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- Title
Still Here, But Still English: R. E. W. Goodridge and the Performance of Nationality in English Canadian Emigrant Writings.
- Authors
Hanson, Carter F.
- Abstract
The article explores conflicts of national identity and genteel manliness in the writings of Canadian immigrants. Writings of English gentleman emigrant Richard E. W. Goodridge, who settled in Manitoba in 1880 reveal a long struggle over national identity. Goodridge recorded his experiences as an emigrant, his opinions and advice for would-be settlers in two books "A Year in Manitoba: Being the Experiences of a Retired Officer in Settling His Sons" and "The Colonist at Home Again; or, Emigration Not Expatriation." The intent in the first book is not to write the self but to convey information and impressions about an external object, Manitoba. Goodridge's extended absence from England and its privileged sites of identity formation undermined his Englishness. His defence of emigration begins to reveal how his conceptions of emigration and national identity are linked. Anxiety of Goodridge about hybridity hinges rather on the cultural sense of national belonging. In his narrative, Goodridge describes numerous exhibits of the Queen's Jubilee and his family's visits to the countryside and to France but also addresses social issues like poverty and Imperial Federation. Two methods of self-representation has been used by Goodridge to enact his Englishness, either devoting entire characters to various social questions or digressing from his travelogue to give opinions on maters relevant to his location.
- Subjects
MANITOBA; CANADA; ENGLISH immigrants' writings; NATIONALISM in literature; EMIGRATION &; immigration; GOODRIDGE, Richard E. W.; YEAR in Manitoba: Being the Experiences of a Retired Office in Settling His Sons, A (Book); COLONIST at Home Again; or, Emigration Not Expatriation, The (Book)
- Publication
Canadian Literature, 2004, Issue 180, p73
- ISSN
0008-4360
- Publication type
Literary Criticism