• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.561-577
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• 2008

L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables is not only confidently labelled a Canadian classic but also placed as a national icon along with the moose, the beaver, and the Habs in Canada. Anne's 'Canadianness' is partly due to its location in the rural world of Prince Edward Island. The fictional Avonlea is described as the ideal space where Canadian spirit can interact with the personified surrounding landscapes through Celtic imagination. Additionally, the communal bond of Avonlea fully demonstrates Scottish Canadian identities. The Scottish national character of Avonlea is responsible for clannishness of the Cuthberts and the Lyndes. The disrespect to the French is also due to Scottish heritage in Avonlea. As an outsider Anne wants to be integrated into the community of Avonlea, and successfully adapts herself to the regional shared values. Meanwhile she partly challenges the strictness and rigidness of the born Canadian Avonlea residents. Despite its Canadian origin, Anne of Green Gables is accepted as part of the American canon of children's literature in the Unite States. The configuration of Anne as an American heroine is noticeable among American scholars: by relocating it to the US the female Bildungsroman in the nineteenth century America, a group of literary critics adapt Anne as an American girl for American readers. The heroine of Anne of Green Gables is linked to American novels such as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Kate Douglas Wiggin's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Gene Stratten Porter's A Girl of the Limberlost. Anne is even classified as another Caddie by American literary critics: Anne is placed at the center of Caddie Woodlawn Syndrome as another Wisconsin pioneer child. Canadian identity of Anne is intentionally excluded and Anne was reborn as an American girl in the U.S. In this context, Anne functions as a sign of nation and a site for cross-national identity formation.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.20
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• pp.225-240
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• 2010

Soon after joining the Canadian Confederation in 1867, the province of Quebec adopted the phrase Je me souviens ("As I recall") as its 'national' motto, although many Qu?b?cois do not remember today what they were supposed to memorize, as collective subject, when their government voted this motion. My thesis is that contrary to other countries which have a strong sense of history based on a secular tradition, this process was more complicated in Quebec - as if a collective memory loss lied at the heart of it's history. Through a rereading of Hubert Aquin's cult novel, Trou de m?moire (in its English translation Blackout), first published in 1968, I try to illustrate this paradox and to emphasize the heuristic functions of memory blanks, gaps and lapses in certain postmodern narratives, after the historical breakdown of "the great narratives" (Lyotard). In this perspective, the example of Quebec, through the voice of one of its more gifted yet controversial novelist, can be seen as emblematic of what happens when the mnemonic impossibility of rewriting history opens up new possibilities for writing fiction.