Amanda Marynowycz

Canadianness is Wilderness?: Violent Love Relationships with 'wild' Bodies Amanda Marynowycz

This book reveals contradictions that Canadians experience with groups attached to western construction of wilderness namely Indigenous people and wildlife. My study analyzes how the discourse of Canadian wilderness identity is played out in Algonquin Provincial Park and Bruce Peninsula National Park in comparison to non-nature/urban spaces (Greater Toronto Area). I undertake three main tasks: 1) I describe how violent love is a dominant discourse at the Parks, 2) I examine evidence of animals and Indigenous people being produced relationally in the Parks, and 3) I analyze how relationships are spatially organized. My research reveals that the Parks conceal practices of violence that are central to the intersections of speciesism and colonialism. An important argument that I highlight within this book is how violent love operates across a continuum that is influenced by spatial belonging and distance. This book is useful to a wide range of professionals including: geographers, animal rights scholars, race and Indigenous studies, nature and wildlife studies, as well as individuals who are perplexed by how contradictions shape and govern humans? experiences and attitudes.