National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 olCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographie Services Branch des services bibliographiques 395 Wellifl9lon Streel . 395. rue Wellington Ollawa. Onlar~ Onawa (Onlario) K1AON4 K1AON4 NOTICE AVIS The quality of this microform is La qualité de cette microforme heavily dependent upon the dépend grandement de la qualité quality of the original thesis de la thèse soumise au submitted for microfilming. microfilmage. Nous avons tout Every effort has been made to fait pour assurer une qualité ensure the highest quality of supérieure de reproduction. reproduction possible. If pages are missing, contact the S'il manque des pages, veuillez university which granted the communiquer avec J'université degree. qui a conféré le grade. Sorne pages may have indistinct La qualité d'irrtpression de print especially if the original certaines pages peut laisser à . pages were ty!?ed with a poor désirer, surtout si'" les pages ., typewriter ribhon or if the originales ont été university sent us an inferior dactylographiées à J'aide d'un photocopy. ruban usé'ou si l'université nous a fait parvenir une photocopie de qu~lité inférieurë. Reproduction in full or in part.of La reproduction-; même partielle, this microform is governed by de cette m!croforme est soumise the Canadian Copyright Act, à la Loi canadienne sur le droit. R.S.C. 1970, c.C~30, and d'auteur, SRC 1970, c. C-30, et subsequent amendments. ses amendements subséquents. Canada • Womcn in Communist Culture in Canada: 1932 to 1937 1 Douglas Scott Parker Departlllent of History McGiII University Montreal, Canad~ / November 1994 " e. A thesis sublllitted ta the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fuifillllent of the requirelllents of the degree of Masters of Arts © Douglas Parker 1994 c.' }I ,- /' /, National Ubrary Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliographie Services Branch des scr~ices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa. Ontario Dnawa (OnlariO) K1A ON4 K1A ON4 THE AUTHOR HAS GRANTED AN L'AUTEUR A ACCORDE UNE LICENCE IRREVOCABLE NON-EXCLUSIVE IRREVOCABLE ET NON EXCLUSIVE LiCENCE ALLOWING THE NATIONAL PERMETTANT A LA BIBLIOTHEQUE LIDRARY OF CANADA TO NATIONALE DU CANADA DE REPRODUCE, LOAN, DlSTRIBUTE OR REPRODUIRE, PRETER, DISTRIBUER SELL COPIES OF HISIHER THESIS BY OU VENDRE DES COPIES DE SA ANY MEANS AND IN ANY FORM OR THESE DE QUELQUE MANIERE ET FORMAT, MAKING THIS THESIS SOUS QUELQUE FORME QUE CE SOIT AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED POUR METTRE DES EXEMPLAIRES DE PERSONS. CETTE THESE A LA DISPOSITION DES PERSONNE INTERESSEES. 1: Il 1 THE AUTHOR RETAINS O\\'NERSHIP L'AUTEUR CONSERVE LA PROPRIETE OF THE COPYRIGHT IN HISIHER DU DROIT D'AUTEUR QUI PROTEGE THESIS. NEITHER THE THESIS NOR SA THESE. NI LA THESE NI DES SUBSTANTIAL EXTRACTS FROM IT EXTRAITS SUBSTANTIELS DE CELLE­ MAY BE PRINTED OR OTHERWISE CI NE DOIVENT ETRE IMPRIMES OU REPRODUCED WITHOUT HISIHER AUTREMENT REPRODUITS SANS SON PERMISSION. AUTORISATION. ISBN 0-612-05413-6 Canada • Table of Contents AbstractlResumé .................................................. .. i Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter One - Sources and Methodology il Chapter Two - Responses to the Depression 22 Chapter Three - The Conjunction of Culture and the Working Class 30 Chapter Four - New Frolllier: A Separate Case 46 Chapter Five - Dorothy; Livesay: Writing for the Left 63 Conclusion. .......... 77 Endnotes ' .81 Selected BibliograplÎy , .. : 114 l, l' -f .< (1 \' !~ •. ''----. Abstnlct During the Great Depression of the l'l30s. many artists. writers, and dramatists • joined the Communist Party of Canada and its cultural wing. the Progressive Arts Club. They produced plays. and contributed articles. poems and staries to socialist magazines. such as Masses and Nell' 1-i'Olllier. As the depressia!' deepenerl and mdical politics be­ came less sectarian, women played a more prominent raie in the cultural realm of mdical politics. Their increased participation changed the way women were represented in art and literature; women's roles became less stereC'lypical, and wumen artists and writers combined both socialist and feminist concerns in their work. The journal Nell' "hm/ier, founded by Jean "Jim" Watts and edited by two women and two men, pravides numerous examples ofsocialist-feminist writing. Dorothy Livesay, one of the editors and a member ofthe Communist Party l'rom 1932to 1937, deserves special attention for her contribution to Canadian literature of social protesl. Resumé Pendant la crise économique des année 30, plusieurs artistes, écrivains ct auteurs d'ouevres dramatiques se sont joints au parti communiste du Canada et li son groupe cul· turel, le "Progressive Arts Club". Ensemble, ils ont produit des pièces de théâtre ct ont contribué à la rédaction d'articles, de poèmes et d'histoires pour des revues li camctère . socialiste, par exemple: le Masses et la Nell' '·hm/ier. Pendànt que la crise s'intensiliait, les membres du Front Populaire sont devenus plus tolérants les uns envers les autres et ~ 1." les femmes ont joué un rôle beaucoup plus considérable, sur le plan culturel, au sein de ce groupe. Leur participation plus actiJb a 'iiltluencé la représen;ation de la femme dans les milieux littéraires et artistiques. Les rôle féminins sonts devenus, peu à peu, moins J)- stéréotypes et les femmes artistes et écrivaines ont exprimé, à travers leurs oeuvres, leurs préoccupations féministes et socialistes. La revue New "hm/icr, fondèe par Jean "Jim" Watts et éditée par deux femmes et deux hommes, nous donne accés à.de nombreux exemples d'écrits féministes à caractère socialiste. Dorothy Livesay, qui était une des édi­ trices et membres du parti communiste de 1932 à 1937, mérite une attention particulière c' pour sa contribution dans la littérature canadienne au regard des protestations sociales. e . i Acknowledgements • 1 wish to acknowledge the efforts of my supervisor, Professor Andrée Lévesque, not for those clements of supervision which were "her job" (her words), but for introducing me to two people who actively engaged in the social protest of the 1930s: Professor Stanley Bréhaut Ryerson and Irene Kon. In addition, 1 would like to acknowledge the time and energy given to me by both Louis Muhlstock, a painter whose social conscience and empathy for the underprivileged in society permeated throughout his work during the depression, and by Millie Ryerson, for although 1 did not ask her about her involvement during this period per se, from her 1 leamed a great deal about the nature of Canadian culture. The Ryersons, Ms. Kon, and M. Muhlstock ail invited me into their homes and ~hared their memories of this age, fielding with humour and patience my questions on their motivations and their activities. Finally, 1would like to acknowledge the inspiration of Dorothy Livesay, who has been critically iII for sorne time now, but granted me sorne • .time before she took sick. The collective energy exhibited by ail these people is inspiring. • ii Introduction • Artists and writers help shape as weil as retlect society. For the historian, the cul­ tural community thus serves as an important indicator ofboth sweeping and specilic social and political movements and events in a country. In the carly 1930s in Canada, when thc Depression affected lifestyles profoundly, the writers and artists who eared to examine the plight ofthe unemployed and unfortunate not only portrayed their subjects sympathctical­ ly, but also levelled criticism directly againstthe capitalist system, which they vicwed as a corrupt, evil structure run by wealthy, heartless businessmen and politicians. The more politically-minded artists and writers urged others to use culture "as a weapon'" ln this, they were inspired by the agitational propaganda being produced in the Soviet Union, and hoped to translate this inspiration into a revolution by the workers over the capitalists. The image of the Soviet Union was powertùl and eneouraging, and thcse cultural pro­ dueers adopted the language and the goals of the Communist International. From 1928 to 1935, these goals included a policy of "class against c1ass". Ac­ cording to Joseph Stalin, leader of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, the worst enemies of the communisls were Ihe socialisls. Labelling thcm "social fascisls", Stalin began a campaign 10 rool ouI Ihcse Irailors to communism. For Canadian radicals, the strategy divided an already schismatic and factionalized left-wing. Cultural producers joined in the debate, and for Communist artists and writers, the pur­ pose of their work was explicit: their art was to serve as propaganda againstthe perlidious socialists and social democrats as weil as the capitalists. By 1935, the rise of fascism and the anti-c,!lmmunisttactics of Hitler and Mussolini in Europe brought about a shift in the Party line. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern in July and August, the communists urged an alliance of anti-fascist::groups into a "People's Front" or "Popular Front". As a result, in Canada, as in the United Stales of America and Britain, the cultural left flourished. Those who sympathised with the Co­ operative Commonwealth Federation as weil as Communist Party of Canada members contributed to Jeft-leaning literary journals. Under this Jess sectarian policy, the light . against oppression, rather than workers' revolution, became the dominanttheme. This focus cncouraged more womell to offer their talents in the cultural realm, and inevitably, their increase in numbers and production changed the way in which women were por­ • trayed. The .lrtists and writers, feeling their way through new methods ofsocialist realisnl and agitational propaganda, took some time to dwelop, or rediscover, their own personali­ ty within an ideology commilled to subverting personal satisfaction to community glory. Thus, the cooperative Popular Front coincided with the ripening of artistic social protes!. The representation of women reflects this evolution. Women were no longer relegated to the periphery in workers' theatre, socialist realist art, and proletarian Iiterature.