The literary history of a nation is one of the main cornerstones of its national identity. As a result of Canada's diverse cultural history, however, its literary history is varied and, as E.D. Blodgett contends, is composed of five parts that work to create the whole. These parts include English Canada, French Canada, First Nations communities, Inuit communities, and immigrant communities. Using the critical writing on constructing nationhood, E.D. Blodgett suggests that Canadian literary histories can be used to address the problem of nation and to examine how each of the several 'national' groups that compose Canada develops unique narratives that demonstrate their different responses to the notion of nationhood and their sense of place within Canada's borders.
The first such history of its kind in Canada, Five-Part Invention offers a means of reading ethnic difference through cultural representations: the concentration on place and spatial configuration in English Canadian literature; the focus on time and history in French Canadian literature; the cultural trauma of the First Nations and Inuit literature; and the losses and ambiguous recoveries of ethnic minority writing. Blodgett concludes by addressing the roots of Canada's fragmented literary history and speculates on the reasons that this tradition continues today. Original, intelligent, and provocative, Five-Part Invention brings an entirely new perspective to the notion of literary history and will greatly influence the study of Canadian literature in the future.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 810.9
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9781442674950 0802048013
- LCCN
- PR9185.2
- LCCN Item number
- B62 2002eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (371 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00600687 (OCoLC)649664114 (CaOOCEL)418630
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgments 10
- Introduction 14
- 1 Writing Borders, 1874–1920 34
- 2 The Nation as Discourse, 1924–1946 65
- 3 The Search for Agency, 1948–1965 105
- 4 Notre Maitre le Passé, 1967–1969 138
- 5 Literary History as Heilsgeschichte, 1973–1983 162
- 6 Autonomy, Literature, and the National, 1991– 192
- 7 The Question of Alterity: Histories of Their Own, 1968–1993 218
- 8 Canada as Alterity: The View from Europe, 1895–1961 250
- 9 Canada by Canadians for Europeans, 1974–1989 274
- Afterthoughts, Models, Possibilities 301
- Notes 316
- Bibliography 354
- Index 370
- A 370
- B 370
- C 371
- D 372
- E 373
- F 373
- G 373
- H 374
- I 375
- J 375
- K 375
- L 376
- M 377
- N 378
- O 378
- P 379
- Q 379
- R 379
- S 380
- T 381
- V 381
- W 382
- Y 382
- Z 382
