Northern (genre)

The North-West Mounted Police, and later the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, were often the heroes of Northern fiction

The Yukon was a common setting for Northern fiction.

The Northern is a Canadian genre in literature and film made popular by the writings of Rex Beach and Zane Grey. It is similar to the Western genre but the action occurs in the Canadian North and typically features Mounties instead of, for example, Cowboys or Sheriffs. In addition to Canada, Northern is associated with modern films or television programs that are set in Alaska. The genre was extremely popular in the inter-war years of the twentieth century.^[1]

In addition to being set in Canada the stories often contrast the American Old West with the Canadian one in several ways. In films such as Pony Soldier and Saskatchewan the North-West Mounted Police display reason, compassion and a sense of fair play in their dealings with Indigenous peoples of the Americas as opposed to hotheaded American visitors (often criminals), lawmen or the American Army who seem to prefer extermination with violence.

The Western idea of lawlessness set in American towns was not a part of the Canadian Northern, though individual lawbreakers or uprisings by Canadians (Quebec), Riel, and Northwest Mounted Police. First Nation tribes or Métis featured in some depictions.

Charlie Chaplin's 1925 film The Gold Rush is a comedy that parodies some of the cliches of the Northern genre.^[1]

Examples of Northerns

Folklore of Canada (Canadian oral stories)

Chasse-galerie, the enchanted canoe that flies over the water of the river like a bird
Johnny Chinook, the Canadian cowboy and rancher of Alberta
Big Joe Mufferaw, woodsman Paul Bunyan of Canada.
Louis Riel

Poetry

The Spell of the Yukon by Robert W. Service, including "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

Pulp magazines

North West Stories (Originally published in 1925)
North-West Romances
Complete Northwest Magazine

Comics

Books

Call of the Wild
White Fang
Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (10 books, 17 short stories)
Susannah of the Mounties
Stories of the Far North, Jon Tuska, ed.
Scarlet Riders, Don Hutchison, ed., a collection of stories previously printed in Pulp magazines

Photographies

Northern, a collection of photographies by Anthony Jourdain

Radio

Renfrew of the Royal Mounted (presented by the author Laurie York Erskine)
Challenge of the Yukon (1939-1955) featuring Sergeant Preston

References

1 2 "Chaplin's decision to have The Gold Rush take place during the 1897– 8 Klondike Gold Rush placed it squarely within the well established Northern genre, which spanned theatre, literature and film, encompassing stories about trappers, adventurers, lumberjacks, miners, Mounties, Eskimos, and others-even animals-in the Far North".Matthew Solomon, The Gold Rush, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. ISBN 1137516119

External links

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