Abstract

L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908) features a heroine well-known for her mishaps. Who could forget Anne dying her hair green or getting her best friend, Diana, drunk – all accidentally, of course? Rarely do we think about Anne in relation to religion, but look closer and you will see Anne learning to pray under Marilla’s tutelage and wanting to be the kind of Christian that the minister’s wife, Mrs Allan, is. There are elements of the American nature-based spiritual movement of Transcendentalism in Montgomery’s novel, but there is also a strong presence of the conservative Christian Presbyterianism. Come along to the research seminar to learn more.

Bio

Ashley Wilson’s doctoral research focuses on Christianity and spirituality in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century North American girls’ books, with an emphasis on Anne of Green Gables (1908) and Pollyanna (1913). Wilson’s chapter on Pollyanna through the lens of twentieth-century Protestantism will be published in Eleanor H. Porter’s Pollyanna: A Children’s Classic at 100.