L. M. Montgomery and War

de Andrea McKenzie, Jane Ledwell

"For more than 100 years, L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley, Emily Byrd Starr, Rilla Blythe, and a host of other fictional characters have captured generations of readers. The ways their fictional lives and cultures include or exclude the First World War provide insight into Canadian literary history and the Canadian historical experience of war, especially on the homefront. Born in 1874, Montgomery was forever marked by war: like millions of others of her generation world-wide, she would suffer suspense and grief, and like millions of others, she would work actively for the war's cause. Rilla of Ingleside, her war novel, both reflected and shaped Canada's cultural memories of the First World War, while her poetry and post-war works more subtly draw on the war's influences. The Blythes Are Quoted, her final work, savagely indicts war and its impact--or does it? This problematic text and others from the end of Montgomery's life are marked by the oncoming shadows of the Second World War. She died in 1942, before seeing an end to the global warfare of that terrible epoch. L.M. Montgomery and War re-assesses Montgomery's place in the war canon and the Canadian literary canon, drawing on new scholarship and perspectives from the still-burgeoning, interdisciplinary fields of war studies. From literary studies to historical studies, gender studies and visual art, this volume explores a multitude of perspectives and questions about Montgomery's writing and war."--