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<p>Although the novels seem rather disparate at first glance, both Susan Musgrave's The Charcoal Burners and Daphne Marlatt's Ana Historic share a gothic tendency. Gothicism textures these novels, and I would argue, textures many other works of Canadian fiction. Gothicism remains, however, an unstudied angle of Canadian literature, as it remains a critical blind spot in the studies of Musgrave' s and Marlatt' s novels. By exploring the gothicism of The Charcoal Burners and Ana Historic, I simultaneously recenter the gothic genre in both the texts at hand and indirectly in Canadian literature. This study focuses on what we can call female gothic. Female gothic refers to gothic literature written by women, with women-centered agendas. Female gothic is based on the experiences of women who suffocate under the culture's patriarchal construction of gender and sexuality. Women writers have long used the gothic form to explore issues specific to women's lives, issues that are currently being politicized and are circulating in feminist theoretical debates. In many female gothics, writers show how "woman," as a being who is sexually constructed, is defined and limited specifically by her reproductive capacity: her "nativity" is a source of horror. The trope of "nativity" operates in Musgrave and Marlatt through women's reproduction and sexuality, but also, in a strange, perhaps specifically Canadian gothic twist, through the figure of the indigene, who is also constructed with "nativity."</p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

This dissertation is a study of water metaphors in the theoretical framework of feminist environmental humanities. It draws on feminist theory, metaphor theory, and Indigenous theories. It examines some of the water metaphors enshrined in Canadian legislation, specifically the Fisheries and Oceans Act and the Canada Water Act. It also examines some of the water metaphors in Canadian literature, focusing on creative works by Lisa Moore, Rita Wong, and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. I argue that a dialogue between metaphor theory and feminist theory radically transforms the scope for understanding water in a way that not only consolidates the presence of materiality, but initiates a trajectory into the discursive and creative modes of metaphor that enable the interrogation of the politics of water. As a settler Canadian, I position this dialogue in relation to Richard W. Hill Sr. and Daniel Coleman’s metaphor of the Two Row Wampum-Covenant Chain Treaty to frame the conversation between the Indigenous and settler Canadian texts that I examine in this dissertation. Following a reparative arc, I analyze the metaphors of water to reveal the discrepancy between some of the legislative and creative metaphors. I conclude that the analytical lens of metaphor contribute to a greater understanding of how the conceptual metaphors of water we employ reflect our embodied experience of water and how historically marginalized as well as new metaphors can shape our values and ideas about water in the Anthropocene. I also conclude that the theoretical intersection of water and metaphor constitutes a powerful foundation from which to reimagine metaphor’s shared materiality and efficacy with water. This study affirms the value of a cultural intervention in the praxis of the water issues of the Anthropocene. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy / In this dissertation, I examine some of the water metaphors in Canadian legislation and literature. I argue that water and metaphor follow similar architectural processes and, from a perspective of the theoretical intersection of water and metaphor, I examine how individual water metaphors reveal the way metaphors frame our thoughts and shape our behaviour towards water. I show that the metaphors of water in the Canadian legislation, such as the Fisheries and Oceans Act and the Canada Water Act, are limited whereas literary metaphors of water in creative works represent a more comprehensive reflection of the material qualities of water and of the human and more-than-human relations with water. I conclude that the analytical lens of metaphor is useful to examine our relations with water and that the environmental humanities, which are excluded from solutions of water issues, can significantly contribute to the resolution of water issues in the Anthropocene.