Masculinity in Folklore: The Enduring Symbolism of the Canadian Lumberjack
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Keywords

Working-class
Gender
Storytelling
Logging
Historical Popular Culture

How to Cite

Woloschuk, C. (2022). Masculinity in Folklore: The Enduring Symbolism of the Canadian Lumberjack. Pathways, 3(1), 5–13. https://doi.org/10.29173/pathways36

Abstract

The nineteenth-century logging industry in North America produced working conditions that gave birth to many folk tales and folk heroes that have held firm, keeping the lumberjack a topic of popular culture that has endured for over a century. Through examining a historical painting and sketch inspired by the popular French-Canadian folktale La Chasse Galerie, present-day people can better understand the different historical influences, such as religion and ethnicity, that helped create folklore and ideas of masculinity within the timber trade in the Ottawa Valley. In addition, the masculinity that logging folk heroes and folk tales embody can help illustrate trends in modern resource extraction industries.

https://doi.org/10.29173/pathways36
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