Premium
The Strange Career of the Canadian Beaver: Anthropomorphic Discourses and Imperial History
Author(s) -
Francis Margot
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2004.00231.x
Subject(s) - narrative , slang , sociology , the imaginary , decorum , beaver , gender studies , literature , aesthetics , psychology , psychoanalysis , linguistics , art , philosophy , ecology , biology
This article traces the shifting representational history of the “beaver” in the Canadian imaginary through analyzing a range of images from explorers’ narratives, to commercial discourses, mass media representations to the ubiquitous sexual slang. I argue that dominant representations of the national rodent have suggested important social territories, like the norms of industry, bodily decorum, sexual respectability and racial progress. At the same time, I also explore how the subterranean language of sexual slang is the logical underside of the narratives found in more “legitimate” representations.