MaudCast S02E02 Laura Robinson and E. Holly Pike on L.M. Montgomery and Gender

In this episode, host Brenton Dickieson was joined by two Atlantic Canadian L.M. Montgomery scholars, E. Holly Pike and Laura Robinson. Laura and Holly share about their labour of longsuffering love, the richly edited volume, L.M. Montgomery and Gender, recently published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. In discussion about some of the thoughtful essays in the collection, readers will enjoy hearing about the complex relationship of masculinities and feminitities in Montgomery’s novels and short stories. In particular, Brenton, Holly, and Laura press in on “what L.M. Montgomery is doing to us as readers,” focussing on her particularly deft inversive and subversive tendencies. Within a broad-ranging conversation about books, research, and the social moment, Laura and Holly also share their stories of discovering the imaginative possibilities of working critically with Montgomery’s works and their hopes for an ever-increasing diversity of voices within the Montgomery scholarly community. 

Show Notes

The MaudCast is the podcast of the L.M. Montgomery Institute. In the MaudCast’s quest to discover cutting-edge scholarship about the life and works of Lucy Maud Montgomery, we welcome to the microphone leading academics, emerging scholars, local researchers, and imaginative readers and writers from around the world. Hosted by Dr. Brenton Dickieson, we broadcast from the beautiful campus of the University of Prince Edward Island. 

The MaudCast Team

Host and Founding Producer: Brenton Dickieson

Founding Co-Producer: Kate Scarth

Technical Director: Kristy McKinney

Researcher: Abbey McRoberts

Researcher: Alyssa Gillespie

Visual Design: Heidi Haering

Web Coordinator: Melanie J. Fishbane

MaudCast Media Contacts:

Find the MaudCast on Twitter and Instagram @LMMIMaudCast

L.M. Montgomery Institute Website: https://www.lmmontgomery.ca/ 

L.M. Montgomery Institute Twitter: @LMMI_PEI

Kindred Spaces Research Collection Online: https://kindredspaces.ca/ 

The Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies: https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/ 

Brenton Dickieson Twitter: @BrentonDana

Brenton Dickieson website: www.aPilgrimInNarnia.com 

Brenton Dickieson Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bdickieson/  

Guest Social Media Links:   

Twitter: @Laura_Learns

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robin.laurenson 

Instagram:  laurarobinson1928

Acadia U website: https://english.acadiau.ca/dr-laura-robinson.html 

Closing Quotation: 

“Wave and undertow, affirmation and undercutting: there is no clear end for a time or an idea or a book that people continue to read. Modernism celebrated fractured time, wounded time; Montgomery insisted on time’s deep continuities; she endorsed healing.” (Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, “Magic for Marigold: Engendering Questions about What Lasts,” in L.M. Montgomery and Gender, ed. E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021), p. 346).

Research References from the Show: 

Pike, E. Holly, and Laura M. Robinson, eds. L.M. Montgomery and Gender. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021.

Robinson, Laura M. “Kindred Spirits: Kinship and the Nature of Nature in Anne’s House of Dreams and The Blue Castle.” In L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s), edited by Rita Bode and Jean Mitchell, 171–83, 240–41. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018.

Pike, E. Holly. “Cross-Dressing: Twins, Language, and Gender in L.M. Montgomery’s Short Fiction.” In L.M. Montgomery and Gender, edited by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson, 175–94. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021.

Pike, E. Holly. “Reading the Book as Object and Thing in L.M. Montgomery’s Emily Series.” In “L.M. Montgomery and Reading,” edited by Emily Woster and Kate Scarth. Special collection, Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 15 December 2020. https://doi.org/10.32393/jlmms/2021.0003. 

Montgomery, L.M. A Name for Herself: Selected Writings, 1891–1917. Edited by Benjamin Lefebvre. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. The L.M. Montgomery Library.

Credits:

Susato’s “Selection from The Danserye: III. Les Quatre Branle” performed by the UPEI Wind Symphony, directed by Dr. Karem J Simon, available for purchase here: https://upeiwindsymphony.bandcamp.com/album/the-danserye.

Special thanks to the Robertson Library at UPEI and all of our community partners.

The MaudCast is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.