Transnational Maternal Genealogies in Contemporary Canadian Women’s Historical Novels

Abstract

This article is a sustained analysis of transnational maternal genealogies in contemporary Canadian women’s historical novels written in English. In contrast to conventional historical novels which privilege the lives of men, women’s historical novel centralizes women’s lives. Experiences such as pregnancy, rape, childbearing and rearing, breast cancer, and so on are prioritized. My article concentrates on the creation and expression of transnational maternal genealogies as manifest in an increasing number of contemporary historical novels by Canadian women. Beginning with Joy Kogawa’s seminal novel Obasan, published in 1981, I trace the trajectory of this gendered genre to recent times with Padma Viswanathan’s The Toss of a Lemon. Transnational maternal genealogies differ from other dominant trends in the genre such as masculinist mainstream historiography and “historiographic metafiction” because the genre contends that gender and a link to one’s maternal past, not the national context, is paramount to lived experience. Furthermore, transnational female characters challenge “traditional boundaries of historical fiction,” Canada’s official history, and claims as to who is and who is not Canadian. Despite the critical acclaim and notoriety many Canadian women novelists enjoy, this genre has attracted little scholarship, thus this article partakes in the critical work which can and should be done to remedy this gap.