Botany and the woman colonizer in Catharine Parr Traill's Backwoods of Canada and Anna Brownell Jameson's Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay explores the gendered dynamics of settler belonging in Catharine Parr Traill's Backwoods of Canada and Anna Brownell Jameson's Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada. Settlement for women, in order to maintain socially acceptable boundaries, required vastly different performative tasks from male settlers. Therefore, our inquiry considers why these two female settlers include rich descriptions of landscape and flora in their narratives. By looking at their perceptions of the ‘new’ landscape, their interactions in farming and harvesting, and their classification of plants, we assert that botany − though seemingly harmless and temperate work − showcases developing relationships to settlement and so too becomes a tool in the struggle to psychologically establish and legitimize settlement. By setting these texts side by side we invite readers to (re)imagine the image of the female settler, acts of settlement, and the importance of women's participation in the colonial project.