Doctoral candidate Bridgette Brown recently presented a paper at the annual Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE) conference at the University of Regina. Her paper, “The Canadian Magazine, Transperipheral Whiteness and the Soldier in the South African War,” forms part of the research conducted for her dissertation’s second chapter, which analyzes interactions between Canada and South Africa during the South African War (1899-1902).
In her paper, she analyzes how a monthly periodical, The Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature (1893-1939), produced the meanings of the South African War (1899-1902) for a British-Canadian, largely central Canadian audience. Fundamental to this inquiry is how war reportage, the Canadian soldier, and literature were imbricated in discussions of nation and Empire when the colonial spaces of Canada and South Africa were drawn into comparison with one another during the imperial conflict. Specifically, she examines how masculine whiteness was constructed by this national periodical (and its multiple, mostly male, contributors) that made visible the Canadian soldier as a national figure. By studying artwork from cover pages, photographs, and military reportage, it is evident how the Canadian Magazine centred the image of the Canadian mounted horseman and the volunteer soldier who was differentiated from, and superior to, other imperial soldiers. Importantly, this figure contributes to our understanding of early militarism, the emergence of national white culture, and adds another type to the figures of White Civility who Daniel Coleman has famously identified, who represented male hegemony in the Dominion. Notably, what is interesting about transperipheral interactions during the War is how the “Mountie,” in particular, emerged as a pivotal figure who policed deficient populations both internal and external to the nation. Locally, he ruled over ungovernable indigenous peoples in the Canadian West, and, internationally, his horsemanship helped the imperial army defeat the Boers who were portrayed as uncivilized and peasant-like. This paper argues that projects of colonial whiteness acted across national spaces, and had global aspirations, to demonstrate how Canada’s identity of hegemonic masculinity was reliant upon and produced through both strong colonial racial distinctions and internal population differentiation.
See the full conference program here.