“Houses still standing” : modernity, myth and memory on Nova Scotia’s Devil’s Island

Abstract

Once known as the "singing island" by folklorist Helen Creighton, Nova Scotia's Devil's Island has been sorely neglected by academics. By uncovering its history, mapping the community, and exploring Creighton's role in perpetuating the island's folk identity, this paper will examine the influence of the island on Creighton's later archival work. In exploring the island's shifting identity, from the epitome of true folk to an abandoned ghost village, this paper will also show how both identities promoted by Creighton contribute to her manufactured idea of the folk, which was later exploited by the tourism sector. This study also examines the effects of the relocation during WWII on former residents, exploring their inability to move back to the island after the war. With the recent passing of many former residents, "an intimate fund of memory" has disappeared and Devil's Island has become what Pierre Nora refers to as a <em>lieu de m&eacute;moire</em>. Using interviews from former residents and their descendants collected in 1998 and 2021, my paper will examine the disparity between second-hand memory and the childhood nostalgia for a lost place. This paper examines collected memories to highlight how the physical loss of the island contributed to the intense nostalgia and collective longing for a place no longer in existence. Applying both Pierre Nora's theory on the interconnectedness of history and memory and Maurice Halbwachs' theory of collective memory, I will analyze the shared memory and community experienced by former residents even after their displacement.