Destiny into Chance: S.J. Duncan's The Imperialist and the Perils of Nation Building
Abstract
Nature and destiny are the traditional sanctions of nation building, the former assuring a stable identity, the latter motivating its development. For Sara Jeanette Duncan, nation building is perilous because nature and destiny prove to be rivals rather than allies. The style of The Imperialist is often so trenchant that it tests the rhetorical strategies through which Canada is built by showing that they do not operate effortlessly; that national identity and political freedom are not always mutually supportive; that historical chance is not easily transformed into national destiny. Four major rhetorical figures — heroic, mnemonic, domestic, and racial — jostle for positioning within a national imaginary that can never fully be articulated.Downloads
Published
1999-06-01
How to Cite
Kertzer, J. (1999). Destiny into Chance: S.J. Duncan’s The Imperialist and the Perils of Nation Building. Studies in Canadian Literature, 24(2). Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/14239
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Permissions requests from authors to reprint their work in books or collections authored or edited by the author are granted gratis, with a requirement that acknowledgement of first publication in Studies in Canadian Literature is included in the publication. Permission requests from external sources are charged a fee at the discretion of Studies in Canadian Literature; 50% of this fee is given to the author.