Andrea Beverley is an Associate Professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. She is cross-appointedto English and Canadian Studies and is the head of the Canadian Studies program. Her research focuses on Canadian women writers of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in relation to archives, feminism, and literary collectives.
Article
“Uranium Mining, Interdisciplinarity, and Ecofeminism in Donna Smyth’s Subversive Elements”
Abstract
Donna Smyth’s Subversive Elements, published by The Women’s Press in 1986, is a multi-generic, postmodern, ecofeminist, Maritime novel. One of the novel’s narrative threads recounts real-life resistance to uranium mining in Nova Scotia in the early 1980s. The other dominant narrative thread takes place in mid-twentieth century Europe and tells the story of the loves and lives of Beatrice and Lewis. This essay examines the rich intertextuality and heterogeneity of Subversive Elements, analyzing themes of silence, language, and gender in relation to the novel’s ecofeminist stance. Set against the backdrop of late Cold War anti-nuclear activism, Subversive Elements is a compelling addition to literary representations of resource extraction in Atlantic and Canadian literature.
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