White civility : the literary project of English Canada /

A clearly written, closely argued work of literary and cultural history that provocatively connects contemporary Canadian society to its past, this "genealogical" analysis of what Coleman (McMaster Univ., Canada) describes as the construction of "White normativity" is very much an ideological sequel to his Masculine Migrations: Reading the Postcolonial Male in new Canadian Narratives (CH, Jan'99, 36-2607). Taking four recurring character types--the Loyalist brother, the Scottish orphan, the muscular Christian, and the maturing colonial son--from a variety of poems, heroic epics, formula novels, speeches, and popular journalism from the 1850s to the 1950s, Coleman shows how they function as personifications of the Canadian nation in allegorical narratives that negotiate the privileged normative status of British whiteness in English Canada. Notions of Canadian civility originate from an appropriation of "Britishness" that provides the colony with an ethos that differentiates it not only from US culture but also from the "mother" culture, while also establishing it as morally and spiritually superior to both. Ralph Connor's novels figure prominently throughout the discussion, but popular writers from John Richardson to Hugh MacLennan and Margaret Murray Robertson to Nellie McClung also receive attention. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. D. R. McCarthy Huron University College