In the Interval of the Wave
Prince Edward Island Women's Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Life Writing
- 304 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
In the Interval of the Wave
Prince Edward Island Women's Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Life Writing
About This Book
Taking its title from a poem by Prince Edward Island poet Anne Compton, In the Interval of the Wave is a close study of diaries written by Prince Edward Island women in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Women from both rural and urban regions of the Island recorded their lives in a genre that allowed them to play with the conventions of the language they knew. For busy farm wives, their quotidian language, syntax, and choice of topic appear simple, whereas for the urban elite like Margaret Gray Lord and Wanda Wyatt, the erudition of their diaries suggests a more leisured existence. Mary McDonald-Rissanen argues that the initial reception of the text - its physical appearance, handwriting, gaps, and flood of words - provides interesting insights for understanding the circumstances of Prince Edward Island women from times past. Intertextual readings of the diaries alongside other cultural artifacts such as paintings, histories, folk stories, and songs embellish the idiosyncratic diary discourse. Diaries enabled women to write their voices, create a subjective identity, and redefine their place in the world. In the Interval of the Wave exposes lives lived and recorded in a special moment and place never far from the rhythm of the sea.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue: In the Interval of the Wave
- 1 The Tumbled Silence of Stone: Prince Edward Island Womenâs Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Life Writing
- 2 In Their Long-Belted Dresses: Images of Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Prince Edward Island Women
- 3 The Emerging Pioneer Subject: Entrepreneur Emma Chadwick Stretchâs 1856â60 Letters and Ledger
- 4 A Rural Womanâs Perceptions of Home and Beyond: Farm Wife Amy Darby Tanton Andrewâs âA Line a Day,â 1910â1915
- 5 The Modern Professional Woman: Teacher Lucy Bardon Palmer Haslamâs Unpublished Journals (1884â1943)
- 6 Urban Bourgeois Women and Their Everyday: Margaret Gray Lord (1845â1941) and Wanda Lefurgey Wyatt (1895â1998)
- 7 Travelling Womenâs Diaries: Mercy Ann Coles (1864), Violet E. Goldsmith (1901), Carrie Holman (1917), Vera Hyde (1929â30) and Lucy Palmer Haslam (1932)
- 8 Now Passionâs Past: Life Writing, Women and Their Times
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index