Dead patriarchs and surrogate caregivers in the liminal family and economic spaces of Duncan Campbell Scott’s In the Village of Viger

This article examines Duncan Campbell Scott’s short story cycle, In the Village of Viger (1896), and the representation of settler Canadian family life amid urbanization at the turn of the twentieth century. I critically examine two of Scott’s stories, ‘The Desjardins’ and ‘Paul Farlotte’, to analyse how the Viger community’s attention to hereditary madness obscures the care of deceased fathers and later surrogate parental figures who take on caregiving responsibilities. My analysis demonstrates that the liminality of Viger’s shifting economic structures extends to families, and surrogate caregivers become essential figures in maintaining families on the verge of collapse.