
Unarrested Archives
Case Studies in Twentieth-Century Canadian Women's Authorship
Linda M. Morra(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Published on 2. December 2014
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-4426-4881-4 (ISBN)
Description
Calling upon the archives of Canadian writers E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913), Emily Carr (1871-1945), Sheila Watson (1909-1998), Jane Rule (1931-2007), and M. NourbeSe Philip (1947- ), Linda M. Morra explores the ways in which women's archives have been uniquely conceptualized in scholarly discourses and shaped by socio-political forces. She also provides a framework for understanding the creative interventions these women staged to protect their records. Through these case studies, Morra traces the influence of institutions such as national archives and libraries, and regulatory bodies such as border service agencies on the creation, presentation, and preservation of women's archival collections. The deliberate selection of the five literary case studies allows Morra to examine changing archival practices over time, shifting definitions of nationhood and national literary history, varying treatments of race, gender, and sexual orientation, and the ways in which these forces affected the writers' reputations and their archives.
Morra also productively reflects on Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever and postmodern feminist scholarship related to the relationship between writing, authority, and identity to showcase the ways in which female writers in Canada have represented themselves and their careers in the public record.
Morra also productively reflects on Jacques Derrida's Archive Fever and postmodern feminist scholarship related to the relationship between writing, authority, and identity to showcase the ways in which female writers in Canada have represented themselves and their careers in the public record.
Reviews / Votes
'This minutely researched and thoroughly engaging study expands scholarly understanding of how literary archives are shaped by national institutions.' -- Cristina Ivanovici British Journal of Canadian Studies vol 29:02:2016 'Morra hopes that her book will encourage researchers to think more broadly about archives' formations, their locations, and the relationships they organize and epitomize. Her case studies provide a sustained engagement with these issues, although each could be read as a fascinating stand-alone piece.' -- Andrea Beverley English Studies in Canada vol 41:04:2015 'Through its range of genres and cultural periods, meticulous scholarship, and respect for the public life of women writers' documents, Unarrested Archives recalibrates perspectives on what might be uncovered and what must be preserved.' -- Patricia Demers BC Studies February 2016 'An excellent introduction to textual feminism as a materialist practice... This book will remind readers of why we need feminism in the second decade of the twenty-first century.' -- Tanis MacDonald Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature vol 35:01:2016More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4426-4881-4 (9781442648814)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Linda M. Morra is an associate professor in the Department of English at Bishop's University and the current president of the Quebec Writers' Federation. She edited the collected letters of Emily Carr and Ira Dilworth published with the University of Toronto Press (2006), and edited and annotated Jane Rule's Taking my Life (2011).
Content
Introduction 1. The Archive of Embodiment: Pauline Johnson's " A Cry from an Indian Wife" 2. Her "Eye" Was Her "I": Emily Carr, Autobiography, and the Archive of Kinship 3. "It's What You [Don't] Say": Sheila Watson, the Imminent Narrative, and the Archive of Displacement 4. Jane Rule and the Archive of Activism: Negotiating Imaginative - and Literal - Space for a Nation 5. The Minor Archive: M. NourbeSe Philip and Mediations of Race and Gender in Canada Conclusion