New offers an unconventionally structured overview of Canadian literature, from Native American mythologies to contemporary texts. Publishers Weekly
A History of Canadian Literature looks at the work of writers and the social and cultural contexts that helped shape their preoccupations and direct their choice of literary form. W.H. New explains how - from early records of oral tales to the writing strategies of the early twenty-first century - writer, reader, literature, and society are interrelated. New discusses both Aboriginal and European mythologies, looking at pre-Contact narratives and also at the way Contact experience altered hierarchies of literary value. He then considers representations of the "real," whether in documentary, fantasy, or satire; historical romance and the social construction of Nature and State; and ironic subversions of power, the politics of cultural form, and the relevance of the media to a representation of community standard and individual voice. New suggests some ways in which writers of the later twentieth century codified such issues as history, gender, ethnicity, and literary technique itself. In this second edition, he adds a lengthy chapter that considers how writers at the turn of the twenty-first century have reimagined their society and their roles within it, and an expanded chronology and bibliography. Some of these writers have spoken from and about various social margins (dealing with issues of race, status, ethnicity, and sexuality), some have sought emotional understanding through strategies of history and memory, some have addressed environmental concerns, and some have reconstructed the world by writing across genres and across different media. All genres are represented, with examples chosen primarily, but not exclusively, from anglophone and francophone texts. A chronology, plates, and a series of tables supplement the commentary.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [425]-438) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 809/.811
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 20
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9780773525979 9780773571365
- LCCN
- PR9184.3
- LCCN Item number
- N49 2003eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- DLC
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xiv, 464)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)slc00215098 (OCoLC)243613827 (CaOOCEL)420285
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- DLC
Table of Contents
- Contents 8
- List of plates 10
- List of tables 10
- Acknowledgments 12
- Preface to the second edition 14
- Illustrations 16
- 1 MYTHMAKERS: EARLY LITERATURE 26
- Introduction 26
- Aboriginal cultures 28
- Aboriginal texts 31
- Aboriginal mythology 33
- Inuit culture 38
- Inuit mythology 39
- European myth and cultural context 41
- 2 REPORTERS: LITERATURE TO 1867 48
- Backgrounds 48
- Journalism and cultural politics 57
- Exploration journals 62
- Missionary journals 69
- Travel, captivity and settlement journals 73
- Letters and epistolary form 79
- Satire and speech 83
- Politics and poetry 88
- Romantic documentary 92
- Documentary romance 95
- 3 TALE-TELLERS: LITERATURE TO 1922 102
- Anglo-protestant, ultramontane, prairie 102
- Currents of ideas 108
- Historical tales 113
- Sentimentality, satire and social reform 117
- Social and literary resistance 131
- Nature stories 133
- Confederation Poets 137
- The Nelligan symbol 145
- Sketches of reality 147
- 4 NARRATORS: LITERATURE TO 1959 154
- National romance and the land 154
- Painters and the Montreal Group 160
- Social protest and social change 166
- Realism 172
- The politics of literary form 178
- Literature and war 181
- Voice and point of view 187
- Radio and stage 195
- Public and personal poetry 199
- National presumptions 210
- Sources of change 217
- 5 ENCODERS: LITERATURE TO 1985 226
- Language, literature, the state and the academies 226
- Codes of myth 240
- Codes of history 244
- Codes of figure and person 263
- Codes of gender 272
- Codes of fantasy and folklore 279
- Parodic codes 287
- Epilogue 304
- 6 RECONSTRUCTORS: LITERATURE INTO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 306
- Demography, politics, technology 306
- Changing perceptions 314
- Continuities 319
- Rethinking society 328
- Literature and aboriginality 332
- Laughter and social criticism 338
- From laughter to violence 341
- Recuperative paradigms of identity: ethnicity & sexuality 344
- Living in print and performance 358
- Reconstructing history 370
- The play of storytelling 376
- Chronological table 382
- Further reading 448
- Index 462
- A 462
- B 463
- C 465
- D 467
- E 468
- F 469
- G 470
- H 471
- I 472
- J 472
- K 473
- L 474
- M 475
- N 477
- O 478
- P 479
- Q 480
- R 480
- S 482
- T 484
- U 485
- V 485
- W 486
- Y 487
- Z 487