" We Are Most Ourselves When We Are Changing": Michael Winter, Lynn Coady, Lisa Moore, and the Literary Reconfiguration of Atlantic
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"WE ARE MOST OURSELVES WHEN WE ARE CHANGING": MICHAEL WINTER, LYNN COADY, LISA MOORE, AND THE LITERARY RECONFIGURATION OF ATLANTIC CANADIAN REGIONALISM by Susanne Marshall Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2009 © Copyright by Susanne Marshall, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-56440-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-56440-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 ^^^/ 4-m- _B_J8_ ft-ft ^/p„ tt»& DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY f To comply with the Canadian Privacy Act the National Library of Canada has requested that the following pages be removed from this copy of the thesis: Preliminary Pages : Examiners Signature Page (pii) Dalhousie Library Copyright Agreement (piii) Appendices Copyright Releases (if applicable) Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgements VI Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 A World Apart, or a Part of the World? Antimodernism in Atlantic Canadian Literature, 1820-1960 36 Chapter 3 Pay Dirt: Rockbound, Regionalism, and the Cultural Politics of the Contemporary Atlantic Novel 70 Chapter 4 Wilding the City, Siting the Wild: Reimagining Place, Wilderness and Urban Space in the Contemporary Fiction of Michael Winter 115 Chapter 5 Parodic Regionalism: Rurality and Small Town Life in the Work of Lynn Coady 155 Chapter 6 "As if there were just the two choices:" Lisa Moore Redefines the Atlantic Canadian City 210 Chapter 7 Conclusion 247 Bibliography N 263 IV Abstract In the works of writers Michael Winter, Lynn Coady and Lisa Moore, Atlantic Canada is a complex social space shaped by the interaction of established cultural practices with the everyday realities of globalized consumer culture. These representations challenge stereotypes that characterize the region as a locus of tradition and history apart from today's world. This dissertation examines the way these authors contribute to the transformation of our understanding of Atlantic Canada by highlighting the ways we produce social space and foregrounding the changing nature of regional contemporaneity. This dissertation first assesses the dominant understandings of regionalism and Atlantic Canadian identity against which these authors write. Chapter one summarizes normative definitions of regionalism and examines theoretical approaches that inform a revitalized understanding of the term. Chapter two discusses antimodernism in key texts within nineteenth- and twentieth-century Atlantic Canadian literature. Chapter three argues that antimodernism continues to dominate regional literary production, reading the CBC Canada Reads contest's treatment of Frank Parker Day's Rockbound as an example of how essentialist interpretations of the Atlantic region contribute to a national narrative of identity that limits our normative conceptions of cultural and regional diversity. The perseverance of this vision of Atlantic Canadian identity makes its destabilization by Winter, Coady and Moore significant. Chapter four considers Michael Winter's juxtapositions of wilderness and urban space, which suggest the ways in which urbanization permeates even the most remote aspects of existence in contemporary Newfoundland, while emphasizing the persistence of unknowable spaces within the fabric of contemporary life. Chapter five examines Lynn Coady's parodic treatment of the region's rurality, which foregrounds yearnings for authenticity while interrogating the limits of regional belonging. Chapter six assesses Lisa Moore's attention to the ordinariness and inevitability of the exchange between traditions and popular culture in urban and suburban Newfoundland. Moore articulates the tensions, uncertainties and freedoms that accompany the renegotiation of regional identity. Together, Winter, Coady and Moore question the deployment of a unified space or history as the basis for regional belonging. Instead, their visions of contemporary life in the region offer a shared sense of transformation. v Acknowledgements Numerous people deserve thanks for their contributions to this project. Dr. Carrie Dawson, my supervisor, has been a marvellous resource, example, editor and coach. Her advice and critique have made this a better work, and her support and humour made the writing process much more enjoyable. My other committee members, Dr. Alexander MacLeod and Dr. Andrew Wainwright, added valuable suggestions and perspectives to final drafts of the manuscript. Dr. Herb Wyile, my external examiner, provided a careful and thorough reading. Dr. Bruce Greenfield, my internal examiner, also offered useful comments. The English Department at Dalhousie has assisted me with teaching appointments; its members have contributed to my academic development and encouraged me through the "human" parts of the writing process. Dr. Christina Luckyj, Carole Poirier and Mary Beth Maclssac deserve special thanks. The Killam Foundation and SSHRC provided funding and recognition through the Killam Predoctoral Scholarship and the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. I would also like to acknowledge the influence and support of the community of scholars in my field. Particularly, attending the "Surfs Up" conference on Atlantic literature at Acadia University in 2004 introduced me to a varied, rigorous, and exciting scholarly community. Of course, I owe a debt to Michael Winter, Lynn Coady, and Lisa Moore, whose works I have read with discovery and pleasure. I have cherished and relied upon my family and friends throughout the course of this project. My compatriots in the doctoral program have shared office space, motivation, commiseration, advice, and insight, especially Heather Meek, El Jones, Corey Owen, Lesley Newhook, Sharon Creaser, and Connor Byrne. My parents, Sandy and Germaine Marshall, early nourished my love of books and discussion, and have encouraged me in countless ways since. Finally, thanks to Jason Savoy, my partner in ideas and life, for everything, every day. And particularly for fixing the slant of the floor under my desk. VI Chapter 1 Introduction "And most especially do we thank Thee, Lord, for the Gut of Canso, Thine own body of water, which separateth us from the sin and the wickedness on the other side thereof (qtd. by A.R.M. Lower, Fraser 314). In the above quotation, a nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister from Cape Breton indicates his resolute and fundamental understanding of the boundaries, and the value, of locality. The statement makes a virtue of insularity and a vice of difference. Separation, rather than connection, is the paradigm around which the minister structures his understanding of regional belonging. The division he identifies, though determined by the divine, is demarcated on earth by geography: the natural boundary of the strait which makes Cape Breton an island. Land is synonymous with culture here, and both are understood as unalterable facts. Clearly such naturalized definitions of regional identity and belonging are no longer applicable in an age when such certainty and insularity are hard to find. Or are they? How far have we moved beyond nineteenth-century understandings of region? "Regional" remains a loaded word, as Raymond Williams recognized when he included it in his landmark collection of culturally central terms Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. A search through academic databases for articles on "regionalism" yields numerous results addressing a specific school of late- nineteenth century American regionalists: writers such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary Freeman or Bret Harte who, following William Dean Howells' precepts, sought to reflect their region's "truth" using techniques of literary realism that consciously 1 attempted to represent their subject as objective,