Canadian Literature & Poetry
in English
Fiction
History of Canadian Literature
The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature
A complete English-language history of Canadian writing in
English and French from its beginnings, with an emphasis on literary, poetic, and dramatic
works published since the 1960s.
Analyzes the emergence of multicultural and Indigenous
writing, popular literature, nature-writing, life-writing, and the interaction of anglophone
and francophone cultures throughout Canadian history.
Creative Writing in Canada: A Short History of English-Canadian
Literature
A classic scholarly book on the history of Canadian literatire
and poetry, analyzing their development from the Colonial period through to 1950. Chapters 4,
5, 7 deal with modern Canadian fiction, and Chapter 8 discusses, in particular, the literature
of the 1950s.
Stephen Leacock and Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town
are analyzed in depth in Chapter 4; Robertson Davies, Mordecai Richler and Brian Moore in
Chapter 8.
There is a bibliography at the end of the volume of books and
articles about Canadian literature.
PR 9184.3 .P3
1961
Reference
Arrival: The Story of CanLit
In the mid-twentieth century, Canadian literature developed as
a cultural phenomenon that produced Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai
Richler, and many others.
Arrival examines the origins of the catalyst across
the many provinces and regions of the country, analyzing local developments, literary scenes,
and the role of the publishers, libraries, and booksellers in supporting the development of
Canadian prose and poetry in the mid-century.
PR 9189.6 .M68
2017
Stacks
Canadian Literature
Critical study of Canadian literature, placing internationally
successful Canadian authors in the context of their national literary history.
While the focus of the book is on twentieth-century and
contemporary writing, it also charts the historical development of Canadian literature and
discusses important eighteenth- and nineteenth-century authors.
The chapters focus on four central topics in Canadian culture:
colonization, race, ethnicity; wildernesses, cities, regions; desire; and histories and
stories. Authors chosen for close analysis include Thomas King, Margaret Atwood, Michael
Ondaatje, Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen, and Carol Shields.
PR 9189.6 .H36
2007
Stacks
When Canadian Literature Moved to New York
An anthology of critical articles from the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, reflecting the major issues in the search for a distinctive literature in
Canada.
Canadian Authors: Can-Core Academic Video
A collection of interviews, documentaries, readings and
performancess by Canadian authors (including Mordecai Richler, Christian Bök, George Elliott
Clarke, and many others).
Under Keyword Search, enter “Authors,
Canadian” to see the list of the titles.
Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis
Traces the history of Montreal as the literary centre of Quebec
and Toronto as the literary centre of English Canada.
PR 9189.6 .L45
2010
Stacks
Five-Part Invention: A History of Literary History in Canada
Composed of five parts: immigrant communities, English Canada,
French Canada, First-Nations communities, and Inuit communities.
Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English
A comprehensive reference work on the English literary history
of Canada in four volumes. Includes a bibliography.
PR 9184.3 .L5 1976
Reference
History of Canadian Literature
A comprehensive survey beginning with the myths of the New
World, describing the background against which to read the emerging English and French
language literatures of Canada and progressing through to the present-day writers
Takes into account historical events such as Confederation, the
Canada First Movement, and two World Wars, as well as the main critical movements of each
period.
Between Europe and America: The Canadian Tradition in Fiction
Illustrates the difficulties early Canadian writers encountered
in trying to adapt the European literary tradition to a New World social environment. Traces
how they eventually created identifiably North American characters and settings.
PR 9190.5 .M29
1988
Stacks
Novels and the Nation: Essays in Canadian Literature
Essays that discuss the evolution of Canadian identity and
nationhood as reflected, predominantly, in the English fiction of this country.
Explores the writings of the first British expatriates; the
colonial, empire-conscious writers of the nineteenth century; the strong, nationalistic
literary consciousness of the mid-twentieth century and,
finally, the contemporary writers of a multicultural country continually transforming itself.
PR 9192.2 .B57
1995
Stacks
Beyond the Provinces: Literary Canada at Century’s End
The published edition of David Staines’s F.E.L. Priestly
Lectures in the History of Ideas at University College, University of Toronto, 1994.
The chapters trace Canada’s literary “coming of age” as it moves away from a colonialist mentality to a distinctive, literary “selfhood.”
reviewed & updated 4 June 2021 | compiled by Agatha Barc, MI