Exploring the Competing Narratives of Isabella Valancy Crawford's "Malcolm's Katie."

This article examines the competing narratives in the poem "Malcolm's Katie," by Isabella Valancy Crawford. The poem has been treated as a narrative of nation building, a contribution to a patriotic program of Canadian settlement and expansion. It also reflects Crawford's engagement in political and social issues of her period. Some critics have read Katie as another commodity in the Canadian landscape to be owned by men in the poem. The poem also illustrates a type of dialogue that occurs between a masculine narrative and a feminine one.