Undisciplined Women
Tradition and Culture in Canada
Description
Contributors demonstrate that informal traditional and popular expressive cultural forms continue to be central to Canadians' gender constructions and clearly display the creation and re-creation of women's often subordinate position in society. They not only explore positive and negative images of women - the witch, the Icelandic Mountain Woman, and the Hollywood "killer dyke" - but also examine how actual women - taxi drivers, quilters, spiritual healers, and storytellers - negotiate and remake these images in their lives and work. Contributors also propose models for facilitating feminist dialogue on traditional and popular culture in Canada. Drawing on perspectives from women's studies, folklore, anthropology, sociology, art history, literature, and religious studies, Undisciplined Women is an insightful exploration of the multiplicity of women's experiences and the importance of reclaiming women's cultures and traditions.
Reviews
"A highly pleasurable and provocative read. Undisciplined Women is a richly textured work that sets out to make explicit the taken-for-granted knowledge and beliefs that shape knowledge production in folklore studies in Canada. It lays out a clear framework for critiquing the colonial status of Canadian folklore study and breaks exciting new ground by persistently interpreting folkloric material through the use of post-structuralist and feminist methodologies. The book is worthy and refreshing in its achievement of perspectives that are 'not just' normatively white/male/Eurocentric/heterosexual." Judith Robertson, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa