Never Was Such a Race of Dancers: Dance and Nation in Canadian Literature

Abstract

This dissertation is an interdisciplinary project that brings dance studies to bear on a representative sampling of early Canadian novels, including Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague (1769), Rosanna Leprohon's Antoinette de Mirecourt (1864), William Kirby's The Golden Dog (1877), John Richardson's Wacousta (1832), Sara Jeannette Duncan's A Daughter of Today (1894), and L.M. Montgomery's Anne and Emily series, as well as The Blue Castle (1909-27). The main argument of the dissertation is that the scenes and language of various forms of dance in these novels can be read as markers of textual concern with colonial and national health, whether physical, mental, or moral. The analysis is based on archival and theoretical investigation of various forms of dance (British social dance, Native dance, French court ballet, Romantic ballet, Delsartian and modern dance) including their contemporary cultural and ideological significance. At the broadest level, this dissertation demonstrates how the relatively new field of dance studies -- the theoretical and critical study of dance in its various forms and functions -- can enrich literary criticism, in this case the study of early Canadian literary texts. The close analysis of dance in literature, when allied with an understanding of the particular dances themselves, can produce startling new avenues of literary investigation.