photo of stacks (lower floor)

Canadian Literature & Poetry
in English

Fiction

History of Canadian Literature

The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature Howells, Coral Ann and Eva-Marie Kröller, editors 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 Pacey, Desmond 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 Mount, Nick 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.
Canadian Literature Hammill, Faye 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.
When Canadian Literature Moved to New York Mount, Nick 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 Leith, Linda Traces the history of Montreal as the literary centre of Quebec and Toronto as the literary centre of English Canada.
Five-Part Invention: A History of Literary History in Canada Blodgett, E.D. Composed of five parts: immigrant communities, English Canada, French Canada, First-Nations communities, and Inuit communities.
Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English Klinck, Carl F. et al., editors 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 New, W.H. 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 MacLulich, T.D. 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.
Novels and the Nation: Essays in Canadian Literature Birbalsingh, Frank 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.
Beyond the Provinces: Literary Canada at Century’s End Staines, David 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