The pioneer woman : a Canadian character type / Elizabeth Thompson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thompson, Elizabeth Helen, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canadian fiction--History and criticism.

Canadian fiction.

Women and literature--Canada.

Women and literature.

Frontier and pioneer life in literature.

Women pioneers in literature.

Physical Description:

199 p. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Buffalo : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1991.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Elizabeth Thompson develops the idea of the pioneer woman as an archetypal character firmly entrenched in Canadian fiction and the Canadian consciousness. Thompson's broad definition of the concept of pioneer can be seen to reflect the history of Canadian women, starting with the pioneers of settlement and continuing through the pioneers of spiritual perfection and psychological liberation. Various versions of the pioneer woman have appeared in English-Canadian fiction since Traill's development of the character type. Sara Jeannette Duncan's The Imperialist and Ralph Connor's The Man From Glengarry and Glengarry School Days feature pioneer women who cope not only with physical frontiers but also with those grounded in social and personal concerns. More recently, Margaret Laurence used this character type in The Stone Angel, A Jest of God, and The Diviners, with characters who inhabit internal, personal frontiers. Thompson argues that the longevity of this character type in English-Canadian fiction reveals an affinity between the pioneer woman and a common conception of the role of women in Canadian society. She suggests that the role for women proposed by the early immigrants was an appropriate choice for the Canadian frontier, regardless of the location and nature of that frontier.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Introduction

The Fiction of Catharine Parr Traill

The Non-Fiction of Catharine Parr Traill

The Pioneer Woman as Character Type in Sara Jeannette Duncan’s “The Imperialist”

Ralph Connor’s Pioneer Heroine

The Appearance of the Pioneer Woman as Character Type in the Fiction of Margaret Laurence

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references: p. [175]-196 and index.

ISBN:

1-282-85556-5

9786612855566

0-7735-6288-5

OCLC:

732600959