Playing “Anne”: Red braids, Green Gables, and literary tourists on Prince Edward Island

Abstract

For nearly a century, literary tourists have sought the settings of L.M. Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables on picturesque Prince Edward Island, Canada. As tourism infrastructure on the Island developed in the latter twentieth century, tourists’ whimsical wearing of red braids to emulate the novel’s girl protagonist became a popular practice. Playing “Anne,” while certainly a different experience depending on whether one is a little girl, an adult woman, or an adult man, is today a widely practiced performance of tourist identity. Through close readings of visitor comment cards, tourism promotions, souvenir hats, and the Green Gables Heritage Place historic site operated by Parks Canada, this article argues that the desire to play “Anne” rehearses themes of Anne’s anticipation, arrival, child-like wonder, and outsider status, all of which resonate with a touristic perception of place.