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Being a girl in wartime: Canadian children's religious magazines during the First World War
During the First World War, Canadian children were inducted into certain patterns of behavior based on their symbolic value as the future of Canada and as contributors to the British empire. After the advent of the war, Protestant religious denominations in Canada began using their existing children's publications, such as The King's Own (1900-1925) and Pleasant Hours (1881-1929), to encourage child readers to see the war in ways that reinforced the necessity of duty and sacrifice far both boys and girls. Fiction and correspondence in these publications reflect the magazines' engagement with the war and their efforts to show girls how they could contribute to the war effort. As such, they represent an important intervention into how Canadian girlhood was constructed and refined during wartime. Although girls' fiction in these magazines often emphasises domestic responsibilities, it also offers opportunities to mobilise these domestic skills to support the war effort. Other content within the magazines also presented practical ideas that could be implemented at home and at school, suggesting that girls' participation in the war effort could be easily understood and implemented. Moreover, girls' participation in these wartime activities contributed simultaneously to both national and imperial enterprises. Thus these two magazines represented Canadian feminine ideals within an imperial framework. Importantly, however, the dominant frame far these girlhood ideals is explicitly national. They are primarily understood to be helping Canadians through their wartime work.
History
Journal
Australasian Canadian StudiesVolume
32Issue
1-2Season
Speical issue: Remembrance and representation: Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in World War IPagination
151 - 166Publisher
Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New ZealandLocation
Wollongong, N.S.W.ISSN
1832-5408Language
engPublication classification
C Journal article; C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
[2015, Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand]Usage metrics
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