stadial Histories and the Construction of Canadian Communities ............................. 104 4.1 Enlightenment Stadialism and the Noble Savage ................................................. 104 4.2 Developing the Canadian Stadial Narrative ......................................................... 111 4.3 The First Nations .................................................................................................. 117 4.4 The Habitants ....................................................................................................... 123 4.5 American Society and Stadial Regression ............................................................ 129 5 The National Tale and the Historical Novel ................................................................ 134 5.1 The Rise of the Historical Novel .......................................................................... 134 5.2 The Historical Novel in English Canada .............................................................. 139 5.3 Reworking Walter Scott: French Canadian Historical Novels ............................. 146 6 Constructing a Canadian Military Past ........................................................................ 158 6.1 Culloden and the Conquest ................................................................................... 159 6.2 1812: ‘Brock and his brave volunteers’ ................................................................ 166 6.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 176 Works Cited ....................................................................................................................... 185 4 Table of Figures Figure 1: Thomas Faed, Sunday in the Backwoods, 1858 ................................................... 16 Figure 2: Thomas Faed, Sunday in the Backwoods, detail .................................................. 16 Figure 3: Robert Nasmyth, Robert Burns, 1759-1796. Poet, 1787 ..................................... 16 Figure 4: Baron de Lahontan, ‘Frontispiece,’ New Voyages to North-America (1703) ...... 71 Figure 5: George Edwards, 'The Porcupine from Hudson's Bay,' A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743) .............................................................................................. 71 Figure 6: [Moses Harris], ‘Halifax Town & Harbour, A Plan of the Harbour of Chebucto and Town of Halifax,’ Gentleman’s Magazine (July 1750) ........................................ 71 Figure 7: William Elliott, engraver, after Hervey Smyth, 'A View of the Falls of Montmorenci and the Attack Made by General Wolfe on French Intrenchments near Beauport--31 July 1759,' 1760 ..................................................................................... 73 Figure 8: [Cruikshank?], The Emigrant's Welcome to Canada [c.1820s] ........................... 88 Figure 9: W. H. Bartlett, 'View from the house of R. Shirreff, Esq,' in H. P. Willis, Canadian Scenery (1842) .......................................................................................... 101 Figure 10: W. H. Bartlett, 'Bridge at Bytown, Upper Canada (fallen in),' in H. P. Willis, Canadian Scenery (1842) .......................................................................................... 101 Figure 11: Benjamin West, The Death of Wolfe, 1770 ...................................................... 113 Figure 12: Juste Chevillet, after François-Louis-Joseph Watteau, Mort du Marquis de Montcalm, 1783 ......................................................................................................... 113 Figure 13: John Trumbull, The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, December 31, 1775, 1786 .......................................................................................... 113 Figure 14: Harvey, 'Hector Rescuing the Indian Girl,' in Catherine Parr Traill, Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains (1852) ........................................................ 145 Figure 15: Harvey, 'Return Home,' in Catherine Parr Traill, Canadian Crusoes: A Tale of the Rice Lake Plains (1852) ....................................................................................... 145 5 Acknowledgements My supervisors, Professor Murray Pittock and Professor Nigel Leask, have my unending gratitude for their guidance, support and patience throughout this process. The University of Glasgow provided me with a Scottish Overseas Student Research Award Scheme Scholarship and Arts Faculty Maintenance Scholarship, which facilitated this research. My colleagues in the Scottish Romanticism Research Group have proven a reliable source of inspiration and commiseration. Thanks are also due to the librarians and archival staff at the University of Glasgow, as well their counterparts at the Universities of Edinburgh, Ottawa and Toronto, the National Library of Scotland, the British Library, Glasgow’s Mitchell Library, Libraries and Archives Canada and the Provincial Archives of Ontario. It has been a privilege to have access to such collections. I need to acknowledge the British Museum, Yale University Art Gallery and the Wolverhampton Art Gallery for unrestricted permission to reuse images. My parents have been unfailingly encouraging over the last few years, while my siblings have shown their love by enduring conversations on books and people they have little knowledge of and less interest in. This thesis is dedicated to them, and to the memory of Carol Rohloff Jepson (1941-2013). 6 1 ‘Originate a History’: Considering Scottish Influence on Canadian Literary Identity In 1858, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, a future Father of Canadian Confederation, declared to the inhabitants of British North America that ‘[e]very country,