1999/11/01 by Janice Fiamengo · 1 citation
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Ambivalence #Art #Australian History and Society #Canadian Identity and History #Epistemology #Gender studies #Irish and British Studies #Law #Meaning (existential) #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Psychoanalysis #Psychology #Race (biology) #Reactionary #Reverence #Sociology
paper · doi:10.3138/jcs.34.4.70
openalex publication_date 1999/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Almost 50 years after her death, scholars disagree quite markedly on the meaning and significance of Nellie McClung's legacy. Responses to her beliefs and writing range from reverence to opprobrium. In contending that the starkly contrasting assessments of McClung indicate something of a crisis for feminist scholars, I argue that literary critics and social historians need to move beyond the entrenched polarities that currently structure much academic discussion of her work. Focussing on McClung's references to “mothering the race,” I suggest that scholars in History and English might borrow from one another's disciplines to investigate the relationships between the radical and reactionary elements in McClung’s vision.