1st Edition

The Routledge Introduction to Gender and Sexuality in Literature in Canada

By Linda M. Morra Copyright 2023
    218 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    218 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Routledge Introduction to Gender and Sexuality in Literature in Canada charts the evolution of gender and sexuality, as they have been represented and performed in the literatures of Canada for more than three centuries. From early colonial texts by Frances Brooke, to settler texts by Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, to more contemporary texts by Jane Rule, Alice Munro, Joshua Whitehead, Ivan Coyote, and others, this volume will introduce readers to how gender and sexuality have been variably conceived in Canada and the work they perform across multiple genres. Calling upon recent currents of gender theory and examining the composition, structure, and history of selected literary texts—that is, the “literary sediments” that have accumulated over centuries—readers of this book will explore how those representations shift over time. By examining literature in Canada in relation to crucial cultural, political, and historical contexts, readers will better apprehend why that literature has significantly transformed and broadened to address racialized and fluid identities that continue to challenge and disrupt any stable notion of gendered and sexualized identity today.

    Chapter One:

    Archaeologies of Gender and Sexuality in Literature in Canada
    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Two:

    Frances Brooke and the English Heroines of the Novel of Sensibility
    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Three:
    Performances of Settler Femininity: Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill

    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Four:
    Ralph Connor and the Narrative of Muscular Christianity
    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Five:
    Georgina Sime and Pauline Johnson, and the Rise of the New Woman

    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Six:
    Jane Rule and the Development of Lesbian Literature in Canada
    References and Further Reading


    Chapter Seven:
    Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, and the (Post)Modern Woman
    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Eight:

    Recuperating Indigenous and Racialized Masculinities

    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Nine:

    "Moving Over": Racialized Contemporary Womanhood

    References and Further Reading

    Chapter Ten:
    Transgender, Two Spirit, and Gender-Nonconforming Literatures in Canada

    References and Further Reading

    Biography

    Linda M. Morra is currently Professor of English at Bishop’s University, situated on unceded Abenaki territory, the former Jack and Nancy Farley Visiting Scholar at Simon Fraser University (2021–2022), and the former Craig Dobbin Chair of Canadian Studies at University College Dublin (2016–2017). She completed her doctorate in Canadian Literature and Canadian Studies at the University of Ottawa. In addition to editing and writing nine other books, she also authored Moving Archives, which won the Gabrielle Roy Prize in English (2020), and co-edited (with Dr. Sarah Henzi) On the Other Side(s) of 150, which won the Canadian Studies Network Prize (2021).