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A Bridge to Nowhere
Temporalities to Abandonment in Rural Canada
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Donna Young
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
Artfully written and meticulously crafted, A Bridge to Nowhere explores the lives of men and women in isolated settlements across Canada, examining how their experiences are shaped by memory, precarity, and poverty. Following men abandoned at remote rail sidings in western Canada and women left in rural settlements in northern New Brunswick, Donna Young presents a powerful and unflinching Canadian story that critically analyses how poverty is represented in anthropological studies.
Based on research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s, this innovative ethnography centres each chapter on a specific place or individual, developing an analysis anchored in memory and relationality. Young deftly connects the precariousness of these communities to the extraction of primary resources in the twentieth century, while also addressing the gendered spaces and labour conditions that define their lives. In navigating the complex and often contradictory forces at play, the book engages with a storied loneliness set against rural landscapes and regional sensibilities.
Weaving together social history, memory studies, and the anthropology of performance, A Bridge to Nowhere honours the emotional and social structures embedded in the landscape, capturing the intensity of precarious living.
Based on research conducted in the 1980s and 1990s, this innovative ethnography centres each chapter on a specific place or individual, developing an analysis anchored in memory and relationality. Young deftly connects the precariousness of these communities to the extraction of primary resources in the twentieth century, while also addressing the gendered spaces and labour conditions that define their lives. In navigating the complex and often contradictory forces at play, the book engages with a storied loneliness set against rural landscapes and regional sensibilities.
Weaving together social history, memory studies, and the anthropology of performance, A Bridge to Nowhere honours the emotional and social structures embedded in the landscape, capturing the intensity of precarious living.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Donna Young
Donna Young is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Toronto.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
v -
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Acknowledgments
vii -
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Introduction: A Bridge to Nowhere
1 -
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Chapter One The Evanescent Freedoms of Life on a CPR Rail Gang
26 -
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Chapter Two The Family Gothic
43 -
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Chapter Three Clothing of Piety, Clothing of Poverty: Object Lessons and the Poverty Narratives of Women
70 -
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Chapter Four Landscapes of Memory and a Lonely Nature
101 -
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Chapter Five Unravelling
119 -
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Notes
139 -
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Works Cited
157 -
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Index
169
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 20, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9781487564483
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
192
eBook ISBN:
9781487564483
Keywords for this book
Canadian ethnography; rural Canada studies; memory and precarity; resource extraction impact; rural poverty and social history; 20th century resource extraction; Canadian history and culture; social history
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
