Emily Carr

Angela Smith (University of Stirling)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 13 Dec 1871
Died 2 Mar 1945
Activity 1891-1945

Places

Born in Canada
Active in Canada; United States

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Painter

Resources

Carr's Works

Save to Bookshelf

From childhood, Emily Carr was aware that the settler society of Vancouver Island of which her family was a part was actively altering the landscape as it established possession of new territory soon after the Gold Rush. She enjoyed the energy of the new community in Victoria, exemplified by her entrepreneurial father, but resented its patriarchal constraints: as a child she was happiest singing loudly and tunelessly in the female space of the Cow Yard. In her writing and her life she had a series of personas, some of which released her from the control exercised within her society. Her book about her childhood,

The Book of Small

, creates Small as a resentful and curious little girl who constantly tries to escape the fences and boundaries that her father erects; she sticks her head…

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892 words

Citation: Smith, Angela. "Emily Carr". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=753, accessed 26 November 2024.]