"Canada was the Magic Word": Crossing Borders in Mabel Dunham's The Trail of the Conestoga.
This article considers Mabel Dunham's 1924 historical romance The Trail of the Conestoga to argue that understanding the nationalizing narratives of exceptionalism demands a close engagement with the specific contexts in which they are invoked. Dunham's novel turns on the violent construction of the...
| Publicado en: | Canadian Review of American Studies Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 107 - 126 |
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| Formato: | Literary Criticism |
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University of Toronto Press
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=196037912&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 196037912 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00077720 CRA jtl: Canadian Review of American Studies issn: 00077720 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 56 iid: 1 pid: 678 pub: University of Toronto Press artinfo: ui: 196037912 10.3138/cras-2026-007 ppf: 107 ppct: 19 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 495KB tig: atl: "Canada was the Magic Word": Crossing Borders in Mabel Dunham's The Trail of the Conestoga. aug: au: Zacharias, Robert affil: York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada su: Trail of the Conestoga, The (Book) Dunham, Mabel Border crossing Mennonites Exceptionalism (Political science) Nationalism 20th century (Literary period) Canada sug: subj: Canada Trail of the Conestoga, The (Book) Dunham, Mabel Border crossing Mennonites Exceptionalism (Political science) Nationalism 20th century (Literary period) keyword: border crossing Mennonite literature methodology nationalism religion franchissement des frontières littérature mennonite méthodologie nationalisme ab: This article considers Mabel Dunham's 1924 historical romance The Trail of the Conestoga to argue that understanding the nationalizing narratives of exceptionalism demands a close engagement with the specific contexts in which they are invoked. Dunham's novel turns on the violent construction of the Canadian–US border during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, tracing the migration of American Mennonites to Upper Canada following the American Revolution, and closes after the War of 1812 with their settlement on the contested territory of the Haldimand Tract. The article undertakes a series of overlapping readings of the novel to discuss how the methodological assumptions of contemporary literary studies interact with theological discourses of religious exceptionalism, suggesting the novel offers a complex mapping of the type of religiously inflected, anti-national spatial histories which, while deeply political in context and effect, are routinely obscured by nation-centered perspectives on literature and culture. Le présent article examine la romance historique The Trail of the Conestoga que Mabel Dunham a publié en 1924 et avance que, pour comprendre les récits nationalisants de l'exceptionnalisme, il faut s'intéresser de près aux contextes spécifiques dans lesquels ils sont invoqués. Le roman de Mabel Dunham explore la construction violente de la frontière canado-américaine à la fin du XVIIIe siècle et au début du XIXe siècle, qui retrace la migration des mennonites américains jusque dans le Haut-Canada après la Révolution américaine et se termine après la guerre de 1812 avec le peuplement du territoire contesté du comté de Haldimand. L'article propose une série de lectures superposées du roman pour établir l'interaction entre les hypothèses méthodologiques des études de littérature contemporaine avec les discours théologiques de l'exceptionnalisme religieux, ce qui indique que le roman offre une cartographie complexe du type d'histoire spatiale antinationaliste à connotation religieuse qui, tout en étant profondément politique sur le plan du contexte et de l'effet, est régulièrement masqué par des points de vue axés sur la nation de la littérature et de la culture. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Literary Criticism src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Canadian Review of American Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Canadian Review of American Studies holder: University of Toronto Press dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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