The Gender of Ice and Snow

Abstract

In this article, the author studies the North and the Arctic as an imagined space, made up of a coherent group of interrelated elements coloured by aesthetic, political and ethical values that transcend it. He pursues his analysis through (a) accounts of missionaries, exploration and sea-faring navigation, (b) novels, narratives and collections of poetry from the literatures of France, French Canada (1840–1947) and Québec (1948 to the present day), and (c) a few works from world literature as well as Nordic and Inuit mythology, in order to understand the gendered nature of four personified elements which are part of the imagined space of the North and the Arctic, i.e. “icebergs,” “frost,” “ice” and “snow.” He concludes, from a gendered perspective, that this material is obviously produced mainly by men and transmits male values, even if some women have also contributed to this cultural construction, and that the personifications function as a focal point, allowing the reader to enter a complete world of images, colours, and values.