The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia

William G. Godfrey is a history professor at Mount Allison University in
New Brunswick.

This cultural history of 20th-century Nova Scotia ranks as a truly
provocative and persuasive historical contribution. First-rate research
and tough-minded yet balanced analysis provide the basis of an
interpretation of such Maritime cultural icons as Helen Creighton
that—as even her most passionate supporters will have to admit—has
clarified convincingly the antimodernism, the “innocence,” at the
root of much of her work.

Creighton is the key figure in this book and receives the greatest
attention. At times McKay appears less comfortable with, or at least too
brief in his treatment of, the supporting cast of “cultural
producers”—creative writers, photographers, travel writers, and
polemicists. This group has developed the myth of the innocent and
unspoiled province by the sea, populated by rural fisher-folk types
living in a golden age untarnished by the urbanization,
industrialization, class, gender, and racial realities of modern
society. Unfortunately, as McKay argues, a powerfully conservative
process of cultural selection guided the group’s view of the features
of the past to be emphasized, and it systematically excluded aspects and
groups judged unworthy of attention.

At least part of the motivation behind the success of this selective
representation was the quest for economic dividends in the form of
tourists lured by a sanitized and marketable history, as well as
supportive governmental institutions quite willing to cooperate and
reinforce those articulating such a commendable past. The final result
was a stereotyped picture that captured the public imagination. More
recently, McKay contends, the faith in the folk is waning in the face of
postmodern realities. Despite the author’s implicit optimism about a
broadened discourse, however, well-rooted ideas and stereotypes might
remain difficult to shake when a neoconservative triumph of capitalism
is widely touted as the prevailing orthodoxy. Nonetheless, any cultural
history of 20th-century Nova Scotia must now come to terms with this
brilliant study.