Taking Vimy Ridge: Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers and Canada as "Warrior Nation"

Herb Wyile

doi:10.33776/candb.v4i1.3016

Taking Vimy Ridge: Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers and Canada as "Warrior Nation"

Herb Wyile Acadia University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33776/candb.v4i1.3016

Keywords:

Jane Urquhart, Vimy Ridge, Vimy Memorial, commemoration, national identity

Abstract

This article revisits Jane Urquhart's 2001 novel The Stone Carvers in light of the Conservative Party of Canada's reframing of national identity, particularly its emphasis on Canada's military and its privileging of Vimy Ridge as a hallowed site of national identity formation. Rereading The Stone Carvers in light of a number of aspects of the Conservative Party's rebranding of Canadian identity, including the prospective building of a companion memorial to the Vimy Memorial that figures so prominently in The Stone Carvers, the article offers a reassessment of Urquhart's portrayal of the battle of Vimy Ridge and of the Vimy Memorial and its architect, Walter Allward.

Author Biography

Herb Wyile, Acadia University

Full Professor, Department of English and TheatreCo-editor, Studies in Canadian Literature

References

Published

2014-12-21

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2014)

Section

ARTICLES

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