Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture (2002)
Edited by Irene Gammel
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002
Synopsis
Since the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 1908, L.M. Montgomery and the world of Anne have burgeoned into a global cultural phenomenon, popular not only in Canada, but in countries as diverse as Japan, the United States, and Iran. Making Avonlea, the first study to focus on Montgomery and her characters as popular culture icons, brings together twenty-three scholars from around the world to examine Montgomery’s work, its place in our imagination, and its myriad spin-offs including musicals, films, television series, T-shirts, dolls, and a tourist industry.
Invoking theories of popular culture, film, literature, drama, and tourism, the essayists probe the emotional attachment and loyalty of many generations of mostly female readers to Montgomery’s books while also scrutinizing the fierce controversies that surround these books and their author’s legacy in Canada. Twenty-five illustrations of theatre and film stills, artwork, and popular cultural artifacts, as well as short pieces featuring personal reflections on Montgomery’s novels, are interwoven with scholarly essays to provide a complete picture of the Montgomery cultural phenomenon. Mythopoetics, erotic romance, and visual imagination are subjects of discussion, as is the commercial success of a variety of television series and movies, musicals, and plays based on the Anne books. Scholars are also concerned with the challenges and disputes that surround the translation of Montgomery’s work from print to screen and with the growth of tourist sites and websites that have moved Avonlea into new cultural landscapes. Making Avonlea allows the reader to travel to these sites and to consider Canada’s most enduring literary figure and celebrity author in light of their status as international icons almost one hundred years after their arrival on the scene.
Contents
Acknowledgments (xi-xii)
Abbreviations (xiii)
Making Avonlea: An Introduction / Irene Gammel (3-13)
Part 1. Mapping Avonlea: Cultural Value and Iconography
Anne of Green Gables Goes to University: L.M. Montgomery and Academic Culture / Carole Gerson (17-31)
Anatomy of a “National Icon”: Anne of Green Gables and the “Bosom Friends” Affair / Cecily Devereux (32-42)
Confessions of a Kindred Spirit with an Academic Bent / Brenda R. Weber (43-57)
Taking Control: Hair Red, Black, Gold, and Nut-Brown / Juliet McMaster (58-71)
“This has been a day in hell”: Montgomery, Popular Literature, Life Writing / Margaret Steffler (72-83)
The Visual Imagination of L.M. Montgomery / Elizabeth R. Epperly (84-98)
Writing in Pictures: International Images of Emily / Andrea McKenzie (99-113)
Safe Pleasures for Girls: L.M. Montgomery’s Erotic Landscapes / Irene Gammel (114-127)
Part II. Viewing Avonlea: Film, Television, Drama, and Musical
“It’s all mine”: The Modern Woman as Writer in Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables Films / Eleanor Hersey (131-144)
Who’s Got the Power? Montgomery, Sullivan, and the Unsuspecting Viewer / K.L. Poe (145-159)
“She look’d down to Camelot”: Anne Shirley, Sullivan, and the Lady of Shalott / Ann F. Howey (160-173)
Road to Avonlea: A Co-production of the Disney Corporation / Benjamin Lefebvre (174-185)
Melodrama for the Nation: Emily of New Moon / Christopher Gittings (186-200)
Paul Ledoux’s Anne: A Journey from Page to Stage / George Belliveau (201-215)
Snapshot: Listening to the Music in Anne of Green Gables: The Musical / Carrie MacLellan (216-222)
Part III. Touring Avonlea: Landscape, Tourism, and Spin-off Products
Toward a Theory of the Popular Landscape in Anne of Green Gables / Janice Fiamengo (225-237)
Mass Marketing, Popular Culture, and the Canadian Celebrity Author / E. Holly Pike (238-251)
Through the Eyes of Memory: L.M. Montgomery’s Cavendish / James De Jonge (252-267)
Consumable Avonlea: The Commodification of the Green Gables Mythology / Jeanette Lynes (268-279)
Snapshot: Making Anne and Emily Dolls / Tara MacPhail (280-285)
Snapshot: My Life as Anne in Japan / Tara Nogler (286-294)
Taishu Bunka and Anne Clubs in Japan / Danièle Allard (295-309)
Avonlea in Cyberspace, Or an Invitation to a Hyperreal Tea Party / Alice van der Klei (310-316)
Epilogue: A Letter from Germany / Beate Nock (317-320)
Works Cited (321-342)
Contributors (343-347)
Reviews
Dean, Misao. “(Re)inscriptions of Nineteenth-Century Popular Culture.” Review of “Come, Bright Improvement”: The Literary Societies of Nineteenth Century Ontario, by Heather Murray; Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel; Paddling Her Own Canoe: The Times and Texts of E. Pauline Johnson, by Carole Gerson and Veronica Strong-Boag. Topia 10 (2003): 91-95.
Gillis, Stacy. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. British Journal of Canadian Studies 16, no. 2 (2003): 425-26.
Kotsopoulos, Patsy. “Pushing the Boundaries of Avonlea.” Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse 109-110 (Spring-Summer 2003): 128-30.
MacDonald-Murray, Elisabeth Anne. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. In Canadian Book Review Annual 2002, edited by Joyce M. Wilson, 248. Toronto: CBRA, 2003.
MacFarlane, Karen E. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. Atlantis 28, no. 1 (2003): 125-26.
Ostry, Elaine. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. University of Toronto Quarterly 73, no. 1 (2003-2004): 264-66.
Rosenberg, Teya. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 28, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 124-25.
Sellwood, Jane. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. Australian Canadian Studies 22, no. 2 (2004): 337-43.
Whitfield, Caroline. Review of Making Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery and Popular Culture, edited by Irene Gammel. Dalhousie Review 84, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 179-80.
