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Articles

Volume 27, Number 2 (2002)

Geometries of Nation-Building: Triangulating Female Homosociality in Richardson’s Wacousta

Submitted
March 25, 2010
Published
2002-06-06

Abstract

Female homosociality is critical to the theme of nation-building in Wacousta but, unlike male homosociality, has been almost entirely overlooked in critical treatments of the novel. The novel's ending, for instance, suggests that only the white characters who have indigenized through the agency of cross-cultural female homosociality survive to produce a "Canadian" generation. The challenge of such female-dominated homosocial triangles (for example, Oucanasta-Frederick-Madeline) to male-dominated homosocial triangles (Charles-Everard-Clara) is significant in that it deviates from European literary patterns, replacing the patriarchal structure of old-world society with a community that instead emphasizes strong female and native influences.