Anne’s settler colonialism: Donny Syofyan, ‘From “Street Arab” to Scholar: Negotiating the Status of the Orphan in Late Victorian Canadian Literature’, Krinok, 10, 1, 2026, pp. 26-35 | settler colonial studies blog

Anne’s settler colonialism: Donny Syofyan, ‘From “Street Arab” to Scholar: Negotiating the Status of the Orphan in Late Victorian Canadian Literature’, Krinok, 10, 1, 2026, pp. 26-35

19Jul26

Abstract: This article examines the status negotiation of the orphan in late Victorian Canadian literaturethrough a postcolonial and settler-colonial lens. The primary objective is to analyzethetransformation of the protagonist, Anne Shirley, from a marginalized Street Arabtoanenfranchised Scholar, illustrating how this trajectory mirrors the consolidation of the British-Canadian settler state. The methodology employs a qualitative literary analysis of LucyMaud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1908), utilizing close-reading techniques andcoding for themes such as linguistic re-colonization, domestic discipline, and academicmeritocracy. The study specifically maps the racialized and classed anxieties of the erabytracing the shift from Anne’s initial classification as a manual labor unit to her recognitionasan intellectual vanguard. Main outcomes and results reveal that settler belonging is achievedthrough the systematic erasure of the original inhabitants of Prince Edward Island. Anne’simagination serves as a colonial tool to rename the landscape and impose Eurocentricromantic ideals, while education functions as a primary mechanismfor individual andprofessional recolonization. The conclusions indicate that the orphan heroine’s success isanaffirmation of the settler’s radical underlying title to the land. Ultimately, the studydemonstrates that achieving domestic and social belonging in Avonlea is contingent uponmastering the imperial canon and adopting a specific British-Protestant social sensibility.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Closed