Montgomery Lucy Maud - Annes world: a new century of Anne of Green Gables

ANNES WORLD

A New Century of Anne of Green Gables

The recent 100-year anniversary of the first publication of L.M. Montgomerys Anne of Green Gables has inspired renewed interest in one of Canadas most beloved fictional icons. The international appeal of the red-haired orphan has not diminished over the past century, and the cultural meaning of her story continues to grow and change. The original essays in Annes World offer fresh and timely approaches to issues of culture, identity, health, and globalization as they apply to Montgomerys famous character and to todays readers.

In conversation with each other and with the work of previous experts, the contributors to Annes World discuss topics as diverse as Anne in fashion, the global industry surrounding Anne, the novels use as a tool to counteract depression, and the possibility that Anne suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Anne in translation and its adaptation for film and television are also considered. By establishing new ways to examine one of popular cultures favourite characters, the essays of Annes World demonstrate the timeless and ongoing appeal of L.M. Montgomerys writing.

IRENE GAMMEL is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Modern Literature and Culture in the Department of English at Ryerson University.

BENJAMIN LEFEBVRE has held postdoctoral visiting fellowships at the University of Alberta, the University of Worcester, and the University of Prince Edward Island.

A New Century of Anne of Green Gables

EDITED BY IRENE GAMMEL AND BENJAMIN LEFEBVRE

University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2010

Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com

Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-4426-4202-7 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-4426-1106-1 (paper)

Printed on acid-free paper

Publication cataloguing information is available from Library and Archives Canada

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

Introduction: Reconsidering Annes World
IRENE GAMMEL

1 Seven Milestones: How Anne of Green Gables Became a Canadian Icon
CAROLE GERSON

2 Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves: Ambivalence towards Fashion in Anne of Green Gables
ALISON MATTHEWS DAVID AND KIMBERLY WAHL

3 Ill Never Be Angelically Good: Feminist Narrative Ethics in Anne of Green Gables
MARY JEANETTE MORAN

4 Too Heedless and Impulsive: Re-reading Anne of Green Gables through a Clinical Approach
HELEN HOY

5 Reading to Heal: Anne of Green Gables as Bibliotherapy
IRENE GAMMEL

6 Reading with Blitheness: Anne of Green Gables in Toronto Public Librarys Childrens Collections
LESLIE MCGRATH

7 Learning with Anne: Early Childhood Education Looks at New Media for Young Girls
JASON NOLAN

8 On the Road from Bright River: Shifting Social Space in Anne of Green Gables
ALEXANDER MACLEOD

9 Anne in a Globalized World: Nation, Nostalgia, and Postcolonial Perspectives of Home
MARGARET STEFFLER

10 An Enchanting Girl: International Portraits of Annes Cultural Transfer
IRENE GAMMEL WITH ANDREW OMALLEY, HUIFENG HU, AND RANBIR K. BANWAIT

11 Whats in a Name? Towards a Theory of the Anne Brand
BENJAMIN LEFEBVRE

Afterword: Mediating Anne
RICHARD CAVELL

Many of the essays included in Annes World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables take inspiration from the 100th anniversary of Anne of Green Gables, which was commemorated across Canada with exhibitions, celebrations, conferences, and the publication of a slew of new books. In Charlottetown, L.M. Montgomery was named The Guardians 2008 Newsmaker of the Year (3 Jan. 2009). In the late summer of 2009, scholars met at the University of Uppsala in Sweden to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Swedish translation of Anne of Green Gables and, as we write these acknowledgments, celebrations are being planned by the L.M. Montgomery Society of Ontario to commemorate the authors 100 years in that province, for she had settled in Leaskdale, Ontario, in 1911.

Irene Gammel would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for support of the project; the Canada Research Chairs program for invaluable time support; and the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation for infrastructure support for the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre. Benjamin Lefebvre would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a postdoctoral fellowship (University of Alberta) and the Leverhulme Trust for a visiting fellowship (University of Worcester), which he held throughout the editing of this collection.

We would like to thank University of Toronto Press, in particular our editors Siobhan McMenemy, Patricia Simoes, Ryan Van Huijstee, and Frances Mundy, who have shepherded this book enthusiastically through its various stages. This book would not have been possible without the invaluable, enthusiastic, and professional support of student assistants at Ryerson University: Saeed Teebi, who supported the editorial process; and Keri Kauffman and Beryl Pong, who assisted with the illustration and permission searches. We are also grateful for the support of Juan Ilerbaig, administrative research coordinator at the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre at Ryerson University, Toronto. In organizing A Ryerson Showcase: The Centenary of Anne of Green Gables, the students in Arts and Contemporary Studies 800 laid an important foundation for several of the topics covered in Annes World.

For permission to use images and text we are grateful to the following: Aschehoug (Oslo), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. (Edinburgh), Ghadyani Publishing House (Tehran), George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film (Rochester, N.Y.), Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), the Toronto Public Library, McClelland and Stewart (Toronto), the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre (Ryerson University), Janusz Oblucki (Kanie, Poland), Schildts Frlags AB (Helsinki), V&A Enterprises Ltd. at Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Zhejiang Art and Literature Press (Hangzhou, China). We are grateful to John Sylvester and Tourism PEI (Prince Edward Island) for the photograph used on the front cover and to Regan Winters, who appears in the photograph. We are also grateful to Ainong Ma, Nicole Argyropoulos, Barbara Bell, Laura Brown, Valentina Capuani, Sally Keefe Cohen, Nancy Fay, Nader Ghadyani, Nancy Gruver, Bella Briansky Kalter, Moynan King, Mari Koli, Suzy Malik, Michael Schwartz, A. Audhild Solberg, and Alan Walker.

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