engleski

Cinderella Writes Back: S.J. Duncan’s Mary Trent as Canada personified

Canada’s abundant natural resources put her in a good position within the British Empire and alleviated the dominance of the United States in North America. In spite of the rise of her importance and consequently of its status within the Empire, there were still voices pushing for complete independence from Britain (Canada First). Sara Jeannete Duncan concerned herself overtly with those debates by critiquing Canada’s place within the empire. Her Mary Trent of Cousin Cinderella arrives to London at the height of the preferential trade debate thus enabling Duncan to illuminate the issue of Anglo-colonial relations (Duncan herself arrived to London the year Chamberlain delivered the famous “I Believe in British Empire” speech). Formulating Mary as ignorant of her wealth and potential (and thus personifying Canada), and positioned against Evelyn, an American social climber, gives Duncan the opportunity to depict what it means to be Canadian. As we watch Mary’s pride in her Canadian origins increase, we watch her formulate Canada as home (she comes to London with the idea that England is home) and, increasingly perceiving London as a stifling place, make a decision to return home. Additionally, through Mary’s unique female Canadian vantage point, as we watch her develop from a raw product (“a colonial edition” is her father’s expression) commodified by the London market into a writer through the creation of her autobiographical narrative, a writer with increased confidence in herself as a Canadian and a woman, we learn how economic and political workings of imperialism affected women. At this nexus of imperialism, nationalism and feminism emerges a narrative of Canadian modernity.

Sara Jeannete Duncan, Cousin Cinderella, nationalism, feminism, Canadian modernity

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