Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the cottage idyll and notions of Canadianness constructed in memories of 'second home tourists'. I also reflect on how familial tensions, feelings of isolation, and fears of the wilderness are screened in these memories, protecting idealized notions of Canadian identity.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is based on a series of interviews conducted with a group of 'second-home' tourists, or cottage owners in north-central Ontario, Canada. The cottagers I spoke with wanted me to understand that the 'real' cottage experience was encompassed in their memories of idyllic times spent as children, or as parents, usually mothers with their children, each summer at the cottage, a pattern repeated for many of these middle class Ontarians in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. For them, the telling of these memories was an authenticating discourse of a quintessential 'Canadian' experience. It called into question both understandings of what the cottage experience is today, and by extension, commented on the changing nature of the Canadian state. I offer in this paper some preliminary thoughts on the how the cottage idyll and notions of 'Canadianness' are constructed in these memories. I also reflect on how the not-so-idyllic familial tensions, feelings of isolation and confinement (particularly on the part of women), and real fears of the natural elements and wildlife are screened in these treasured memories, protecting at both a real and metaphorical level idealized notions of class, gender, and Canadian identity.