L.M. Montgomery and Canadian Culture was edited by Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Rollins Epperly and was published by the University of Toronto Press in June 1999. This volume contains a collection of essays and reflections on L.M. Montgomery's influence on Canadian culture and identity and her place in Canadian literary history. Among other subjects, the articles examine Montgomery's impact on cultural tourism, her role in presenting Canadian culture to a global audience, and her depictions of Canadian womanhood.
Here is the description of the volume from the
University of Toronto Press:
Despite the enormous popularity of her books, particularly Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery's role in the development of Canada's national culture is not often discussed by literary historians. This is curious as some of Canada's leading writers, including Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, and Jane Urquhart, have acknowledged their indebtedness to Montgomery's fiction.
That scholars have not mined the 'Canadianness' of Montgomery's writing is redressed by this collection. It is the first systematic effort to investigate and explore Montgomery's active engagement with Canadian nationalism and identity, including regionalism, canon formation, and Canadian-American cultural relations. It examines her work in relation to the many dramatic changes of her day, such as the women's movement and the advent of new technologies; and it looks at the national and international consumption of Anne of Green Gables, in the form of both 'high' culture and cultural tourism.
The wide range of contributors represent views from across disciplines and boundaries, including feminist, biographical, psychoanalytical, historical, and cultural approaches. The scholarly reflections are punctuated to great effect by creative pieces, personal reflections, and interviews.
This ground-breaking collection will appeal to all fans of Montgomery's work and to students of Canadian letters. It places Montgomery and her work squarely in the mainstream of Canadian literary history, affirming her importance to our country's cultural development.
Reviews (see
additional reviews)
In setting out to prove that a popular writer like Montgomery should be taken seriously as a focal point of Canadian literary history, Gammel and Epperly are singularly successful. The essays are intriguing, informative, and clearly structured, as interesting to the layman as to the scholar.
— Nancy Schiefer,
London Free Press, October 23, 1999
Whether she is interpreted as subversive or conservative, this collection leaves no doubt that Montgomery does indeed have a significant place in Canadian culture – whether high, low, or ‘pop' .... It seems fitting, too, that the compilation of literary criticism, personal ‘reflection pieces' and journalism should make a readable collection, likely to be as enjoyable for Montgomery's educated popular audience as it is for her scholarly critics.
— Deirdre Baker,
Humanities, 1999
The book includes the following content and essays:
Introduction
L.M. Montgomery and the Shaping of Canadian Culture by Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Epperly
Part 1. Montgomery and Canada: Romancing the Region, Constructing the Nation
Montgomery and Canadian Nationalism
1. 'A Born Canadian': The Bonds of Communal Identity in
Anne of Green Gables and
A Tangled Web by Laura M. Robinson
2. The End of Canadian Innocence: L.M. Montgomery and the First World War by Owen Dudley Edwards and Jennifer H. Litster
Romance and the Shaping of Canadian Culture
3. 'Dragged at Anne's Chariot Wheels': The Triangle of Author, Publisher, and Fictional Character by Carole Gerson
4. (Re)Producing Canadian Literature: L.M. Montgomery's Emily Novels by E. Holly Pike
5.
Reflection Piece—The Poetry of L.M. Montgomery by Elizabeth Waterston
Part 2. Montgomery and Canadian Society: Negotiating Cultural Change
Religion, Education, and Technology
6. L.M. Montgomery: Scottish-Presbyterian Agency in Canadian Culture by Mary Henley Rubio
7. Disciplining Development: L.M. Montgomery and Early Schooling by Irene Gammel and Ann Dutton
8. 'Daisy,' 'Dodgie,' and 'Lady Jane Grey Dort': L.M. Montgomery and the Automobile by Sasha Mullally
Motherhood, Family, and Feminism
9. Knitting Up the World: L.M. Montgomery and Maternal Feminism in Canada by Erika Rothwell
10. The Canadian Family and Female Adolescent Development during the 1930s:
Jane of Lantern Hill by Diana Arlene Chlebek
11.
Reflection Piece—'I Wrote Two Hours This Morning and Put Up Grape Juice in the Afternoon': The Conflict between Woman and Writer in L.M. Montgomery's Journals by Roberta Buchanan
Part 3. Montgomery and Canadian Iconography: Consuming the Popular
Anne as Cultural Icon
12. The Hard-Won Power of Canadian Womanhood: Reading
Anne of Green Gables Today by Frank Davey
13. Anne in Hollywood: The Americanization of a Canadian Icon by Theodore F. Sheckels
14.
Reflection Piece—Anne Shirley and the Power of Literacy: Sharon J. Hamilton interviewed by Dianne Hicks Morrow
Montgomery, Canada, and Cultural Tourism
15. Japanese Readings of
Anne of Green Gables by Yoshiko Akamatsu
16. Anne of Red Hair: What Do the Japanese See in
Anne of Green Gables? by Calvin Trillin
17.
Reflection Piece—Revisiting Anne by Margaret Atwood
Epilogue
L.M. Montgomery and the Creation of Prince Edward Island by Deirdre Kessler
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