Finding Viola: the untrue, true story of a groundbreaking female African Nova Scotian entrepreneur

Abstract

Viola Desmond is now considered a forerunner in the civil rights movement in Canada. Lesser known is her role as a groundbreaking and successful African Nova Scotian entrepreneur. In this paper, the author pursues two objectives: (1) elevate the entrepreneurial accomplishments and lessons of Viola Desmond, and (2) explore a unique feminist approach to critical historiography, which fuses prowoman polemical writing, with fictocritical strategies and autoethnography. The research question guiding this study is: How can the application of a novel feminist approach help reveal an overlooked historical female figure who has been marginalized by a web of interlocking discourses? The paper makes three related contributions: (1) achieving recognition for Viola Desmond as an overlooked contributor to our understanding of female leadership in black entrepreneur; (2) promoting an understanding of her lost lessons and accomplishments; and (3) providing a plausible explanation for why Viola Desmond was omitted from the conceptualization of the field.

Feminist frustrations: The enduring neglect of a women’s business history and the opportunity for radical change

“…For example, Levicki's (2004) review of James Hoopes largely reproduces the author's purely descriptive account of the life of Mary Parker Follett. Williams andMills (2017, 2018), on the other hand, offer feminist poststructural analysis as an approach which both reveals overlooked women, their voice and accomplishments (Frances Perkins and Hallie Flanagan), while also offering plausible reasons as to why such figures were overlooked by business history (a critique of the field itself).…”

“…We therefore offer that scholars need to find inventive ways to make this connection and we suggest two different ways to do so. The first is for the author to be in the foreground and to be the connective tissue between fields (Williams, 2020). This is an openly subjective approach vs. the often favoured objective approach and this may present as a different way to write as herein suggested.…”

Introducing ficto-feminism: a non-fiction, fictitious conversation with Hallie Flanagan, director of the Federal Theatre Project (1935–1939)

“…Current practice offers little room to get to know figures like Hallie. This is not about conflating feminism with fiction (Williams, 2020b) but rather offering a feminized authoritative account, emboldened by the veracity of my research, feminist disposition and respect for Hallie.…”

“…Fictocriticism [1] involves the mobilization of different genres where fact and imagination intertwine (Williams, 2020b). Fictocriticism resists convention: “Fictocriticism is self-reflexive writing that breaks down the boundaries between fiction and criticism, reader and writer, by using aesthetic techniques” (Jiwa, 2013, p. 104).…”

“…Proponents of fictocriticism argue that it challenges the limitations of traditional academic writing and offers power to the writer (see Rhodes, 2015). The application of fictocriticism in MOS/MH is in its infancy, with just a smattering of examples (see Rhodes, 2015; Weatherall, 2019; Williams, 2020).…”