Amy van der Merwe

Thesis title: Northwest Modernism: Masculinity, Indigeneity, and Extractivism

Supervisor: Professor Pablo Mukherjee

My doctoral research focuses on masculinity in twentieth century modernist literature produced in the North American Northwest and England, and builds on the argument for a singular modernity put forward by the Warwick Research Collective (see WReC, Combined and Uneven Development, 2015). This combination of literary traditions connects the colonial currents of extractivism to modernist literary forms, and highlights the impact of extractivist practice on masculinity. Indigenous intelligence's emphasis on reciprocity and the poetics of the everyday provides a framework for resisting the seductive rhetoric provided by national narratives of masculine behaviour through experimental meaning-making practices.

My Master's thesis, titled "(Un)Conventional Forms: Exploring Contact Zones in the Work of Anna Jameson, Margaret Fuller, Mary Barker, and Olive Schreiner," focused on meaning-making in cross-cultural encounters between white and Indigenous women in the nineteenth century. This MA was completed at the University of Guelph, which exists on the treaty lands and territory of the Attiwonderonk, the Hodinöhsö:ni' (Haudenosaunee) Confederacy, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Guelph is part of the Between the Lakes Treaty 3 (1792) lands, and is on Dish With One Spoon territory. The Dish With One Spoon treaty is a peace agreement in which all parties agree to eat from a dish with the same spoon, representing the commitment to freely and equally accessing the land's gifts (resources). The Canadian Government has not honoured this treaty.

My research interests include: Indigeneity, gender, race, North American literature, South African literature, Western fiction, colonialism, and modernism.