Nationalism and Gender in Theatrical and Para-Theatrical Practices by Canadian Women Artists, 1880-1930
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Gendering the Nation: Nationalism and Gender in Theatrical and Para-theatrical Practices by Canadian Women Artists, 1880-1930 by Christian Bock M.Ed., University of Osnabrück, Germany, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English ã Christian Bock, 2019 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Gendering the Nation: Nationalism and Gender in Theatrical and Para-theatrical Practices by Canadian Women Artists, 1880-1930 by Christian Bock M.Ed., University of Osnabrück, Germany, 2003 Supervisory Committee Dr. Sheila Rabillard (Department of English) Supervisor Dr. Misao Dean (Department of English) Departmental Member Dr. Allana Lindgren (Department of Theatre) Outside Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Sheila Rabillard (Department of English) Supervisor Dr. Misao Dean (Department of English) Departmental Member Dr. Allana Lindgren (Department of Theatre) Outside Member This dissertation examines the intersection of nationalism and gender in theatrical and para-theatrical practices by Canadian women artists between 1880-1930, including the works of Madge Macbeth, Mazo de la Roche, Sarah Ann Curzon, Pauline Johnson and Constance Lindsay Skinner and their historical context in order to elucidate why and how these dramatic and para-theatrical works appeared as they did, where they did and when they did. Drama and para-theatrical performances such as mock parliaments, flag drills, Salvation army spectacles, and closet drama serve an important role as discursive public spaces in which a young democracy and budding nation negotiates its gendered struggles concerning cultural hegemony and political participation. Employing postcolonial and feminist critical practices, “spoken” and “unspoken” ideologies regarding gender and nation manifested in these performances are explored and feminist, nationalist and imperialist discourses informing nineteenth- and early twentieth-century theatricality are analyzed. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. vii Dedication ........................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Canadian Theatre Practice and the Development of the Nation ................................. 3 Reconstructing Early Canadian Amateur Theatre and Canadian Audiences ............ 10 Feminist Historiography and Early Canadian Women’s Theatre ............................. 13 The Inevitable Question of What Makes a Work a Canadian Work ........................ 15 Postcolonial Interrogations of the Position of the Critic and the Construction of the Nation ........................................................................................................................ 17 Performing Nationalism and Gender Within the Context of a Canadian Identity .... 20 Performance as Practice: Gender and Nation in the Theatre and Beyond ................ 25 Carrie Davies’ 1914 Murder Trial in the Context of National and Imperial Discourses ................................................................................................................. 27 Performance, Performativity and Melodrama as Cultural Script .............................. 31 Chapter 1: Performing the Boundaries of Race, Femininity and Belonging .................... 45 Canadian Historical Pageantry and the Display of a Family of Nations .................. 54 The Language of Benevolence and the Staging of Race Relations .......................... 58 The Question of Race and the Popularity of the Indian on Stage ............................. 60 Constance Lindsay Skinner’s The Birthright, Cultural Appropriation and New Woman Politics ......................................................................................................... 67 Pauline Johnson’s Stage Persona and the Politics of Imperial Motherhood ............. 79 Chapter 2: Performing the Empire and Its Civil Education: Dramaturgical Practice, Maternal Feminism and Imperialism’s Role in Shaping Canadian Culture and Social Change ............................................................................................................................ 115 Mazo de la Roche’s “Low Life” and the Myth of British Superiority .................... 118 Performing the Model Citizen—The IODE School Girl Tour ............................... 122 British Immigration and the Unsuccessful English ‘Farmer-Gentleman’ on Stage 133 Queering Imperial Values: Mazo de la Roche’s Whiteoaks: The Play ................... 139 Chapter 3: The Theatre of Social Reform: Dramaturgical Practice, Gender Transgression and Strategic Audience Design for Social Change ......................................................... 159 Canada as a “Nation Without Suffering” ................................................................ 162 Role-Reversal and Parody in Sarah Anne Curzon’s The Sweet Girl Graduate ...... 169 Role-Reversal and Parody in Mock Parliaments .................................................... 193 Uniformed Women in Men’s Public Spaces—Transgression and Containment in Salvation Army Spectacles ..................................................................................... 203 Chapter 4 – Staging History: Writing Female Characters into National Historical Narratives ........................................................................................................................ 233 Negotiating Female Roles in the Commemorations of the War of 1812 ................ 240 Loyalist Politics in Catharine Nina Merritt’s When George the Third Was King .. 246 v Casting Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord as National Heroines ............. 254 Sarah Anne Curzon’s Laura Secord, the Heroine of 1812 ..................................... 257 Theatrical Commemorations of Madeleine de Verchères ...................................... 276 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 288 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 311 vi List of Illustrations Fig. 1. Cover of Edith Lelean Groves’ 1927 pageant The Wooing of Miss Canada. Groves, Edith L. The Wooing of Miss Canada. McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, 1917. ........................................................................................................................................... 44 Fig. 2. Skinner, Constance Lindsey. The Birthright, Act III. Draft. Undated. NY PL Archive .............................................................................................................................. 75 Fig. 3. Canadian Schoolgirl Tour, The Globe, 4 August 1928, p. 18. ............................ 158 Fig. 4. Whiteoaks: The Play, Advertisement, Montreal Daily Star, 17 February 1938, p. 14..................................................................................................................................... 158 Fig. 5. Bengough, John Wilson. “The Learned Doctor Welcoming Ladies to the Provincial University.” Grip-sack vol. 11, 1884, p.21. .................................................. 176 Fig. 6. Bengough, John Wilson. "Miss Canada, Barmaid." Grip-sack. 9 July 1887. Sketches from a Young Country: The Images of Grip Magazine, edited by Carman Cumming, University of Toronto Press, 1997, p. 220. ................................................... 205 Fig. 7. Macbeth, Madge. “Are You Interested in Advertising.” Version 2. National Archives of Canada (NAC). MG30-D52. Volume 1 File: correspondence unsigned undated 1900-1920. ......................................................................................................... 309 Fig. 8. “Don’t Forget the Commercial Pageant.” The Ottawa Citizen, 20 September 1920, p. 22................................................................................................................................. 310 vii Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the International Council for Canadian Studies for the Government of Canada Award that partially funded my research and The Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria for their travel grants; Interlibrary Loan skilfully tracked down every random book and manuscript I was looking for. The annual conference of ACTR (now CATR/ACRT) twice provided an interested and critical audience for parts of this thesis. viii Dedication I’m astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing; it should inhibit me from even