Atlantis Vol. 15 No. 1
Fall/Automne 1989
Voicing the
Voiceless:
Language and Genre
in Nellie McClung's
Fiction and Her
Autobiography
Misao Dean
University of Victoria
ABSTRACT
While Nellie M c C l u n g is best known as an advocate for women's participation i n public life, she gained much of her authority on the public stage from
her popularity as a writer of sentimental "family fiction." Both her fiction and her autobiography adopt many of the conventions of the genre, but also
challenge those conventions by emphasizing the violence of patriarchy and the resulting alienation of women from language and from concepts of
unified selfhood. McClung's writings stretch the definitions of popular genres by stimulating the readers to question the conventions to which they
adhere.
RESUME
Bien que Nellie M c C l u n g soit mieux connue comme defense ur de l a participation des femmes a la vie publique, son autorite sur la scene publique etait
principalement due a sa popularity comme ecrivaine de romans sentimentaux "de famille". Dans son oeuvre de fiction aussi bien que dans son
autobiographic, elle adopte les conventions de ce genre, mais en m£me temps elle les contraste en insistant sur la violence du patriarcat et sur ce que cette
violence en traine, c'est-a-dire l'isolement des femmes par rapport aulangageet aux conceptsd'uneidentiteunifiee. Les ecritsde M c C l u n g elargissent les
definitions des genres populaires en incitant le lectrices ou les lecteurs a mettre en question les conventions auxquelles ils-elles souscrivent.
H o w f i n d a voice, m a k e a c h o i c e strong e n o u g h , subtle
e n o u g h to c u t t h r o u g h those layers of ornamental style,
that decorative sepulcher, where even her breath is lost?
L u c e Irigaray, Speculum
N e l l i e M c C l u n g is best k n o w n i n C a n a d a today for her
role as a n activist i n the women's movement of the early
twendeth century. T h e story of her t r i u m p h i n the
" W o m e n ' s P a r l i a m e n t " d u r i n g the suffrage agitation has
attained the status of a n e n a b l i n g m y t h for many C a n a d i a n w o m e n ; her p a r t i c i p a t i o n , a l o n g w i t h her close
friend E m i l y M u r p h y , i n the famous "Person's Case," has
recently been celebrated. B u t consideration of her role as
a n activist a n d propagandist for women's p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n
p u b l i c life has often overshadowed interest i n her career as
a writer of p o p u l a r fiction. In fact, it was the considerable
p u b l i c v i s i b i l i t y w h i c h she attained as a best-selling
author w h i c h lent her credibility o n the p u b l i c stage, a n d
her first appearances o n behalf o f the W C T U were
p u b l i c readings from her novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny.
M c C l u n g wrote that Charles Dickens' portrayal of poverty i n V i c t o r i a n E n g l a n d inspired her to become a "voice
for the voiceless" (Clearing, p . 281) by w r i t i n g fiction. F o r
M c C l u n g , the "voiceless" are not the factory workers of
E n g l a n d , but C a n a d i a n w o m e n , kept silent by convention
a n d socialization as w e l l as fear, lack of education a n d
p l a i n bone-tiredness. H e r fiction a n d her autobiography
are dominated by the theme of w o m e n c o m i n g to speak
their experience, to d e m a n d that their voices be heard i n
everyday life a n d i n legislation. H e r stories thematize the
p r o b l e m of self-expression for w o m e n a n d radically quest i o n the a b i l i t y of language to convey feminine experience. B u t this q u e s t i o n i n g also rebounds o n M c C l u n g
herself; l i k e her characters, M c C l u n g is also "voiceless,"
a n d her stories show that, just as conventional language
has left out women's desire, conventional genres have left
out the feminine.
M c C l u n g ' s fiction conforms to the p a r a d i g m of "domestic f a m i l y n o v e l " p o p u l a r i n the first decades of the twentieth century, w h i c h usually "recounted the g r o w i n g u p
a n d first love experiences of a c h i l d or family i n a manner
notable for its excess of 'syrupy pathos, sentiment a n d
o p t i m i s m ' " ( V i p o n d 1979, p. 104). In C a n a d a , M c C l u n g ' s
w o r k , as w e l l as that of L . M . M o n t g o m e r y a n d the prairie
stories of their contemporaries A r t h u r Stringer a n d Robert
Stead, generally fits this pattern. A s N a n c y A r m s t r o n g has
argued i n Desire and Domestic Fiction, the domestic novel
participated i n the split between the feminine personal
a n d the m a s c u l i n e p u b l i c spheres i n the eighteenth century, i n s c r i b i n g the removal of the issues of sexuality,
domestic p o w e r relations a n d the h o u s e h o l d economy
from p o l i t i c a l discourse. B u t like many other marginalized practitioners i n this genre, M c C l u n g subverts the
f o r m u l a of the domestic novel even w h i c h she uses it. She
re-imports the p o l i t i c a l i n t o the domestic novel, confusing
the boundaries of the genre a n d its permitted subject
matter.
F e m i n i s t literary theorists, from V i r g i n i a W o o l f to more
recent French, C a n a d i a n a n d A m e r i c a n writers, have
problematized the r e l a t i o n s h i p of w o m e n writers to l a n guage, a n d to the c o n v e n t i o n a l literary genres. If we accept
that l i n g u i s t i c expression works to m a i n t a i n e x i s t i n g
power groups, h o w can the marginalised speak their experience w i t h o u t r e - i n s c r i b i n g their marginality? W o m e n
have not yet f o u n d a w h o l l y satisfactory way to step outside of language, w h i c h is vitally constitutive of identity as
w e l l as thought, a n d yet a v o i d silence. A s L u c e Irigaray
rhetorically p o i n t s o u t i n the e p i g r a m to this paper, the
question of h o w to f i n d a voice i n a language w h i c h is
layered w i t h historical resonances of sexism is ever-present
for the w o m a n writer. F o r Irigaray, the answer is to write
always i n a way w h i c h expresses her knowledge of the
sexist nature of language a n d her dissent from it. V i r g i n i a
W o o l f , i n A Room of One's Own, suggests that w o m e n
writers w i l l use the conventional elements of style, genre
a n d subject matter to s i g n a l their dissent by subversion. I n
Woolf's feminine style, the patriarchal sentence is " b r o k e n "
to express a w o m a n ' s r e l a t i o n s h i p to language a n d to her
body (Woolf, p. 75); the feminine genre breaks the
"sequence" of generic elements to express a w o m a n ' s distinct view of life a n d her awareness of a masculine
audience c o n t i n u a l l y t e l l i n g her what a n d h o w to write
(Woolf, p . 76); the feminine subject matter becomes the
feelings a n d thought of w o m e n as they wash dishes a n d
raise c h i l d r e n (Woolf, p. 83). M c C l u n g ' s determination to
be a "voice for the voiceless" female is i n i t i a l l y a project to
write about feminine subject matter. B u t as "domestic
family fiction'' is p r i m a r i l y defined by o p t i m i s m a n d senti-
ment, her distinctive choice to address the violent reality of
women's lives brings her to a quarrel w i t h genre as w e l l .
T h e first example of the "domestic family f i c t i o n "
(according to M a r y V i p o n d ) was Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch by A m e r i c a n author A l i c e C a l d w e l l H e g a n
R i c e , a bestseller i n C a n a d a a n d the U n i t e d States from
1902 to 1903. W h i l e the book was n o m i n a l l y the story of
M r s . Wiggs a n d her family's struggle to survive i n poverty,
i n fact the family serves merely as a k i n d of c o m i c relief to
the real story, a romance between the two upper-class
y o u n g people w h o befriend them. Mrs. Wiggs was so w e l l
k n o w n that w h e n M c C l u n g submitted Sowing Seeds in
Danny for p u b l i c a t i o n , the reader c o m p l a i n e d that it was a
"feeble i m i t a t i o n of Mrs. W i g g s " (Stream, p. 77). I n fact,
considered as a n i m i t a t i o n of Mrs. Wiggs, M c C l u n g ' s
book was feeble. Sowing Seeds in Danny is infinitely more
complex, more charitable, a n d more realistic. It never
makes fun of the poor, as does Mrs. Wiggs. B u t the publisher's comment points out an important aspect of
M c C l u n g ' s relationship to genre; w h e n she tries to d o
something new, or better, it is likely to be considered a bad
i m i t a t i o n of something else.
M c C l u n g ' s relationship to the genre is that of a n outsider, whose c o m m i t m e n t to realistically t e l l i n g the lives
of w o m e n make the conventions of the genre seem
extraordinarily artificial. She questions whether w o m e n
can f i n d their desire under patriarchy; she questions the
status q u o . She questions the conventions of r o m a n t i c
love a n d of the " h a p p y e n d i n g , " both of w h i c h offer a n
u n c o n v i n c i n g closure to a story i n w h i c h men as a g r o u p
are the p r o b l e m . S i m i l a r l y , M c C l u n g ' s p o s i t i o n as a n
outsider to patriarchal self-assertion complicates her relat i o n s h i p to the genre of autobiography. H e r books subvert
the conventions of a c l a i m to significance, o r i g i n a l i t y , a n d
a c o n t r i b u t i o n to history by h i g h l i g h t i n g self-lessness a n d
self-effacement. L i k e her characters, M c C l u n g works
against convention to speak her o w n experience, but she
must fight not o n l y the p h y s i c a l a n d conventional c o n straints of patriarchal society, but the l i n g u i s t i c a n d literary ones as w e l l .
A major feminist theorist of her time, M c C l u n g defines
the feminine voice i n her book In Times Like These as
more than s i m p l y the anger of w o m e n against unreasonable constraints. She identifies the reality of women's lives
as n u r t u r i n g , cyclical work, characterized by patterns of
repetition, interruption, a n d openness towards the needs
of others. A n t i c i p a t i n g the preoccupations of recent feminist theory, she i m p l i e s that the s p l i t t i n g off a n d repress i o n of " f e m i n i n e " values is essentially constitutive of
patriarchy, a n d that the silencing of w o m e n is a necessary
part of the maintenance of patriarchal power. She advocates a l l o w i n g the feminine virtues of mother love, sympathy, forgiveness, gentleness a n d morality to "speak" i n
the private life of marriage, a n d i n the p u b l i c life of
p o l i t i c a l organization. T h e values associated w i t h m o t h e r i n g give w o m e n direct power to change the w o r l d ,
M c C l u n g states:
Women must be made to feel their responsibility. A l l
this protective love, this instinctive mother love, must
be organised in some way and made effective. There [is]
enough of it i n the world to do away with all the evils
which war upon childhood, undernourishment, slum
conditions, child labour, drunkenness. Women could
abolish these if they wanted to. (Stream, p. 27)
T h i s " m o t h e r i n g " is not l i m i t e d to biological mothers;
it is a characteristic c o m m o n to w o m e n i n general.
M c C l u n g insisted that the feminine values of gentleness,
nurturance, a n d tolerance s h o u l d be valued e q u a l l y or
even higher than masculine power, direction, a n d conquest i n society, a n d that such a revaluation must result i n
better lives for women. In her active p o l i t i c a l life, M c C l u n g
battled the forces that kept the feminine silent by f i g h t i n g
for women's suffrage a n d for p r o h i b i t i o n of the sale of
a l c o h o l . She "spoke o u t " for the necessity of c h a n g i n g the
legislation w h i c h a l l o w e d husbands to have financial,
legal a n d p h y s i c a l c o n t r o l over their wives. She wrote of
w o m e n ' s desire for a b o l i t i o n of war i n The Next of Kin
a n d In Times Like These; she spoke out strongly for
women's engagement i n foreign affairs a n d was a delegate
to the League of N a t i o n s i n the 1930s.
B u t despite her p u b l i c reputation as a p o l i t i c a l reformer,
satirical speaker a n d journalist, M c C l u n g writes i n her
autobiography that she considers her primary vocation to
be w r i t i n g , not active politics. H e r desire to be a "voice for
the voiceless" was conceived at an early age; M c C l u n g
wrote throughout her adult life, p u b l i s h i n g sixteen books
from her first bestseller i n 1908 to the second v o l u m e of her
autobiography i n 1945. H e r fiction consistently engages
the forces she battled as a p u b l i c figure — the physical,
social a n d conventional forces w h i c h keep w o m e n silent
i n p u b l i c a n d private life.
T h e barriers to self-expression i n a society organised
according to masculine concerns are the thematic focus of
m a n y of M c C l u n g ' s fictions. In her stories a n d novels,
w o m e n are silent partners i n the project of pioneer life, the
conquest of the wilderness a n d the p r o v i s i o n of material
wealth, c o n t r i b u t i n g their labour w i t h o u t a legal o r a
m o r a l stake i n the results. In M c C l u n g ' s books, r u r a l
w o m e n w o r k incessantly. T h e y make food, c l o t h i n g , soap
a n d furniture. T h e y keep livestock. T h e y p l o u g h a n d d i g
potatoes, a n d take a h a n d i n harvest time. T h e y feed the
threshing team of twenty men, w h o w o u l d refuse to w o r k
o n a farm unless the food was exceptionally good. T h e y
bear c h i l d r e n w i t h o u t the h e l p of doctors a n d are u p a n d
w o r k i n g the next day. Beatings, threats a n d c r i m i n a l
indifference are c o m m o n p l a c e i n the desperate landscape
of M c C l u n g ' s stories. E x h a u s t i o n from overwork a n d
c h i l d b e a r i n g makes w o m e n passive a n d self-effacing. T h e
power of a c o m m u n i t y standard created by m e n i n their
o w n interest, a n d backed u p by the c h u r c h a n d the courts,
keep w o m e n silent i n the face of physical, e m o t i o n a l a n d
financial abuse at the hands of their husbands a n d fathers.
I n the story " C a r r i e d F o r w a r d " ( i n the collection All We
Like Sheep), twelve-year-old H i l d a Berry is badly beaten
by her father w h e n she tries to tell h i m that the housekeeper he has hired is starving his c h i l d r e n a n d d r u g g i n g
his new baby. H i l d a is left alone to care for her family
because her mother has died of "overwork a n d childbeari n g " (Sheep, p. 201) a n d she is driven to the b r i n k of
infanticide t r y i n g to cope w i t h childcare a n d housework,
" w o r k w i t h o u t end, a dizzy r o u n d , bewildering a n d n u m b i n g because there was n o end, n o hope of achievement"
(Sheep, p . 208). H e r mother "never g r u m b l e d — never got
m a d — took it a l l " (Sheep, p. 191). T h e mother's final
advice to H i l d a is to " L e a r n to speak o u t . . . w h e n y o u feel
s o m e t h i n g ought to be said.... D o n ' t let anyone make y o u
so frightened that y o u cannot speak" (Sheep, p. 211). B u t
H i l d a finds that speaking out i n her o w n defence a n d i n
defence of her dead mother is not sanctioned by the comm u n i t y . T h e g r o u p of m e n w h o gather at A n n i e Berry's
funeral agree that her father has behaved correctly a n d that
the w o m e n of his family are at fault for d y i n g : "It was
q u i t e evident that L u k e Berry h a d been badly treated"
(Sheep, p. 186). T h e minister certifies the c o m m u n i t y
judgement by r e m a r k i n g that he finds the funerals of
y o u n g w o m e n unpleasant because "It is so very hard o n
the h u s b a n d a n d father" (Sheep, p. 200). O n l y the neighb o u r w o m e n , sitting silently a r o u n d the casket, a c k n o w l edge that the mother suffered a n d the daughter w i l l suffer
more, but they are "afraid to speak" (Sheep, p. 196). T h e y
convert their "wordlessness" i n t o energetic housecleani n g . T h e i r sympathy for H i l d a remains inarticulate; their
contempt for the "husband a n d father" is silent.
F o r M c C l u n g ' s characters, as for A d r i e n n e R i c h many
years later, spoken language is of necessity "the oppressor's language" w h i c h can be used to keep w o m e n silent as
w e l l as to liberate them. T h e w o r d of l a w w h i c h encodes
the standards of the r u r a l c o m m u n i t y literally denies
w o m e n speech by g i v i n g them n o grounds from w h i c h to
reply t o a husband's threats. I n Purple Springs, M r s . P a i n e
lives w i t h the threat that her h u s b a n d w i l l deprive her of
her home, her l i v e l i h o o d a n d custody of her c h i l d r e n i f she
defies h i m . She remains silent, r e p l y i n g to his threats that
"there is n o t h i n g for me to say" (PS, p . 175). H e r h u s b a n d
suspects her silence covers " s o m e t h i n g sinister a n d u n k n o w n " w h i c h he must v i g o r o u s l y c o n t r o l . B u t M r s .
Paine's silence is dictated by the w o r d of l a w , a language
w h i c h literally gives her n o reply to her husband's threats.
T h e lawyer, Peter Neelands, quotes the laws w h i c h recognize h i s r i g h t to speak, but deny hers: "She has n o c l a i m o n
her home, n o r o n her c h i l d r e n . A m a n c a n sell or w i l l away
his property from his wife. A m a n c a n w i l l away his
u n b o r n c h i l d . . . . " (PS, p . 185). T h e r e is, i n fact, n o t h i n g
M r s . P a i n e can say to her husband. S i m i l a r l y , A n n i e G r a y
is silent before the laws w h i c h deny her a voice i n the
custody of her c h i l d . A s a w i d o w , she has n o r i g h t to
determine the smallest element of her son's l i f e I n the
absence of her husband, her father-in-law is automatically
the c h i l d ' s legal guardian. W h e n her father-in-law accuses
her o f h a v i n g h a d the c h i l d illegitimately, she cannot
answer the charge. She remains silent despite severe social
ostracism because she k n o w s her silence is her o n l y legal
defence: " O n l y the u n m a r r i e d mother has the absolute
r i g h t to her c h i l d " (PS, p. 264). She e x p l a i n s to the crusadi n g Pearlie W a t s o n w h y w o m e n cannot speak out to
change the laws: " W o m e n w h o are caught i n the tangle of
these laws, as I was, cannot say a w o r d — their lips are
d u m b . Others w o n ' t say a w o r d for fear of s p o i l i n g their
m a t r i m o n i a l market" (PS, p . 244).
W h e n M c C l u n g writes the story of the F i n n i s h i m m i grant g i r l i n Painted Fires, H e l m i M i l a n d e r , she again
voices experience hitherto u n t o l d i n the generic domestic
fiction. M c C l u n g includes details of the p h y s i c a l experience of c h i l d b i r t h a n d the discomforts of breastfeeding i n
her account of H e l m i ' s life i n C a n a d a . She transgresses
social taboos by b l a m i n g m e n i n general for the numerous
illegitimate pregnancies a m o n g i m m i g r a n t girls, a n d
g r a p h i c a l l y portrays the way men, w o m e n a n d the legal
system take advantage of g i r l s w h o k n o w n o E n g l i s h .
Ignorance of E n g l i s h also helps H e l m i m a i n t a i n her
innocence. She is able to w i t h s t a n d demands for a selfrevelatory confession from the n a r r o w - m i n d e d evangelist
supervisors of the G i r l ' s F r i e n d l y H o m e because she is
neither a n articulate speaker n o r a vulnerable listener. B u t
H e l m i does learn to c o m m u n i c a t e by u s i n g the straightforward a n d universally understood retaliatory force of
her o w n body; she knocks them d o w n . A g a i n i n a break
w i t h convention, H e l m i is not " p u n i s h e d " for her q u i c k
temper a n d her p h y s i c a l violence. She eventually is reu n i t e d w i t h her husband a n d lives i n l u x u r y w i t h her
beloved baby.
L a n g u a g e remains a n ambivalent tool i n M c C l u n g ' s
books because it carries patriarchal history i n its structure
a n d vocabulary, a n d so l i m i t s the ways i n w h i c h women's
experience c a n be perceived. T h e speaker of M c C l u n g ' s
autobiography recounts the way that a neighbour's experience of c h i l d b e a r i n g i n poverty is o n l y expressed as joke:
I remembered with particular bitterness hearing the
men in our neighbourhood joke about Mrs. J i m Barnes
who got her husband to move the stairs every time
another baby was coming. She said it made her feel she
had a new house .... I could see Mrs. Barnes, a pallid,
overworked litde Englishwoman, homesick, and old at
thirty. They already had more children than their little
house could hold. T w o litde ones had died, but these
husky brutes... could laugh and actually find a cause of
merriment i n the poor woman's pain. (Stream, pp.
16-17)
M c C l u n g ' s persona vows to find new ways to c o m m u n i cate subjective women's experience i n language. A figurative language w h i c h communicates p a i n as merriment
clearly needs some m o d i f i c a t i o n before it can express the
same p a i n as p a i n .
Yet M c C l u n g also depicts the possibility of w o m e n
"mastering" language, twisting it to express their desire.
T h e character of Pearlie Watson ( w h o m M c C l u n g i n her
autobiography states is partially based o n herself) learns to
"speak o u t " for herself a n d for other w o m e n i n the three
books w h i c h depict her life: Sowing Seeds in Danny, The
Second Chance a n d Purple Springs. Remarkable i n her
c h i l d h o o d for her determination to learn to write a n d to
recite, Pearlie encounters the suffragist movement at the
N o r m a l School i n W i n n i p e g a n d returns home to speak
out for her neighbours. She confronts M r s . Paine's husb a n d a n d the prospective buyer he has f o u n d for their
farm, a n d tells Mrs. Paine's side of the story: " I a m g o i n g
to d o something for y o u that n o one has ever done. I a m
g o i n g to tell y o u something.... Mrs. Paine w o u l d never tell
y o u ' ' (PS, p p . 181,186). She manages to persuade the buyer
that the sale s h o u l d be p u t off. Pearlie also speaks for
A n n i e G r a y by confronting the evil father-in-law w i t h
A n n i e ' s side of the story, w i n n i n g his sympathy for her
suffering.
Pearlie's ability to speak for w o m e n , to articulate their
silenced desire, is i n itself the source of power w h i c h
changes society i n these stories. H e r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the
W o m e n ' s P a r l i a m e n t depicted i n Purple Springs shows
the power of speech alone to change patriarchal society. In
a n episode based o n M c C l u n g ' s o w n experience i n the
M a n i t o b a suffrage fight, Pearlie merely stands before a n
audience a n d delivers a parody of the Premier's speech
d e n y i n g a suffragist p e t i t i o n for the vote. H e r mere act of
s p e a k i n g a man's words i n the manner of a specific m a n ,
m o c k i n g his power a n d the system of power w h i c h gave it
to h i m , literally destroys the Premier, personally a n d politically. T h e words themselves, charged w i t h the weight of
women's silences, have the power to change reality.
Yet i n none of these stories does the " h a p p y e n d i n g "
w o n by speaking really resolve the issues raised by
w o m e n ' s silence earlier i n the story; the "quest motif" of
the story is not resolved by the "romance e n d i n g " (DuPlessis, p p . 3-4). H i l d a Berry's father remains a brute, w i t h n o
interest i n h i s children's welfare beyond what the neighbours m i g h t think: "Starved mentally a n d spiritually they
m i g h t be, a n d he w o u l d feel n o p a n g of conscience"
(Sheep, p . 229). H e l m i retires w i t h husband a n d c h i l d to a
l u x u r i o u s farm home, but dishonesty a n d croneyism i n
the justice system a n d narrow prejudice i n C a n a d i a n attitudes towards i m m i g r a n t s remain. A n n i e G r a y is still
legally at the mercy of her father-in-law's uncertain
temper, despite his r e c o g n i t i o n of her rights as mother of
his grandchild. M r s . P a i n e has temporarily stalled the sale
of her home, but the laws that a l l o w her husband to sell it
persist. Pearlie Watson learns h o w to distance her romantic fantasy of marriage from marriage l a w t h r o u g h her
defence of M r s . Paine a n d A n n i e Gray i n Purple Springs.
W h i l e she is able i n the end to declare her love for D r . C l a y ,
her marriage w i l l s t i l l b r i n g her under the confines of the
legal contract that victimized her friends. T h e sentimental
" h a p p y endings" of these stories, i n w h i c h the m a n
m i r a c u l o u s l y comes to a change of heart through the dea
ex machina of Pearlie's voice (or G o d ' s love, o r other
manifest coincidences), cannot possibly "close" the issues
raised by women's silence a n d speech.
T h e story " T h e N e u t r a l Fuse" shows M c C l u n g ' s difficulty i n reconciling a n o p t i m i s t i c e n d i n g w i t h the desire
to "speak o u t " for w o m e n . Disregarding the strictures of
realistic fiction, M c C l u n g writes two endings to the story
of a w o m a n w h o is caught shoplifting. I n the f i r s t e n d i n g ,
the protagonist is convicted a n d sentenced by a male
judge, b u t this c o n c l u s i o n is superceded by a n account of
the understanding a n d medical treatment the same w o m a n
receives from a female judge a n d a female psychologist.
T h e second e n d i n g of " T h e N e u t r a l Fuse" probably
expresses M c C l u n g ' s hope that the appointment of her
friend E m i l y M u r p h y ( w h o also wrote fiction under the
pen name "Janey C a n u c k " ) as the first w o m a n p o l i c e
magistrate i n the C o m m o n w e a l t h heralded a new unders t a n d i n g of w o m e n ' s lives, a n d a new value o n " f e m i n i n e ' '
qualities i n the legal system. B y i n c l u d i n g both endings,
M c C l u n g can reconcile the " h a p p y e n d i n g " of the "bestseller" genre w i t h what she saw as the real conditions of
w o m e n i n society, a n d c l a i m both are "realistic."
B u t i n the very inconclusiveness of these endings lies
M c C l u n g ' s challenge to the genre of p o p u l a r fiction, a n d
the n u b of her desire to write o u t women's lives. M c C l u n g
w o r k e d w i t h i n the l i m i t s of a genre w h i c h by definition
reproduces the social status quo; she wrote "bestsellers,"
domestic f o r m u l a fiction w i t h a recognizable cast of c h i l dren, dogs, reformed drinkers, s m a l l t o w n gossips a n d
land-obsessed farmers. W h i l e the p o p u l a r novel c o u l d
challenge the assumptions of everyday life by a p p e a l i n g to
outworn sentimentalism, ( R a l p h Connor's crusading
C h r i s t i a n reform novels are a n example); i n general, the
"generic contract," then as n o w , required the author to
present a m o v i n g l y e m o t i o n a l a n d o p t i m i s t i c story w h i c h
required little i n the way of intellectual engagement. T h e
story that M c C l u n g recognized as a story, a story w h i c h
w o u l d sell to a mass periodical like Canadian
Magazine,
must end o p t i m i s t i c a l l y , even i f that o p t i m i s m denies the
naturalized realism of the plot. A serious presentation of
the l o g i c a l consequences of wife abuse i n the lives of
w o m e n w o u l d either make M c C l u n g ' s stories " b a d "
examples of the genre, o r examples of a different genre.
M c C l u n g wrote the "safe" story by i n c l u d i n g the " h a p p y
e n d i n g , " but the facts of the story subvert it.
M c C l u n g ' s stories reveal a profound suspicion of generic
conventions w h i c h adds to the impression that her stories
do not believe their o w n endings. R o m a n t i c love is r i d i culed repeatedly, i n the "Edythe a n d Egbert" subplot of
Sowing Seeds in Danny, i n the " F a m i l y H e r a l d " stories of
Clearing in the West, a n d i n sundry other short stories. I n
each case, " r e a l " love is f o u n d to have little relation to its
fictional counterpart, a n d to have more practical value i n
the l o n g years after the w e d d i n g . S i m i l a r l y , i n Clearing in
the West, y o u n g N e l l i e M c C l u n g questions the pastoral
for its contrast w i t h her o w n knowledge of r u r a l life. She
reads M i l t o n ' s " L ' A l l e g r o " a n d discovers it leaves out
most of what she knows.
[TJhere were times when I wondered how happy the
mower and the milkmaid really were, interesting and
romantic as they were to the poet when he ... knew he
was going home to a warm fire and an easy chair....
What did he know about them anyway? Quite likely
the milkmaid had chapped hands.... A n d all of them
were probably underpaid and overworked. ...(Clearing,
p. 226)
M c C l u n g ' s y o u t h f u l heroines i n Sowing Seeds in
Danny a n d Clearing in the West are a s p i r i n g writers, a n d
their verse displays their knowledge that the poetical c o n ventions they have learned i n school d o not encompass
their o w n experience. In Clearing in the West, the verse
that " N e l l i e " writes more specifically points u p the way i n
w h i c h traditional genres exclude women's experience. She
writes a p o e m a l o n g the lines of a V i c t o r i a n exhortation to
h a r d w o r k , e x p l a i n i n g w h y she cannot feel enthusiastic
about l e a r n i n g to crochet lace to t r i m her underwear:
The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
Buy they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward i n the night.
They did not leave their reading books
T o fool around with crochet hooks;
They did not slight their history notes
T o make lace for their petticoats;
But step by step they did advance,
A n d gave no thought to coat or pants!
So let my steps be ever led
Away from wool, and crochet thread;
A n d let my heart be set to find
The higher treasures of the mind.
(Clearing, pp. 137-38)
T h e violent contrast between the expectations raised by
the conventional first few lines a n d the sudden introduct i o n of s c h o o l g i r l E n g l i s h — " f o o l a r o u n d " — a n d
obviously u n c o n v e n t i o n a l material — w o o l a n d crochet
hooks — does more than demonstrate " N e l l i e ' s " literary
influence u p o n that justly famous prairie poet, Sara
B i n k s . It shows forcefully h o w the genre of poems w h i c h
exhort c h i l d r e n to hard w o r k a n d excellence s i m p l y do not
i n c l u d e w o m e n . These examples of a theme of questioni n g literary conventions have the unescapable effect of
a l l o w i n g the reader to question the stories' o w n conventions.
I n their presentation of women's lives, M c C l u n g ' s stories question most elements of the p o p u l a r novel. T h e
given gender hierarchy is questioned; the traditionally
silent sex speaks. T h e choice between " g o o d " a n d " e v i l " is
sometimes exaggeratedly clear, but often creates a sympathetic v i c t i m i n the husband w h o seems oppressed by his
o w n weakness a n d the everlasting pressure to make
money. T h e o p t i m i s t i c t r i u m p h of sentiment over mater i a l life is challenged by the mere fact of women's c o n t i n u i n g t o i l , w h i c h clearly does not let u p s i m p l y because she
has "made it u p " w i t h her husband. T h e narrative elements of a formula story are present i n M c C l u n g ' s stories,
yet each is qualified, questioned a n d challenged i n a way
w h i c h constitutes a critique of the genre itself.
Similarly, the challenge to conventional elements speaks
the feminine i n M c C l u n g ' s autobiography, p u b l i s h e d i n
two volumes as Clearing in the West (1935) a n d The
Stream Runs Fast (1945). T h e challenge to a unified,
c o n t i n u o u s self; the challenge to the traditional c l a i m of a
personal c o n t r i b u t i o n to history; the challenge to a c l a i m
to distinctiveness; the challenge to the idea of personal
rebellion characterize M c C l u n g ' s w r i t i n g about herself.
B u t the pre-eminent challenge of a w o m a n ' s autobiography, according to S i d o n i e S m i t h i n A Poetics of
Women's Autobiography,
is the challenge to a male subject. T h e w r i t i n g of a n autobiography by a w o m a n is a
fundamental challenge to the genre w h i c h is founded o n
the silence of w o m e n . A u t o b i o g r a p h y , to the extent that it
creates a n d celebrates a separate, autonomous a n d continuous self is a n exercise i n the repression of the mother's
voice, a n d is therefore fundamentally a n assertion of masc u l i n e selfhood, " a n assertion of arrival a n d embeddedness i n the p h a l l i c order" (Smith, p . 40).
During the past five hundred years, autobiography has
assumed a central position i n the personal and literary
life of the West precisely because it serves as one of those
generic contracts that reproduce the patrilineage and
its ideas of gender. Women who do not challenge those
gender ideologies and the boundaries they place around
women's proper life script, textual inscription and
speaking voice do not write autobiography. (Smith, p.
44)
T h e mere fact of M c C l u n g ' s w r i t i n g her life as a w o m a n ,
supposed to be self-effacing, defined by relationship, a n d
silent i n p u b l i c life, is a challenge to the genre w h i c h
reifies the difference between the feminine a n d the mascul i n e sense of self. In her novels, M c C l u n g confronted the
silences i n her characters' lives; i n her autobiography, she
voices the silences of her o w n life.
M c C l u n g ' s autobiography, l i k e others of the genre,
reflects her self-consciousness as a writer. Because n o
autobiographer can hope to represent the entirety of her
subjective experience, M c C l u n g must choose between episodes a n d interpretations to create a fictive persona w h o is
distinct from her creator. A s a professional writer, M c C l u n g
has a sophisticated awareness that she is not merely
recounting the episodes of her life i n c h r o n o l o g i c a l order,
but creating a pattern w h i c h makes sense of her life, w h i c h
reflects a gradual linear development of her feminist
awareness. M c C l u n g acknowledges i n the i n t r o d u c t i o n to
The Stream Runs Fast that the conscious w o r k of s h a p i n g
her memories i n t o a narrative is not s i m p l y a naive process
of p u t t i n g her memories i n c h r o n o l o g i c a l order, but one
i n w h i c h the d u a l voice of the self as creator a n d the self as
1
created object intertwine. H e r project is a n attempt to
"untangle the threads of life a n d weave them i n t o a pattern" (Stream, p . 301). M c C l u n g was well aware of "the
approved manner" (Stream, p . 2) of b e g i n n i n g and e n d i n g
stories a n d uses that i n s h a p i n g her autobiography. T h e
story follows the conventional structure of a n autobiography, b e g i n n i n g w i t h her b i r t h , a n account of her forbears, her education a n d the formative episodes of her
c h i l d h o o d , leading to a "conversion" scene soon after her
marriage, a p u b l i c career a n d a respectable o l d age. T h e
artificiality of the narrative is confirmed by its resemblance to M c C l u n g ' s novels: a structure of discreet episodes marked by chapters, each e n d i n g w i t h a symbolic
reference, a n i r o n i c joke or a sentimental m o r a l .
M o s t critical definitions of autobiography focus not o n
the structure of the narrative but o n the " s e l f ' created by it:
u n i q u e , essential, autonomous, w h i c h creates itself by its
" w i l l i n g n e s s to challenge c u l t u r a l expectations a n d to
pursue uniqueness at the price of social ostracism"
( S m i t h , p . 9). T h i s " c o n v e n t i o n a l " self of autobiography
rarely appears i n autobiography by w o m e n ( M a s o n , p .
231;Stanton, p p . 14,16) a n d does not appear i n M c C l u n g ' s
autobiography. Instead, M c C l u n g ' s attempt to write a
conventional autobiography w h i c h creates a discreet,
o r g a n i c a l l y d e v e l o p i n g self is sabotaged by her awareness
of her reader. A s a member of the p u b l i c M c C l u n g
harangued i n her suffrage a n d temperance battles, the
reader is ready to judge M c C l u n g not o n l y o n her literary
a b i l i t y a n d her p o l i t i c a l commitment, but o n her " w o m anliness" a n d her reputation as a wife and mother.
Because the w o m a n autobiographer is always read "as a
w o m a n " first, the conventional focus o n self may be read
as self-ish, aggressive, self-aggrandizing (Smith, p . 49). I n
self-defence, M c C l u n g seeks to deflect attendon away from
herself. I n a d d i t i o n , M c C l u n g battled w i t h the p u b l i c
perception of her created by the p o p u l a r press as " W i n d y
N e l l i e , " the loud-mouthed, unattractive suffragist, a neglectful mother a n d a vindictive wife. In order to get a
sympathetic hearing from her audience, she must emphasize her difference from " W i n d y N e l l i e , " a n d her selfeffacing, shy a n d " o r d i n a r y " c o m m i t m e n t to the submissive role of wife a n d mother. T h u s , the d u a l voice of the
narrator a n d the narrated self is further complicated by the
contradictory attempt to write her life as a p u b l i c figure to
f u l f i l l reader expectations of the genre of autobiography,
w h i l e at the same time demonstrate her " w o m a n l i n e s s " to
the reader by focussing o n the private sphere of the family.
P a r t of her strategy of self-effacement is the creation of a
m u l t i p l e self, a self w h o has n o self, but is merely the s u m
of the influence of her family, her experiences w i t h other
w o m e n , a n d her choice to be a writer. Members of her
family "create" her, M c C l u n g suggests i n her account of
her c h i l d h o o d ; N e l l i e has n o characteristics of her o w n but
gets her self-confidence a n d love of fun from her Irish
father, a n d her personal strength a n d m o r a l rage for
reform from her Scotch mother. H e r father explains:
"[your mother is] Scotch," he said, "They're very
serious people, a little bit stern, but the greatest people
i n the world for courage and backbone. The Irish are
different; not so steadfast or reliable, but very pleasant.
Irish people have had so much trouble, they've had to
sing and dance, and laugh and fight, to keep their
hearts from breaking." (Clearing, p. 36)
T h r o u g h o u t both volumes of the autobiography, N e l l i e
repeatedly calls o n her "Scotch c a u t i o n " or her " I r i s h
temper" to e x p l a i n her actions; the little g i r l w h o likes to
dance i n front of crowds, but lies awake nights w o r r y i n g
about whether she closed the hen-house door, thus comes
to her career as a social reformer a n d p u b l i c speaker by
heredity.
I n a d d i t i o n to b e c o m i n g the repository of her parents'
traits, N e l l i e becomes the s u m of her experience of the
w o m e n she meets. H e r mother, M r s . M o o n e y , typifies the
"pioneer w o m a n " i n the autobiography: " c a l m , cheerful,
self-reliant, a n d u n d a u n t e d " (Clearing, p. 82). Strongw i l l e d a n d courageous, Nellie's mother is also i n her o w n
way a n artist, p r o v i d i n g the c i v i l i z i n g necessities of homemade carpet, curtains, bread, soap a n d clothes for her
family, a n d expressing her o w n creativity i n her w e a v i n g
a n d sewing. She provides a strong thread o f h i s t o r i c a l
continuity i n Nellie's f e m i n i s m . T h e "minister's wife," a
suffrage supporter a n d member of the W C T U w h o also
delivers babies a n d teaches Sunday school, creates a "fine
frenzy of h i g h endeavour" (Stream, p . 288) i n the y o u t h f u l
N e l l i e , w h o resolves to be just l i k e her. Negative models of
a w o m a n ' s life also shape Nellie's self. O n e "painted d o l l "
sets out to w a l k from W i n n i p e g across the p r a i r i e i n a silk
dress a n d h i g h heels; one farm wife refuses to d e m a n d a
re-arrangement of her farm to make her o w n heavy burden
of w o r k easier. S u c h w o m e n also form N e l l i e ' s "self" by
p r o v i d i n g examples of " h o w not to be," a n d c o n t r i b u t i n g
their voices to Nellie's p o l i t i c a l agitations for more opportunities a n d better legal protection for w o m e n .
2
B u t N e l l i e has few models to show her the way to her
chosen career as a writer. She can f i n d o n l y one way for a
p r a i r i e g i r l to become a w o m a n writer; she must become a
teacher. E v e n so, she laments to another a s p i r i n g teacher,
her friend B o b N a i s m i t h : " Y o u r life is cut out for y o u B o b ,
it lies straight ahead, but m i n e isn't" (Clearing, p . 234).
B u t even i n the choice of a vocation w h i c h is a n assertion
of self, N e l l i e is self-effacing. She says her desire to write
grows from her feminine altruism; she wants to speak out
for the p o o r a n d oppressed, a n d to l i g h t e n the burdens of
those w h o t o i l . She believes that D i c k e n s spoke out for the
p o o r of E n g l a n d , a n d she hopes, like h i m ,
to be a voice for the voiceless as he had been a defender
of the weak, a flaming fire that would consume the
dross that encrusts human souls, and a spring of sweet
water beating up through all this bitter world to refresh
and nourish souls that were ready to faint. (Clearing,
pp. 281-82)
She finds her v o c a t i o n i n the self-abnegation of speaking
not w i t h her o w n voice, but o n l y w i t h the voices of others.
N e l l i e grows u p w i t h i n the strict m o r a l system that her
mother determines, a n d the form of her challenge to that
conservative view of women's place grows out of her
mother's response to the c o n d i t i o n s of Western life, rather
than from a r e b e l l i o n against it. " F o r w o m e n , rebellious
pursuit is potentially catastrophic. T o c a l l attention to her
distinctiveness is to become ' u n f e m i n i n e , ' " Sidonie S m i t h
writes (pp. 9-10). A n d , l i k e other w o m e n autobiographers,
M c C l u n g wishes to create a persona whose conservatism
a n d devotion to her parents w i l l be beyond reproach.
N e l l i e admires her mother's resourcefulness; this c o n v i n ces her of women's strength. She experiences her mother's
fear of pioneer isolation; this convinces her of the necessity
of social programs i n r u r a l areas. She laments, w i t h her
mother, the loss of her l o o m ; this convinces her of the
necessity of w o m e n ' s fight for recognition of their work.
N e l l i e ' s p o l i t i c a l concerns are thus presented as a n outg r o w t h of the life of her mother rather than a liberal
i n d i v i d u a l i s t r e b e l l i o n against it.
M c C l u n g also emphasizes Nellie's closeness to her parents a n d her conservative mother i n order to counter the
charge that her f e m i n i s m arises from permissive, or
u n c o n v e n t i o n a l , o r neglectful parenting. She defends N e l lie by rejecting the m o d e l of the c h i l d g r o w i n g i n t o independence by o p p o s i n g its parents, a n d shows instead a
model of mature sympathy w i t h her parents' hard struggle:
People who write about their own family usually tell
much of family tyranny and misunderstanding ...but I
have not much to say about parental oppression. My
parents were hard-working folk, greatly concerned
with the problems of making a living, tired many a
time with the day's work and perplexed with life's
cares, but they were never too tired or busy to comfort a
sad litde heart.... (Clearing, p. 25)
M c C l u n g shows that despite the charges made by the
press, N e l l i e ' s f e m i n i s m d i d not arise from r e b e l l i o n or
mistreatment; N e l l i e does not disagree fundamentally
w i t h the generation that came before. Instead, M c C l u n g
shows that l i k e little H i l d a Berry, the heroine of " C a r r i e d
F o r w a r d , " N e l l i e carries the debt owed to her mother's
generation i n t o the twentieth century.
M c C l u n g ' s statement of her purpose i n w r i t i n g a n
autobiography makes clear that she is aware of the convent i o n of c l a i m i n g a personal c o n t r i b u t i o n to history as a
justification of autobiography. In the i n t r o d u c t i o n to The
Stream Runs Fast, she states that she wants her book to
leave a "legacy of truth" to future generations.
In Canada we are developing a pattern of life and I
know something about one block of that pattern. I
know it because I helped make it, and I can say that
now without any pretense of modesty, or danger of
arrogance, for I know that we who make the patterns
are not important, but the pattern is. (Stream, p. x)
Later i n the book, M c C l u n g c o m p l a i n s that history books
leave out w o m e n (Stream, p . 25), g i v i n g added force to her
c l a i m for her book as a historical document. B u t M c C l u n g ' s
metaphor of a q u i l t pattern, w h i c h is created by a n anony m o u s w o m a n i n her desire to serve her family, reveals her
ambivalence about the focus o n her o w n c o n t r i b u t i o n to
p u b l i c life w h i c h the genre of autobiography seems to
demand. T h e metaphor diverts attention away from her
o w n role w h i l e apparently justifying its importance.
M c C l u n g repeats the pattern of d i v e r t i n g attention
away from her p u b l i c life throughout Clearing in the West
a n d The Stream Runs Fast. W h e n she comes to the story of
her c o n t r i b u t i o n to the Women's Parliament, surely her
most p u b l i c success i n the M a n i t o b a suffrage fight, she
refers the reader to the fictionalized W o m e n ' s P a r l i a m e n t
i n Purple Springs, a n d then reprints two newspaper
accounts of the evening. H e r chapters o n the suffrage
agitation are not c h r o n o l o g i c a l narratives of a struggle
w h i c h proceeded by well-thought-out stages, but collections of witty anecdotes about her speaking engagements
a n d those of her allies. H e r p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n the famous
"Person's Case" is recounted i n fewer pages than her t r i p
to M e x i c o i n o l d age. E v e n her b i r t h , arguably a n occasion
of historical importance i n itself, is related i n the t h i r d
person from the p o i n t of view of her brother W i l l , w h o is
d i s a p p o i n t e d that the new baby is " o n l y a g i r l " (Clearing,
p. 5).
M c C l u n g chooses to deflect attention away from her
personal c o n t r i b u t i o n to history as a strategy of self-
defence, a n d one w h i c h Estelle J e l i n e k has also remarked
i n the autobiography of another famous suffrage acdvist,
Elizabeth C a d y Stanton. F o c u s s i n g attendon o n her publ i c life calls i n t o q u e s d o n her very femininity, as M c C l u n g
was f u l l y aware; she recounts i n her preface a n d i n her
j o u r n a l i s m the accusations that p o l i t i c a l life had made her
a bad mother, a vindictive wife, a m a n n i s h , unattractive
h a r r i d a n . I n reply, M c C l u n g emphasizes that her feminist
persona is a n ordinary, " n o r m a l " w o m a n , shy i n p u b l i c
situations, concerned about her appearance, a n d fundamentally interested i n the private life of home a n d family.
L i k e any " n o r m a l " w o m a n , N e l l i e remembers the details
of new dresses a n d home decor; she gets her h a i r " d o n e "
before speaking engagements; she tells anecdotes about
her children's precocity, a n d distracts herself from her
p o l i t i c a l setbacks w i t h orgies of housecleaning a n d baki n g . She justifies this studied ordinariness as a didactic
strategy to h e l p advance the cause of feminism; w h e n
M c C l u n g writes of Nellie's shyness, her worries over
clothes a n d hairstyles, she says she continues the process of
proselytizing for the cause by creating a b o n d w i t h the
"ordinary w o m e n " w h o read her b o o k (Stream, p . 221).
But Nellie's anecdotes about her c h i l d r e n , her pride i n a
cashmere dress w i t h lace collar, also " p r o v e " that a l l suffragists are not c o m i c man-haters. A s J e l i n e k remarks of
Stanton, " B y casting herself w i t h i n the framework of a n
ordinary life, she was attempting to counter the u n i d i m e n s i o n a l p u b l i c image of herself as a b r i l l i a n t , argumentative, sharp-witted, u n r e l e n t i n g reformer" (Jelinek, p .
73).
T h e central episode i n Nellie's p u b l i c career is her
" c o n v e r s i o n " to a life of p o l i t i c a l activism o n behalf of
other w o m e n . I n a traditional autobiography, the " c o n v e r s i o n " scene is a m o m e n t of revelation w h i c h confirms
that the uniqueness felt by the protagonist is a n asset
w h i c h w i l l a i d i n the achievement of a goal. N e l l i e ' s
" c o n v e r s i o n " to a life of activism o n behalf of w o m e n
comes not w h e n she recognizes her uniqueness, but w h e n
she becomes pregnant a n d suffers horribly from nausea.
my stomach was sick, and I saw no beauty anywhere. If
it had been a man's disease, it would have been made
the subject of scientific research and relieved long ago.
But women could suffer; it kept them humblel I had
heard about the curse of Eve and here it was i n full
measure. But what useful purpose did it serve? (Stream,
pp. 15-16)
Nellie's miserable physical state leads her to sympathize
w i t h the other w o m e n she k n o w s w h o suffer i n h a v i n g
c h i l d r e n , a n d to recall the callous treatment of such
w o m e n by l o c a l men. She decides that " W o m e n h a d en-
dured too m u c h a n d said n o t h i n g , " a n d pledges that
" W o m e n s h o u l d change conditions, a n d not merely
endure them..." (Stream, p . 16). T h e c o n t r i b u t i o n to history w h i c h she says is the justification of her book is thus
an act of solidarity w i t h others, of self-effacement i n
recognition of her c o m m o n lot w i t h other w o m e n .
Significantly, N e l l i e experiences her m o m e n t of " c o n v e r s i o n " w h e n she recognizes her k i n s h i p w i t h a l l w o m e n ,
and not w h e n she meets a m i l i t a n t suffragist. A n earlier
episode i n w h i c h she is taken under the w i n g of a suffrage
supporter a n d attends a m e e t i n g w i t h her, p r o m p t s N e l l i e
to the resolution that she w i l l never become a p o l i t i c a l
activist (Clearing, p . 311). Nellie's experience disproves
the o l d saw that w o m e n are generally content a n d o n l y
stirred to action by unreasonable troublemakers. It also
expresses the absence of a personal w i l l to p o l i t i c a l action
by s h o w i n g h o w N e l l i e recognizes her vocation t h r o u g h
the undeniably appropriate experience of pregnancy a n d
motherhood.
Beside a cursory account of her pregnancies a n d the
expression of love for her children, the autobiography
contains n o reference to sexual life. F o l l o w i n g one of the
few acceptable "life scripts" o p e n to a w o m a n , that of the
good wife a n d mother, M c C l u n g studiously represses even
the expressions of female sexuality w h i c h she a l l o w s to her
characters; the pleasure of breastfeeding, for example,
w h i c h H e l m i M i l a n d e r enjoys i n Painted Fires, o r the
physical attraction felt by the protagonists of " R e d a n d
W h i t e . " M c C l u n g ' s account of N e l l i e ' s romance a n d marriage to Wes M c C l u n g is a cipher, expressing few personalized details a n d n o sexual attraction. Instead, M c C l u n g
uses her romance to make a p o l i t i c a l p o i n t about the
general belief that romance is the fulfillment of a w o m a n ' s
life. A s a c h i l d , N e l l i e dreams of kisses, b a l l gowns, L o r d s ,
e m o t i o n a l crises a n d adulterous love affairs, spurred o n by
the novels a n d sentimental stories she reads. I n contrast,
the story of her o w n c o u r t s h i p a n d marriage is private a n d
matter-of-fact. N e l l i e sets out to meet Wes M c C l u n g , the
son of the l o c a l minister, w h e n he is w o r k i n g at the l o c a l
drugstore; she wants to f i n d out if she can make the m i n i s ter's wife her mother-in-law. She mentions h i m once as
a c c o m p a n y i n g her o n weekend drives; the next time he
appears i n the b o o k she is i n t r o d u c i n g h i m to her parents
as her future husband. N o first kiss, n o other p o t e n t i a l
loves, n o crisis over choice of husband appears i n the book;
instead of expressing the i n n e r life of a w o m a n , the book
downplays romance i n order to refocus the story of a
woman's life beyond marriage.
T h e defensive voice of self-effacement i n Clearing in the
West a n d The Stream Runs Fast creates the focus o n the
external elements of M c C l u n g ' s life rather than o n her
i n n e r life. M c C l u n g was conscious of the book's u n c o n v e n t i o n a l focus o n relationships outside herself a n d even
p r i n t s a n excerpt from a letter from L a u r a G o o d m a n
Salverson w h i c h c o m p l a i n s about the external focus.
If I seem to the reader too introspective and disposed to
spend too much time analyzing my own feelings and
reactions, let my good friend Laura Goodman Salverson take the responsibility.... she said ... I was too
objective, too concerned with events, condidons, and
developments. Autobiography should have i n it the
mind and soul of the writer. "Be more personal i n your
new book," she said. (Stream, p. 145)'
B u t M c C l u n g cannot be "more personal": her l o n g p u b l i c
career has made her too sensitive to the possible misreadings of her "self" that a n exposure of her " m i n d a n d s o u l "
w o u l d risk. L i k e m a n y w o m e n autobiographers, she studiously avoids a focus o n her motivations a n d meditations.
Attuned to the ways women have been dressed up for
public exposure, attuned also the price women pay for
public self-disclosure, the autobiographer reveals i n
her speaking posture and narrative structure her understanding of the possible readings she w i l l receive from a
public that has the power of her reputation i n its
hands. (Smith, p. 49)
She creates a self w h o "reveals more about her autobiographer's present experience of self than about her past"
( S m i t h , p . 47), a self w h o embodies the strength a n d n u r t u rance w h i c h M c C l u n g saw as the m a i n features of a p u b l i c l y active w o m a n , a n d whose constant focus o n the needs
of others makes her inner life a blank.
Despite the self-consciously literary nature of the autob i o g r a p h y , M c C l u n g presents it as a n account of actual
events, a "legacy of t r u t h " (Stream, p . x i i i ) to future generations eager to understand h o w the battle for the vote was
w o n a n d w h y the battle for p r o h i b i t i o n was lost. She h a d
concluded, w i t h C h u r c h i l l , that " W o r d s are the o n l y
things that live forever," a n d so she shapes her book to
justify her f e m i n i s m i n the eyes of a changed w o r l d , to
lament the loss of the c o m m u n i t y values of her c h i l d h o o d ,
a n d to reflect u p o n her o w n naivite i n believing that the
t w o reforms for w h i c h she fought so h a r d w o u l d substantially change women's lives. A s she h a d perhaps foreseen,
her autobiography was for some years the o n l y account of
the suffrage battle i n C a n a d a a n d remains a n i m p o r t a n t
source for historians. T h e contradiction between selfconscious s h a p i n g a n d the c l a i m to objective truth is never
resolved i n the books, perhaps because M c C l u n g does not
perceive it as a contradiction. H e r task, as she states it i n
Leaves from Lantern Lane, is to create work w h i c h reflects
"the foundation timbers of t r u t h " (p. 44); that her version
of truth may be perceived as a "doctrinal adhesion" (p. 44),
a self-conscious creation of her feminism, does not trouble
her. H e r eagerness to justify herself and, i n so d o i n g , to
provide a m o d e l of reformist f e m i n i s m for her readers are
the "doctrinal adhesions'' w h i c h dominate Clearing in the
West a n d The Stream Runs Fast.
T h u s , Clearing in the West a n d The Stream Runs Fast
voice the problematic of the female sense of self. W h i l e
referring to the conventions of the genre, M c C l u n g ' s autobiography expresses the feminine by its q u a l i f i c a t i o n o r
lack of the elements w h i c h constitute the genre: the mascul i n e subject, the unitary self differentiated by rebellion, the
historically significant p u b l i c career. H e r work undercuts
the liberal i n d i v i d u a l i s t ideology of selfhood as u n i q u e ness, wholeness, o r i g i n a l i t y , a n d separateness, by p o s i t i n g
a female subject w h o defines herself by connectedness,
continuity, openness, a n d relationship.
S i m i l a r l y , M c C l u n g ' s fiction voices the feminine i n its
challenge to the o p t i m i s t i c e n d i n g characteristic of the
"bestseller." T h e "gaps" a n d "ruptures" w h i c h disturb
the naturalized realism of the stories uncovers the ideology
of m a i n t a i n i n g the status q u o w h i c h the bestseller promotes, a n d reveals the task of c h a l l e n g i n g the hierarchy of
gender. T h a t these stories (and the autobiography) use the
genres determined by patriarchy to "voice the voiceless"
feminine is perhaps their l i m i t a t i o n as feminist advocacy;
to assert a difference is always to assert a difference from,
a n d so a relation to. M c C l u n g is l i m i t e d i n her w r i t i n g a n d
her p o l i t i c a l life to advocating reforms w h i c h finally
m a i n t a i n the "cohesion, the articulation, a n d coherent
e x p a n s i o n " of genres a n d of society, rather than a revolutionary v i s i o n of either.
NOTES
1.
2.
3.
Historians and some critics have tended to read the autobiography
as a simple account of McClung's life. Matheson and Lang, "Nellie
McClung: Not a Nice Woman," offers a paraphrase of the autobiography as historical account of McClung's life; Cleverdon, StrongBoag and Bacchi also recount information from the autobiography
with no qualifications. See References for bibliographic information.
See Deborah Gorham's discussion of the connection between "Nellie's" feminism and the depiction of her mother in Clearing in the
West (Gorham, 1976). However, Gorham assumes that the incidents
in the book are simple fact and equates the persona with McClung
herself.
This letter is not among McClung's papers at the Public Archives of
British Columbia.
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