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UMI @ Re-Presenting Diasporic Difference: Images of Immigrant Women by Canadian Women Artists, 1912-1935 Allyson Sarah Adley A Tnosis the Department 3zt History Presented in Partial Fulfilment of tne Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Concordia University Montreal, Quebec, Canada @ Allyson Adley, 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington &88t 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Your lSle Votre ré1ëmca Our dle Notre réf6rence The author has gtanted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distn'bute or seil reproduire, prêter, distrï'buer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright Yi this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts kom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. ABSTRACT RE-PRESENTING DIASPORIC DIFFERENCE: IMAGES OF I!!NIGFUiNT WOMEN BY CANADIAN WOMEN ARTISTS, 1913-1932 In the early decades of twentieth century Canada, many middle and upper-class Anglo-saxon women social reformers helped shape Canadian immigration policy. Discourses on single immigrant women competed and clashed, converging upon Canadian women's images of immigrant women. These images are located at the interstices of opposing discourses that demcnded single immigrant women in order to alleviate chs shortage of dornestic workers in middle and upper class homes while sim~ltaneously targeting the single immigrant woman as a 2otentially corrupti-ie and destabilizing addition to Canadian society. By examinino selected paintings, drawings seul-tures of immigrant women, I will explore how these represenzations 50th challenged and supported eugenic ideologies and 5ow in soms cases artistic production intervened in Canaaa's racist immigration policies. iii 1 would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Janice Helland for the guidance and inspiration she provided me throughout the writing of tnis thesis. 1 am also grateful to Dr. Catherine Mackenzie; her insightful comments, unwavering support and enthusiasm were constant sources of motivation. 1 would like to thank Dr. Loren Lerner for her helpful suggestions, kindness and genorosity of spirit. 1 would also like to thank Dr. Barbara Neadowcroft for bringing Regina Seiden's Old Immiarant Womsn and Prudence Heward's The -immiarants to my attention. I am grateful to Debbie Friedland, Adrienne Truchi, Anastasia ~zLriastosopolous, Trista Leggett, Rita Chahoud, Lynn Beavis, Florencia Berinstein, Rozy Rinzler, Rena Kirnia, Eddie Ji~bachian,Maura Broadhurst, Abbie Weinberg,Leanne Fremar, Grazyx Szawlowski and Alison Crossman for th,eir abiding support and friendshi?. 1 am very grateful to Rhonda Meier for ner encouragement and incisive editorial suggestions as well as Karen B? Lutis for generously providing me with computer assistance whenever I encountered technical difficulties. Finally I would Like to tnank my family for the love, patience and support wnich made the writing of this thesis possible. For My Granchothers: Tatiana Gusiewa-Wajcenfeld and Ellen Rosner-Adley LIST OF PLATES Al1 measurements where known, are given in centimetres. Ordered as follows: artist, title, date, medium, size and location. 1 Marion Long, The -Fami7jr Circle, c. 1912, charcoal drawing on paper, location unknown. 2 Marion Long, Gossip in the Ward, c.1912, charcoal drawing on paper, location unknown. 3 Regina Seiden, Old Immig~antWoman, c. 1920, oil on canvas, 91.6 x 73.8, Art Gallery of Hamilton. 4 Prudence Heward, Th? _Tmmigrants, 1928, oi1 on canvas, location unknown. 5 Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Lin&, 1932, painted plaster, 202 x 68.5 x 57, Winnipeg Art Gallery. 6 Elizabeth Wp Wood, Migrant, 1935, plaster, 36.5 x 27.3 x 30.9, Estate of Elizabeth Wyn Wood and Emanuel Hahn vii Although Canadian historians have written extensively on the diverse histories of immigrants to Canada, few studies have been made on the visual representations of immigrants in Canadian art,' My thesis will attempt to address this silence, odd indeed light Canada's highly publicized commitment to multi-culturalism, by examining selectrd representations of white European immigrant women produced by Canadian women artists between 1912 and 1935. The absence of images of immigrant women of colour within Canadian art production, should be viewed in relation to Canada's racist immigration policies and its efforts to block women immigrants from China, Japan, South Asia and tne Caribbean in the early decades of the twentieth centuryS2The vigilance with which women of colour were excluded from Canada demonstrated the symbolic threat they posed to Canâdcrs future white Protestant nation. For many Protestants, the immigration of women of colour foreshadowed ' One exception is Anna Maria Carlevaris' thesis : "Photo--ph?: Irnmi-don and Canadianism' MATh&. Concordia University, 1992. ' See Vijay Agnew. Resi-stino Di-mimination: Women From Asia ATn'ca and the Canibean and the women's Movement in Canada (Toronto: University ofToronto Pr- 1996) Y and Marilyn Barber. Immimant Domestic Servans in Canada (Otta~'51:Canadian Hiorical Association 1991) 14. One exception to Canada's respictive irnmiimmidonregdarions occurred in 191 1 when a -mup of domestics hmGuadeloupe was pemiitted to imrni-me to Quebec. In general ho\vever. the beliefthat West indian women were "immoral' provided the grounds to bar their entry into Canada. See also: Valerie Knowles. Stranoers at Our Gats Canadian Immimation and Canadian Imrnimation Poiicv 1540-1 990 (ïoronto: Dundurn Press, l99?)8 1. With the ImmiImmiptïonAct of 1910, irnmi-gants fkom Asia would be required to pay a Q00.00 head EX in order to enter Canada. the permanent settlement and growth of cornmunities of colaur in Canada, alerting the ruling classes of the need to ercct barriers to enforce their exclusion. Representations of white European immigrant womcn will be considered in terms of their active role in the snaping of history and not as mere "reflections of the real w~rld."~As Lynda Nead argues: "resresentation functions to trasfom and mediate the world through the specific codes it uses and the institutions of which it is a partan4 Throughout this thesis I will be concerned with how these representations are intertwined with the involvcment of miàdle and upper-class Anglo-Celtic women in the shaping and implementation of immigration policy. Drawing on Rajeswari Mohan and Rosemary Hennessy's article "The Construction of Woman in Three Popular Texts of Empire," 1 shall exdne now representations of immigrant women becme part of a sig~ifying practice which encoded imaigrant women' s alterity xcxn. .. Canadian society. Alterity or otherness is mobilizeà as a neans of justifying a nierarchy in c given society that parnits and institutionalizes the subordination and exploitaïion of a particular segment of the population. Alterity is also izvoked 'LpdaNead. Mvths of Sexualiw Re~resentationsof Women in Victorian Britain (New York: Basil BlachvelL 1988)7. 'Nead 8. 2 by those who stand to profit from the surplus value generated by "the other(s)'" labour. Relations of exploitation are thesefore protected and fostered in order to ensure that the dominant group exlrcises political power to safeguard its.own interests which invariably are at odds with the interests of th? subaltern groq(s).' Canadian imnigration policy, in the early decades of the L~wencieth century was defined in accordance with the British settler construct whereby, "racial, ethnic and gender hierarchies" were institutionalized through imrniçration law~.~ For example, the Immigration Act of 1910 gave the federal cabinet the power to determine the nurnber and ethnic background of immigrants, permitting them to bar the entry of 'immigrants belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirlments of canada."' This immigration policÿ was shaped by a rccist imperative whereby every effort would be nade to ensurc that Canada adhered to "British Protestant prin~Fp1e.s."~ Althougo the British were ethnically dominant in both number and -mer, this immigration act enabled them to Rosernp Hennessy and Rajesmri Mohan. "TheConsmiction of Woman in Three Popular Tex. of Empire: Towards a Critique of Marerialia Feminimr" Texnial haice 3.3 (1989) 37-28. Daha Stasiuiiis and NiYuval-Davis ed ù'nsettlinz Sertler Societies: .4rticulations of Gender. Race. Ethnicitv and Class (London: Sage PubIications. 1995) 96. 'Howard Plamer. 'Strangers and Stereor?pes: rhe Rise of Nativism- The Prairie West Historicai Readinos ed. Howard Plamer. Edmonton: Pica Pica Press. c. 1985. 3 10. secure their hegemonic status by adopting exclusionary orders- in-council in order to halt any