Open AccessTaking Vimy Ridge: Jane Urquhart's The Stone Carvers and Canada as "Warrior Nation"
Author(s) -
Herb Wyile
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
canada and beyond
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2254-1179
DOI - 10.33776/candb.v4i1.3016
Subject(s) - cognitive reframing , ridge , battle , identity (music) , national identity , history , art , ancient history , law , political science , aesthetics , psychology , cartography , geography , social psychology , politics
This article revisits Jane Urquhart's 2001 novel The Stone Carvers in light of the Conservative Party of Canada's reframing of national identity, particularly its emphasis on Canada's military and its privileging of Vimy Ridge as a hallowed site of national identity formation. Rereading The Stone Carvers in light of a number of aspects of the Conservative Party's rebranding of Canadian identity, including the prospective building of a companion memorial to the Vimy Memorial that figures so prominently in The Stone Carvers, the article offers a reassessment of Urquhart's portrayal of the battle of Vimy Ridge and of the Vimy Memorial and its architect, Walter Allward.