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L.M. Montgomery and Gender
The celebrated author of Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon receives much-deserved additional consideration in L.M. Montgomery and Gender. Nineteen contributors take a variety of critical and theoretical positions, from historical analyses of the White Feather campaign and discussions of adoption to medical discourses of death and disease, explorations of Montgomery’s use of humour, and the author’s rewriting of masculinist traditions. The essays span Montgomery’s writing, exploring her famous Anne and Emily books as well as her short fiction, her comic journal composed with her friend Nora Lefurgey, and less-studied novels such as Magic for Marigold and The Blue Castle. Dividing the chapters into five sections – on masculinities and femininities, domestic space, humour, intertexts, and being in time – L.M. Montgomery and Gender addresses the degree to which Montgomery’s work engages and exposes, reflects and challenges the gender roles around her, underscoring how her writing has shaped future representations of gender. Of interest to historians, feminists, gender scholars, scholars of literature, and Montgomery enthusiasts, this wide-ranging collection builds on the depth of current scholarship in its approach to the complexity of gender in the works of one of Canada’s best-loved authors.
- GenresNonfictionEssays
416 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2021
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November 18, 2023
Edited and with a totally and delightfully excellent introduction by Laura Robinson and E. Holly Pike (and having as its origin a 2016 academic L.M. Montgomery conference at the University of Prince Edward Island). L.M. Montgomery and Gender presents a wide and versatile range of interesting and thought provoking gender issues in its collection of sixteen articles, not mention that unlike far too many essay anthologies out there, L.M. Montgomery and Gender also and very much appreciatively includes an extensive bibliography (both paper and online references) as well as a nicely user friendly index.
Therefore, potential and interested readers of L. M. Montgomery and Gender will (and should) certainly encounter in both the introduction and in the sixteen presented articles many wonderful details for consideration regarding the question of whether Lucy Maud Montgomery is progressive or old-fashioned in her view of gender norms (like for example Montgomery’s use of the white feather symbol during the First World War, female twins to explore questions of gender and gender dimorphism, the intensity of L.M. Montgomery's own mourning for her stillborn son as expressed in Anne Blythe’s loss of Joyce in Anne’s House of Dreams, the humour and parody of courtship embedded in Montgomery's collaborative fictional diary written with Nora Lefurgey, which I am totally unfamiliar with and now desperately am wanting to read). And drawing a direct line of descent in L.M. Montgomery reception through the twentieth century, Laura Robinson and E. Holly Pike in their introduction to L.M. Montgomery and Gender convincingly and also with more than a hint of righteous and justifiable textual anger explain and point out the push-and-pull by which Montgomery was considered progressive at first but later denigrated and condemned as increasingly old fashioned and overly reactive (by so-called and in fact often male modernists), until the blossoming of feminist scholarship, which has paved the way for an increasing consideration of Montgomery's entire oeuvre and of showing that if one takes the entire textual body of the latter, progressiveness does generally win through over conservatism for and with L.M. Montgomery.
So yes, finally but importantly, to say that I have both enjoyed and also been massively enlightened by what is being featured in L. M. Montgomery and Gender and that I equally have not in fact encountered an article in L.M. Montgomery and Gender which I have found to be overly problematic and academically annoying to and for me, this is not only the very happy truth of the matter but also represents a wee bit of an understatement at that (and a very nice and pleasant academic surprise for me, since with collections of articles regarding L.M. Montgomery and her work, I have usually not only not enjoyed the included texts equally but have usually even actively despised some of the articles, and which has obviously and wonderfully not at all happened for me with L.M. Montgomery and Gender). For indeed, all of the presented essays in L.M. Montgomery and Gender (as well as the introduction) very convincingly demonstrate just how readily subversions and major challenges to 19th and early to mid 20th century gender norms and strictures hide under the surface and between the lines of Montgomery's texts (and that Kazuko Sakuma's essay in L.M. Montgomery and Gender on the white feather movement and how according to Sakuma, L.M. Montgomery uses this in Rilla of Ingleside to fight gender norms and discrimination is actually making me want to not only revisit Rilla of Ingleside but to also potentially reconsider my own one star raging, yes, that is both important and high praise and shows just how much I truly and absolutely have both enjoyed reading L.M. Montgomery and Gender and equally so how much I have personally and at the same time learned from my perusal).
Therefore, potential and interested readers of L. M. Montgomery and Gender will (and should) certainly encounter in both the introduction and in the sixteen presented articles many wonderful details for consideration regarding the question of whether Lucy Maud Montgomery is progressive or old-fashioned in her view of gender norms (like for example Montgomery’s use of the white feather symbol during the First World War, female twins to explore questions of gender and gender dimorphism, the intensity of L.M. Montgomery's own mourning for her stillborn son as expressed in Anne Blythe’s loss of Joyce in Anne’s House of Dreams, the humour and parody of courtship embedded in Montgomery's collaborative fictional diary written with Nora Lefurgey, which I am totally unfamiliar with and now desperately am wanting to read). And drawing a direct line of descent in L.M. Montgomery reception through the twentieth century, Laura Robinson and E. Holly Pike in their introduction to L.M. Montgomery and Gender convincingly and also with more than a hint of righteous and justifiable textual anger explain and point out the push-and-pull by which Montgomery was considered progressive at first but later denigrated and condemned as increasingly old fashioned and overly reactive (by so-called and in fact often male modernists), until the blossoming of feminist scholarship, which has paved the way for an increasing consideration of Montgomery's entire oeuvre and of showing that if one takes the entire textual body of the latter, progressiveness does generally win through over conservatism for and with L.M. Montgomery.
So yes, finally but importantly, to say that I have both enjoyed and also been massively enlightened by what is being featured in L. M. Montgomery and Gender and that I equally have not in fact encountered an article in L.M. Montgomery and Gender which I have found to be overly problematic and academically annoying to and for me, this is not only the very happy truth of the matter but also represents a wee bit of an understatement at that (and a very nice and pleasant academic surprise for me, since with collections of articles regarding L.M. Montgomery and her work, I have usually not only not enjoyed the included texts equally but have usually even actively despised some of the articles, and which has obviously and wonderfully not at all happened for me with L.M. Montgomery and Gender). For indeed, all of the presented essays in L.M. Montgomery and Gender (as well as the introduction) very convincingly demonstrate just how readily subversions and major challenges to 19th and early to mid 20th century gender norms and strictures hide under the surface and between the lines of Montgomery's texts (and that Kazuko Sakuma's essay in L.M. Montgomery and Gender on the white feather movement and how according to Sakuma, L.M. Montgomery uses this in Rilla of Ingleside to fight gender norms and discrimination is actually making me want to not only revisit Rilla of Ingleside but to also potentially reconsider my own one star raging, yes, that is both important and high praise and shows just how much I truly and absolutely have both enjoyed reading L.M. Montgomery and Gender and equally so how much I have personally and at the same time learned from my perusal).
Displaying 1 of 1 review