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How to describe the literature of a nation is often debatable, and is also in natural flux throughout the nation's history, so this beginner's guide to Canadian literature will offer links to as many actual Canadian authors as possible so the reader can weigh what is being said with first-hand research of his or her own. Literature is literally an acquaintance with letters as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning an individual written character (letter)). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts. ...
The problem of Canadian literature
Canadian literature may be more difficult to discuss than most because of Canada's unique geographical and historical situation. Therefore, just as one piece of the Canadian social puzzle has often been, "is there a Canadian identity?," one recurrently important piece of the Canadian literature puzzle has been the question, "Is there a Canadian literature at all?"
This has been an ongoing point of debate since the mid-1800s, and is still being discussed in literary circles today. For example, a quick Internet search for university syllabi on Canadian literature courses will offer an overwhelming majority of professors who still discuss whether or not "Canadian" literature exists. For instance, one postmodern Can. lit. course offered as recently as 2002 at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, includes this in the course syllabus: Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ...
A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ...
Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and social critics to refer to aspects of contemporary art, culture, economics and social conditions that are the result of the unique features of late 20th century and early 21st century...
2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
College of William and Mary The College of William and Mary in Virginia is a public, liberal-arts university located in Williamsburg, Virginia. ...
The Governors Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia. ...
- "The course starts off with a brief consideration of the 'problem' of Canadian identity: Is there such a thing? If so, what is it? And does that identity manifest itself in a national literature that is distinctly different from, say, British or U.S. literature? These are the sort of questions that get raised in Kroetsch's essays and Atwood's Surfacing."
In fact, it has frequently been suggested that the question, "what is a Canadian?" is entangled very intricately with the question "what is Canadian literature?" in a way that does not happen to so great an extent with other literatures. Leon Surette writes, "a disproportionate amount of commentary on Canadian writing has been cultural history (or prophecy) rather than truly literary commentary."
At the end of the debates, the verdict almost always returned is that there is a literature and an "identity" distinctly Canadian. However, because of its size and breadth, Canadian literature is often broken into sub-categories.
There are at least three ways that, traditionally, critics and scholars have chosen to deal with the geographic size and cultural breadth of Canadian literature. The most common, by far, is to divide it by region or province. There are anthologies of "Eastern Canadian literature" or "Prairie literature," for example. Another way has been to divide it by categorising the authors. For instance, the literature of Canadian women, Acadians, aboriginal Canadians, and Irish-Canadians have been anthologised as bodies of work. A third way has been to divide it by literary period, such as "Canadian postmoderns" or "Canadian Poets Between the Wars." Canada consists of ten provinces and three territories. ...
Acadians are the original French settlers of parts of the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. ...
Of course, as usual, Canadian literature is often studied in genre divisions as well, such as "poetry," "prose," "drama," and "criticism." Bust of Homer, one of the earliest European poets, in the British Museum Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...
Prose is writing distinguished from poetry by its greater variety of rhythm and its closer resemblance to the patterns of everyday speech. ...
Drama is a term generally used to refer to a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. ...
A critic (derived from the ancient Greek word krites meaning a judge) is a person who offers a value judgement or an interpretation. ...
Traits of Canadian literature The findings of those who believe that there is a distinctly Canadian body of literature include a prevalence of the following traits, in no particular order. - Humour: Canadians do not shy away from serious subject matter, but they have often approached it using humour. Humour is the Canadian way of approaching difficult or sensitive subjects. See also: Canadian humour.
- Satire and irony: If Canadian literature had to be distilled into a single word, for the sake of comparison with all other literatures, that word would be "satire". Satire has jokingly been called Canada's national sport. From its three famous contemporary television political satire shows, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Rick Mercer's Monday Report and Royal Canadian Air Farce back to Thomas Chandler Haliburton's The Clockmaker, Canadians have used satire not only to entertain, but also to promote societal reform.
- The underdog hero: if a Canadian novel has a hero at all, it is likely to be of the "underdog" type. An ordinary, everyday person overcomes a large corporation, a bank, a rich tycoon, a government, a natural disaster, etc.
- Urban vs. rural: The underdog hero ties in with an urban vs. rural theme which has often popped up in Canadian fiction and poetry, and usually portrays the rural as morally superior to the city, which is portrayed as shallow and seedy. Often, as in Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, the simplicity of rural living is presented as something being lost as people move to cities. Ironically, there is a strong current of rural poetry building in cities like Toronto. Some recent examples of this include Paul Vermeersch`s rural Ontarian book of poetry, Burn, John Stiles' Annapolis Valley influenced Scouts are Cancelled, Adam Getty`s Reconciliation, Chris Banks' Bonfires. The current rise in poetry titles suggests a desire to document a nation that is regionally distinctive from town to town not just province to province.
- Nature (and a "human vs. nature" tension): Reference to nature is prolific in Canada's literature. Nature, while often interpreted as the enemy in some Canadian works, can also be interpreted as divine and ideal in others.
- Mild anti-Americanism: While not evident in every piece of work by a Canadian, there has unmistakably been an ongoing anti-American theme from time to time in Canada's literary history, often taking the form of gentle satire. It cannot be described as malicious (although at Canadian literature's beginning, re-invasion by the U.S. was a legitimate fear), but is better seen as mild sibling rivalry, and may tie in with Canada's loyalty to the underdog as opposed to the haughty hero, two roles played by Canada and the U.S. in Canadian mythology.
- Self-deprecation: Canadian literature, while often implying an underlying love and concern for the nation, is not rah-rah patriotic propaganda. There is, on the contrary, often self-deprecation within its pages. Canadians have been known to be good at laughing at themselves, which ties in nicely with their ability for satire and humour.
- Self-evaluation by the reader: "We might ... wonder how 'Canadian Literature' differs from 'English Literature' or 'American Literature.'... What has remained constant throughout this short history of Canadian Literature is that it offers readers a way of both imagining and questioning ourselves and the cultures around us." (-Dr. Glen Lowry, Coquitlam College)
- Southern Ontario Gothic: A sub-genre which critiques the stereotypical Protestant mentality of Southern Ontario; many of Canada's most internationally famous authors wrote in this style.
This article discusses humour in terms of comedy and laughter. ...
Canadian humour is, in many respects, a fundamental part of Canadian culture. ...
Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ...
This Hour Has 22 Minutes This Hour Has 22 Minutes is a Canadian television comedy. ...
Rick Mercer, star of Monday Report Rick Mercers Monday Report is a Canadian television comedy series. ...
Royal Canadian Air Farce is a Canadian radio and television show, broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ...
Thomas Chandler Haliburton Thomas Chandler Haliburton (December 17, 1796 - August 27, 1865) was one of the first major Canadian authors. ...
A corporation is a legal entity (distinct from a natural person) that often has similar rights in law to those of a Civil law systems may refer to corporations as moral persons; they may also go by the name AS (anonymous society) or something similar, depending on language (see below). ...
The essential function of a bank is to provide services related to the storing of value and the extending of credit. ...
A natural disaster is the consequence or effect of a hazardous event, occurring when human activities and natural phenomenon (a physical event, such as a volcanic eruption, earthquake, landslide etc. ...
Urban is in or having to do with cities, as distinct from rural areas. ...
Rural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. ...
The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ...
Bust of Homer, one of the earliest European poets, in the British Museum Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...
Stephen Butler Leacock (December 30, 1869 - March 28, 1944) was a British-Canadian writer and economist. ...
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is a sequence of stories by Stephen Leacock, first published in 1912. ...
Anti-Americanism is a term referring to hostility towards or disapproval for the government, culture, history, and/or people of the United States of America. ...
The United States of America — also referred to as the United States, the U.S.A., the U.S., America, the States, or (archaically) Columbia—is a federal republic of 50 states located primarily in central North America (with the exception of two states: Alaska and Hawaii). ...
Southern Ontario Gothic is a sub-genre of the Gothic novel genre and a feature of Canadian literature that comes from Southern Ontario. ...
Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...
Categories: Canada geography stubs | Ontario ...
French-Canadian literature French-Canadian literature followed a very different evolutionary path than English literature. French-Canadian literature was less an appendage to the literature of France than English Canada's was to Great Britain. Rather, the struggle of French Canada was to create a literature whole cloth. From the early settlements until the 1820s Quebec had virtually no literature to speak of. There were a few historians, journalists, and learned priests who published but overall, output was very low. French Canadian (or Franco-Canadian) is a term that refers to francophone inhabitants of Canada. ...
It was the rise of Quebec patriotism and the 1837 Patriotes Rebellion, combined with a modern system of primary school education that led to the first surge of French-Canadian fiction. The first genres to become popular were the rural novel and the historical novel. Influences from France began to be felt, especially such authors as Balzac. 1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
Flag used by the Patriotes between 1832 and 1838 The Lower Canada Rebellion is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada (now Quebec) and the British colonial power of that province. ...
Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac (May 20, 1799 - August 18, 1850), was a French novelist. ...
In 1866, Father Henri-Raymond Casgrain became one of Quebec's first literary theorists. He argued that literature's goal should be to project an image of proper Catholic morality. This view was accepted by most Québécois authors and much of what was written is generally considered bland and tedious. A few authors such as Louis-Honoré Fréchette and Arthur Buies did break accepted conventions and write engaging works. 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ...
Louis-Honoré Fréchette Louis-Honoré Fréchette, (November 16, 1839 - May 31, 1908), poet, playwright, and short story writer born in Lévis, Québec, Canada. ...
This pattern continued until the 1930s when a new group of authors educated at the Université Laval and the Université de Montréal. Novels with psychological and sociological foundations began to become the norm. Authors such as Gabrielle Roy and Anne Hébert for the first time began to earn international acclaim. During this period, Quebec theatre, which had previously been melodramas and comedies, became far more involved. Events and trends Technology Jet engine invented First atom was split with a particle accelerator Golden Age of radio begins in U.S. Science Nuclear fission discovered by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is discovered by Clyde Tombaugh British biologist Arthur...
Laval University (Université Laval) is one of Canadas leading universities. ...
The University of Montreal (Université de Montréal, UdeM for short) is one of four universities in Montreal, Quebec. ...
Gabrielle Roy (March 22, 1909 - July 13, 1983) was a Canadian author. ...
Anne Hebert Anne Hébert (August 1, 1916 - January 22, 2000) was a Canadian author and poet. ...
French-Canadian literature began to greatly expand with the turmoil of the Second World War, the beginnings of industrialization in the 1950s, and most especially the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s. French-Canadian literature also began to attract a great deal of attention globally, with Acadian novelist Antonine Maillet winning the Prix Goncourt. An experimental branch of Quebecois literature also developed, such as formalist poet Nicole Brossard. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...
Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium Events and trends Technology United States tests the first fusion bomb. ...
Jean Lesage, Daniel Johnson Sr. ...
Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ...
Acadians are the original French settlers of parts of the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. ...
Antonine Maillet in 1984 Antonine Maillet (born May 10, 1929) is a Canadian Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. ...
The Prix Goncourt is the most prestigious prize in French language literature, given to the author of the best imaginary prose work of the year. Edmond de Goncourt, a successful author, critic, and publisher, bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the Académie Goncourt. ...
The term formalist can have many applications: The Chambers 1994 edition Dictionary indicates a pejorative quality, a person having an exaggerated regard to rules or established usages. In the philosophy of mathematics a formalist is a person who belongs to the school of formalism, a certain mathematical-philosophical doctrine which...
Nicole Brossard (born November 27, 1943 in Montreal) is a leading French Canadian formalist poet and novelist. ...
See also: List of French-Canadian writers, Literature of Quebec ...
XVIth and XVIIth centuries During this period, the society of New France was being built with great difficulty. ...
Notable figures Canada only officially became a country on July 1, 1867, so some have argued that what was written there before that time was really the literature of British citizens living away from Britain, French citizens away from France, etc. For example, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill, English sisters who adopted the country as their own, moved to Canada in 1832. They recorded their experiences as pioneers in Parr Traill's The Backwoods of Canada (1836) and Canadian Crusoes (1852), and Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush (1852) and Life in the Clearings (1853). However, both women wrote until their deaths, placing them in the country for more than 50 years and certainly well past Confederation. Moreover, their books often dealt with survival and the rugged Canadian environment -- these themes re-appear in other Canadian works, including Margaret Atwood's Survival. Moodie and Parr Traill's sister, Agnes Strickland, remained in England and wrote elegant royal biographies, creating a stark contrast between Canadian and English literatures. July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ...
1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
Susanna Moodie (born Susanna Strickland) (December 6, 1803 - April 8, 1885) was a British author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada. ...
Catharine Parr Traill (née Strickland) (January 9, 1802 - August 29, 1899) was a British author who wrote about life as a settler in Canada. ...
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Peggy Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a novelist, poet, literary critic, one of the worlds best-selling authors, and a pioneer of Canadian womens writing. ...
Agnes Strickland (1796/1806 - 1874) was an English historical writer. ...
However, one of the earliest "Canadian" writers virtually always included in Canadian literary anthologies is Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865), who died just two years before Canada's official birth. He is remembered for his comic character, Sam Slick, who appeared in The Clockmaker and other humourous works throughout the Haliburton's life. Thomas Chandler Haliburton Thomas Chandler Haliburton (December 17, 1796 - August 27, 1865) was one of the first major Canadian authors. ...
1796 was a leap year starting on Friday. ...
1865 is a common year starting on Sunday. ...
Arguably, the best-internationally-known living Canadian writer (especially after the recent passing of Canadian greats, Robertson Davies and Timothy Findley) is Margaret Atwood, a prolific novelist, poet, and literary critic. This group, along with Alice Munro were the first to elevate Canadian Literature to the world stage. During the post-war decades only a handful of books of any literary merit would be published each year in Canada and Canadian literature was viewed as an appendage to British and American writing. Much of what was produced dealt with extremely typical Canadiana such as the outdoors and animals, or events in Canadian history. Most of what Canadians read was written in the United States or Great Britain. Most of what was studied in Canadian schools and universities was also foreign. Robertson Davies in 1984 Robertson Davies (born August 28, 1913 at Thamesville, Ontario, and died December 2, 1995 at Toronto, Ontario) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. ...
Timothy Findley (October 30, 1930 - June 20, 2002) was a Canadian novelist and playwright, who was one of Canadas most famous writers. ...
Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Peggy Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a novelist, poet, literary critic, one of the worlds best-selling authors, and a pioneer of Canadian womens writing. ...
Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ...
Alice Munro (born Alice Ann Laidlaw on July 10, 1931) is a noted Canadian short story writer. ...
In the 1980s Canadian literature began to be noticed around the world. By the 1990s Canadian literature was viewed as some of the world's best and Canadian authors began to accumulate international awards. In 1992 Michael Ondaatje became the first Canadian to win the Booker Prize for The English Patient. Atwood won the Booker in 2000 for The Blind Assassin and Yann Martel won it in 2002 for The Life of Pi. Alistair Macleod won the 2001 IMPAC Award for No Great Mischief. Carol Shields's The Stone Diaries won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and in 1998 her novel Larry's Party won the Orange Prize. Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ...
1992 is a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Michael Ondaatje (born September 12, 1943) is a Canadian author. ...
The Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded each year for the best novel written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. ...
2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Yann Martel (born June 25, 1963) is a Canadian author. ...
2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award is the largest and most international prize of its kind. ...
Carol Shields (May 16, 1935–July 16, 2003) was an American-born Canadian author. ...
1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. ...
1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...
The Orange Prize for Fiction Launched in 1996 for female writers, the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction is the United Kingdoms largest annual literary award for a single novel. ...
Strange and not-so-strange facts about famous Canadian literary personalities can be found in Brian Busby's A-Z guide of Canadian authors "Character Parts." Listen to an interview with Brian Busby here. (http://www.engagingtheword.net/brianbusby.m3u)
Today Canadians still read much by foreign authors, but many Canadian books have been runaway best sellers.
Awards There are a number of notable Canadian awards for literature: Awards For Children and Young Adult Literature The Books in Canada First Novel Award has a tumultuous history. ...
The Molson Prize for the Arts is awarded by The Canada Council for the Arts. ...
The Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards were a Canadian literary award, given to Canadian plays produced by any professional Canadian theatre company, and having at least ten performances in the Toronto area. ...
The Marian Engel Award is presented each year by the Writers Trust of Canada in memory of the Canadian writer Marian Engel. ...
The Matt Cohen Prize is an award given annually by the Writers Trust of Canada to a Canadian writer, in honour of a distinguished lifetime contribution to Canadian literature. ...
The Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers Trust of Canada to the best non-fiction book on Canadian political and social issues. ...
The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is an annual award presented by the League of Canadian Poets. ...
The Giller Prize is an annual award that goes to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story fiction collection published in English. ...
Since their creation in 1937, the Governor Generals Literary Awards have become one of Canadas most prestigious prizes, awarded in both French and English in seven categories: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Drama, Childrens Literature-Text, Childrens Literature-Illustration, and Translation. ...
The Griffin Poetry Prize is Canadas youngest and most lucrative poetry award. ...
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual award presented by the League of Canadian Poets. ...
The Aurora Awards (Prix Aurora) are given out annually for the best Canadian science-fiction and fantasy literary works from that year, and are awarded in both English and French. ...
Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology upon society and persons as individuals. ...
In literature, fantasy is a form of speculative fiction in which physical laws differ from our own through a reason for which no scientific explanation is offered, or which take place a world wholly different from our own. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
The Prix Athanase-David is a literary award presented annually by the government of Quebec to a Quebec writer, to honour the body of his or her work. ...
The Trillium Award is given annually by the government of the Province of Ontario and is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, childrens books, and poetry. ...
Franco-ontarians (French: Franco-ontarien) are francophone residents of the Canadian province of Ontario. ...
The Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize is a Canadian literary prize presented annually by Rogers Communications and the Writers Trust of Canada. ...
The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour (usually the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Stephen Leacock Award) is an annual award presented to the best work of humorous literature written in English by a Canadian. ...
The Timothy Findley Award is presented each year by the Writers Trust of Canada in memory of the Canadian writer Timothy Findley. ...
The Trillium Award is given annually by the government of the Province of Ontario and is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, childrens books, and poetry. ...
The W.O. Mitchell Literary Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers Trust of Canada to a writer who has produced an outstanding body of work, has acted during his/her career as a caring mentor for writers, and has published a work of fiction or...
Room of Ones Own is a Canadian literary journal founded to showcase the work of established and emerging Canadian women writers. ...
The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young Readers is a Canadian literary award that goes to the best work of historical fiction written for youth each year. ...
Since their creation in 1937, the Governor Generals Literary Awards have become one of Canadas most prestigious prizes, awarded in both French and English in seven categories: Fiction, Non-fiction, Poetry, Drama, Childrens Literature-Text, Childrens Literature-Illustration, and Translation. ...
The Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Awards were a Canadian literary award, given to Canadian plays produced by any professional Canadian theatre company, and having at least ten performances in the Toronto area. ...
The Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction is a lucrative literary award for childrens non-fiction. ...
The Vicky Metcalf Award is awarded to a writer whose body of work has been inspirational to Canadian youth. ...
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