TENDERNESS OF SPACE AND OUTLANDISH WOMEN: "The Tenderness of the Wolves" and "The Outlander" Cover Image

TENDERNESS OF SPACE AND OUTLANDISH WOMEN: "The Tenderness of the Wolves" and "The Outlander"
TENDERNESS OF SPACE AND OUTLANDISH WOMEN: "The Tenderness of the Wolves" and "The Outlander"

Author(s): Vanja Polic
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego

Summary/Abstract: In two novels belonging to the genre of the detective fiction (Todorov)—Stef Penney’s "The Tenderness of Wolves" (2006) and Gil Adamson’s "The Outlander" (2007)—the backdrop is analyzed to reveal how the stereotypical perceptions of late 19th and early 20th century Canadian space are reworked to accommodate the development of female protagonists within generic fiction which does not usually allocate much space to character development. The stereotypical images of Canada are thus used to reveal both the space and women as sites of inscription by a white European man. The traditionally accepted binary oppositions of civilisation vs. nature, savage/Native man vs. civilised/white man, woman as subject vs. woman as object, centre vs. periphery, are problematized and deconstructed, foregrounding the marginal characters of the settler society.

  • Issue Year: 5/2011
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 187-208
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: English