Bending Before the Storm: Continentalism in the Visual Culture of Canadian Magazines

This essay analyzes the shared visual culture of the United States and Canada in Anglophone magazine illustration 1900–1950, in the context of cultural nationalist rhetoric and continentalism. Focusing on “pretty girl” illustration, it demonstrates how the picturing of women (stemming from patriotic “American Girl” imagery in the US) in Canada signified “the Canadian Girl” in contrast to the well-known Canadian wilderness trope. Although cultural nationalist polemics characterized such imagery as an “invader,” evidence indicates Canadians sought and produced this material eagerly and gave it special Canadian attributes. Both a “British” identity and a modern American identity can be discerned in publishing and authorship contexts, even when the Canadian artwork’s physical appearance is indistinguishable from American counterparts. Visually similar illustration production in the US and Canada suggests that “American” influence should be considered a legitimate facet of Canadian cultural identity, just as British or French influence is, but Canadian art history has neglected it, something this study is meant to rectify. The essay suggests that the flexibility of tropes to be adapted to varying circumstances—to bend—has allowed Canadians to negotiate national identity in degrees of hybridity, reflecting the experience of living in a print culture that transcends the border. Such continentalism has helped to preserve Canada’s autonomy by providing a non-threatening similarity to the United States; by helping Canadians stay culturally literate in Americana, which enables their potential intervention into it; and by providing economic and social advantages to those who partake in its production or reception.