Narratives of Scottish Settler Colonialism in Nova Scotia: Re-examining Thomas Chandler Haliburton's Works

我的项目位于加拿大文学和历史研究的界面。它表明，关于苏格兰定居者殖民主义在新斯科舍省的文学叙事有一个更大的影响，加拿大大西洋比以前的研究表明。虽然大多数关于这一主题的研究集中在二十世纪新斯科舍省苏格兰人的形象，本项目调查了十九世纪作家，法官和历史学家托马斯·钱德勒·哈利伯顿（1796-1865），加拿大第一位国际知名作家的作品。哈利伯顿不仅积极调查他的古老苏格兰血统并写了关于它的文章，而且他的作品包括对苏格兰定居者在新斯科舍省的各种叙述，这有助于建立苏格兰人作为该地区的商标殖民者。由于哈利伯顿的作品在他那个时代的加拿大、美国和英国广受欢迎，可以假设他的出版物有助于在19世纪的英国大西洋传播苏格兰殖民者的叙述。迄今为止，在哈利伯顿的全部作品中，还没有研究过文学与殖民历史之间的这种相互联系。在我在圣玛丽大学的研究期间，我会看到一些未发表的文件，因为有有力的证据表明，这些文件包括了关于苏格兰人的进一步资料，特别是关于苏格兰在新斯科舍省的定居者的资料，这些资料还没有被系统地研究过。这些文件包括哈利伯顿的自传体作品以及他的作品的早期版本。存放这些文件的两个档案馆是新斯科舍省哈利法克斯的档案馆和新斯科舍省沃尔夫维尔的哈里伯顿大学的哈里伯顿收藏馆。在理论层面上，该项目通过探索加拿大大西洋地区的“小”殖民主义形式，对该地区产生了长期影响，从而为批判帝国研究领域做出了贡献。它询问文学文本在19世纪英国大西洋殖民权力动态中所扮演的角色。我的研究还促进了对殖民者和被殖民者等既定术语的重新思考，这些术语在试图与苏格兰的殖民历史达成协议时作为概念是不复杂的。该项目扩展了我最近完成的关于17世纪苏格兰殖民主义的研究，其中包括关于17世纪20年代新斯科舍省的一章。前一项研究的手稿目前正在与爱丁堡大学出版社进行审查，它已经顺利通过了第一阶段的审查。在圣玛丽大学，我将与三位新斯科舍省文学和历史领域的专家一起工作（Karly Kehoe教授，亚历山大麦克劳德教授，约翰里德教授），他们知道我的研究计划并表示支持。Kehoe教授也有兴趣与我长期合作。我的研究成果将出版在一本由Karly Kehoe教授编辑的文集中（见下文），这是根据合同与爱丁堡大学出版社。

My project is situated at the interface of Canadian literature and history studies. It shows that literary narratives about Scottish settler colonialism in Nova Scotia have had a greater effect on Atlantic Canada than previous studies have shown. Whereas most studies on the topic focus on images of Scottishness in Nova Scotia in the twentieth century, the present project investigates the works of nineteenth-century author, judge and historian Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865), Canada's first internationally acclaimed author. Not only did Haliburton actively investigate his ancient Scottish ancestry and wrote about it, but his works include a variety of narratives of Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia, which helped to establish Scots as trademark colonists of the region. Since Haliburton's works were widely popular in Canada, the USA and in Great Britain in his time, it can be assumed that his publications helped to spread narratives of Scottish settler colonialism in the nineteenth-century British Atlantic. Hitherto no study of this interconnection between literature and colonial history in Haliburton's oeuvre exists. During my research stay at St. Mary's University, I will sight a number of unpublished documents because there is strong evidence in secondary sources that they include further material on Scots in general and Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia in particular, which have not been systematically studied. These documents include Haliburton's autobiographical writings as well as early editions of his works. The two archives where the documents are housed are the Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, and the Haliburton Collection, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. On a theoretical level, the project contributes to the field of critical empire studies by exploring a form of 'minor' colonialism in Atlantic Canada that has had, however, long-term effects on the region. It asks about the role literary texts played in the colonial power dynamics of the nineteenth-century British Atlantic. My study also promotes a reconsideration of established terms such as colonizer and colonized, which are under-complex as concepts when trying to come to terms with Scotland's colonial history. The project expands on my recently finished study on Scottish colonialism in the seventeenth century, which includes a chapter on Nova Scotia in the 1620s. The manuscript of the previous study is currently under review with Edinburgh University Press, and it has successfully passed the first stage of review. At St. Mary's University, I would work together with three experts in the field of Nova Scotia literature and history (Prof. Karly Kehoe, Prof. Alexander MacLeod, Prof. John Reid), who know my research proposal and endorse it. Prof. Kehoe is also interested in a long-term cooperation with me. The findings of my study will be published in a collection, edited by Prof. Karly Kehoe (see below), which is under contract with Edinburgh University Press.