Canadian literature.

ROLCAM · Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 1:15 pm Post subject: Canadian literature.

Canadian literature reflects the varied background of Canada's people and the diverse geography and regions of the country. During the late 1600's and 1700's, colonists from both France and England established the first permanent European settlements in Canada. Since that time, most Canadian literature has been written in French or English--the nation's two official languages. Canadian literature written in French is called Quebecois literature, after the French-speaking province of Quebec.

Characteristics of Canadian literature

One of the central themes of Canadian writers is the "idea of North." Images of Canada's awe-inspiring northern landscape dominate its literary history. These images appeared as early as the travel narratives of the mid-1500's and continue in Canadian writing today.

The sense of moving east, west, or north and of making human contact in the face of an indifferent nature also shapes Canadian writing. The literature helps link the vast nation of urban centers and small towns. It also sends people from the prairies on voyages of discovery farther west to the Pacific coast.

Like many nations with colonial beginnings, Canada has struggled to create its own identity. This struggle appears in a long tradition of writers who have developed Canadian voices to express the experience of being in Canada. Their books enable Canadians to understand who they are and to interpret themselves to the world. A Canadian voice began to emerge slowly in Canadian literature in the 1800's and blossomed after the end of World War II in 1945. The publication of literature in languages other than English and French and the emergence of First Nations (aboriginal) writers are signs of a growing, distinct Canadian voice.

The notion of Canada as a nation of duality (two parts) also characterizes its literature. Canadians focus on both their central government and their distinctive regions. They have two official languages. In addition, Canadians have conflicting feelings about the United States--a country with which they have much in common, but against which they define themselves. Author Margaret Atwood has said that to live in Canada is to choose a "violent duality." This duality is a constant theme and challenge for Canadian writers.

Beginnings of Canadian literature

The earliest writing in Canada was travel literature--journals, diaries, reports, letters, and autobiographies written by explorers and missionaries. In 1535, the French navigator Jacques Cartier led the first European expedition up the St. Lawrence River. His trip is described in Bref recit de la navigation de Canada (1545). Others who wrote about life in Canada during the 1600's and 1700's include the explorer Samuel de Champlain; Marie de l'Incarnation, who founded the Ursuline religious order in Canada; and the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf.

England and France fought a series of wars between 1689 and 1763. As a result of these conflicts, England took over the French empire in America. After the English conquest, such explorers as Alexander Henry, David Thompson, and Samuel Hearne produced narratives describing the new territory and its peoples. Of special note is Hearne's A Journey from Prince of Wales's Fort, in Hudson's Bay, to the Northern Ocean (1795).

Early Quebecois literature. As a result of the English conquest, French-speaking Canadians concentrated on preserving their unique culture. During the early 1800's, historical works written in French flourished. F.-X. Garneau published his Histoire du Canada from 1845 to 1848. Such historical works gave rise to the popular romances of the mid-1800's known as "novels of the soil." These works celebrate the Quebecois sense of patrie (home) and the traditional religious values of an agricultural society. Notable examples include Les Anciens Canadiens (1863) by Philippe Aubert de Gaspe and Jean Rivard (1862, 1864) by Antoine Gerin-Lajoie.

Early English-Canadian literature, like Quebecois writing, often expressed an optimistic, pioneering attitude toward the new country. Frances Brooke wrote the first Canadian novel, The History of Emily Montague (1769). Oliver Goldsmith--grandnephew of the English writer of the same name--wrote The Rising Village (1825) to celebrate the future of the new British colony. Susanna Moodie, who emigrated from England, eventually came to feel a genuine love and respect for her new home. She described her experiences in her autobiographical work, Roughing It in the Bush (1852). Jonathan Odell and Joseph Stansbury were United Empire Loyalists, American colonists who remained loyal to Britain. Both lived in Canada for a period, and their writings express their rejection of the new United States.

John Richardson and Thomas Chandler Haliburton were among the earliest writers born and raised in Canada. Richardson wrote Wacousta (1832), a popular historical romance. He set the novel in 1763, at the time of an uprising led by the Indian chief Pontiac against the British. Haliburton ridiculed a sly American peddler in his narrative The Clockmaker; or, The Sayings and Doings of Sam Slick of Slickville (1836). This book was the first imaginative representation of Canada's vision of Americans. Haliburton's mix of humor and political satire influenced the work of such later Canadian humorists as Stephen Leacock and Robertson Davies.

Confederation to World War I

The next period of Canadian literature began in the mid-1800's, shortly before the Confederation of Canada. Confederation was the union of British colonies that formed the Dominion of Canada in 1867. This literary period lasted until the end of World War I in 1918.

Poetry: 1850-1918. Even before Confederation, Canadian poetry was flourishing in French and English. About 1855, Octave Cremazie began to publish religious and patriotic verse in Le Journal de Quebec. Together with the poet Alfred Garneau, Cremazie had an important influence on a group of poets that arose during the 1860's. This group--called the School of Quebec--included Leon-Pamphile Lemay and Louis-Honore Frechette. For these poets, the romantic treatment of nature coincided with the expression of patriotic themes.

The first English Canadian to be considered a national poet was Charles Sangster. His poem "The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay" (1856) celebrates the beauty of the Canadian landscape.

By 1888, a group of young poets called the Confederation poets began to publish. They included Duncan Campbell Scott, Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, Archibald Lampman, Bliss Carman, and Wilfred Campbell. These writers described nature and regional scenes using forms and rhythms that showed a growing freedom from European styles. Scott, in particular, became well-known for his poetic narratives about native peoples. Among his best-known poems on this theme is "The Forsaken" (1905). Pauline Johnson was known for her poetry about Indian life. Her father was a Mohawk Indian chief, and her mother was English. Isabella Valancy Crawford gained fame for a single volume of narrative poems published in 1884, including "Malcolm's Katie."

Emile Nelligan's use of romantic images and symbols also profoundly influenced Canadian poetry of this period. Nelligan and the poet Albert Lozeau were part of the School of Montreal, a group that came together about 1895. This group rejected the patriotic verse that was popular in Quebec at the time.

Fiction: 1850-1918. Important novelists of this period included Laure Conan (the pen name of Marie-Louise-Felicite Angers), Quebec's first female novelist. She combined letters, narrative, and diary in Angeline de Montbrun (1881-1882), a psychological examination of disappointed love. Most Quebecois novels of the period, however, glorified rural life and religious values. Typical of these works is La Terre (1916) by Ernest Choquette. More interesting today are such novels as Marie Calumet (1904) by Rodolphe Girard and La Scouine (1918) by Albert Laberge. Both are realistic portrayals of Quebec society.

Most English-Canadian novelists of the period wrote historical romances. Some were historical romances modeled on the fiction of the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott, such as William Kirby's The Golden Dog (1877) and Sir Gilbert Parker's The Seats of the Mighty (1896). Some novelists produced sentimental romances or romances with mysterious or supernatural overtones. James De Mille wrote the philosophical fantasy A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (published in 1888, after his death). Rosanna Leprohon's Antoinette de Mirecourt (1864) and Sara Jeannette Duncan's The Imperialist (1904) describe conflicts faced by characters of different cultural and religious backgrounds.

In the late 1800's and early 1900's, Ralph Connor (the pen name of Charles W. Gordon) and Lucy Maud Montgomery began to publish and quickly gained wide popularity. Connor was the first novelist to write about the Canadian West. In addition, he wrote a series of novels that includes The Man from Glengarry (1901), a vivid portrait of pioneer settlements in Connor's native Ontario. In 1908, Montgomery published Anne of Green Gables, one of the most beloved Canadian novels. The novel earned Montgomery an international reputation.

Other literature of the period includes short stories, travel and nature sketches, and autobiographies by such writers as Isabella Valancy Crawford, Anna Brownell Jameson, and Catharine Parr Traill. Stephen Leacock wrote Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), a humorous work that remains a Canadian classic.

Literature between the world wars

Modern literary styles were slow to come to Canada. Such writers as Connor, Cremazie, and Mazo de la Roche enjoyed wide popularity well into the 1900's with their traditional fiction. De la Roche wrote 16 novels about the Whiteoak family, beginning with Jalna (1927). But new voices were also beginning to be heard.

In Quebec, Louis Hemon expressed the typical romantic view of rural life in Maria Chapdelaine (1914). A more realistic novel, Trente Arpents (1938), written by Ringuet (pen name of Philippe Panneton), criticized the hardships of rural life. The School of Montreal poets continued to be important. In addition, some younger poets produced complex psychological verse that gained influence after the end of World War II. Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Alain Grandbois, and Anne Hebert rank as the most significant of these poets.

Canadian dramatists wrote few works during the period immediately after the war. One limiting factor on playwrights in Quebec was the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church. The church opposed the performance of plays that it considered antifamily or antivirtue. The influence of the church restrained the activity of playwrights and performers. Traveling theater companies from Europe and the United States dominated Canadian stages.

Many English-Canadian writers were influenced by the painters known as the Group of Seven. This group inspired a break from empty traditional forms and themes, especially narrow nationalism and the sentimental treatment of nature. Poets who turned to modern themes were E. J. Pratt, F. R. Scott, A. J. M. Smith, Dorothy Livesay, A. M. Klein, and Earle Birney.

Pratt is best known for his long narrative poems written in traditional verse forms. They include his epic poem, Brebeuf and His Brethren (1940). The other poets produced more experimental works. In 1927, Scott satirized the conservative poetry establishment in "The Canadian Authors Meet." Smith used free verse in his poem "The Lonely Land" (1926). Livesay was a committed socialist. She expressed some of her political views in "Day and Night" (1935), an expressionistic work that celebrates brotherhood. Klein was a learned writer with a knowledge of the cultural traditions of English Canada, French Canada, and Judaism. The Rocking Chair and Other Poems (1948) includes Klein's best poetry. Birney became known for his technically skillful, experimental poetry in such works as David (1942).

Three important novels appeared in the mid-1920's. They were Settlers of the Marsh (1925) by Frederick Philip Grove, Wild Geese (1925) by Martha Ostenso, and Grain (1926) by Robert Stead. These works signaled a trend toward greater realism in Canadian novels.

The most remarkable novel to appear during this period was As for Me and My House (1941) by Sinclair Ross. Using the diary form, Ross provided a complex, subtle, and moving exploration of the human mind.

Drama was represented later in this period by the works of such playwrights as Herman Voaden, Gwen Pharis Ringwood, and Merrill Denison. Voaden became known for the innovative staging of his expressionist theater. Ringwood's more realistic Still Stands the House (1939) explores the alienation of prairie life. Denison's plays include satires and historical romances. The year 1933 marked the beginning of the Dominion Drama Festival and the opening of the Banff School of the Theatre. Together, the festival and the school established a firm base for Canadian theater and playwriting.

Modern literature: 1945 to the present

Since 1945, Quebecois fiction has rapidly expanded into an intense and experimental body of writing. Gabrielle Roy's Bonheur d'occasion (1945) is a celebrated study of life among Montreal's poor French-speaking Canadians. Hubert Aquin wrote perhaps the most powerful and disturbing fiction. His works include Prochain episode (1965), a detective story and political allegory; L'Antiphonaire (1969); and Neige noire (1974), which is cast in the form of a film script. Rejean Ducharme's L'Avalee des avales (1966) describes a young girl's rebellion in a senseless world.

Other important Quebecois fiction includes Marie-Claire Blais's novel about Quebec society, Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel (1965). Roch Carrier's trilogy on Quebec life begins with La Guerre, Yes Sir! (1968). Victor-Levy Beaulieu wrote Monsieur Melville (1978), a three-volume work. Anne Hebert's novels include Kamouraska (1970) and Les Fous de Bassan (1982). She based the novels on actual cases of murder and rape.

Modern English-Canadian fiction generally has been less experimental than Quebecois writing. Hugh MacLennan wrote Two Solitudes (1945), a novel exploring conflicts between the English and French cultures in Canada. He later wrote several historical novels and volumes of essays. The Double Hook (1959) by Sheila Watson ranks as one major exception to the trend toward realism. It is a highly poetic and symbolic treatment of violence and rebirth in an isolated community.

Several major authors wrote well-crafted novels about life in different regions of Canada. Among Ethel Wilson's best-known works is Swamp Angel (1954), which is set in British Columbia. Margaret Laurence wrote The Stone Angel (1964) and The Diviners (1974), part of her cycle of novels set in the fictional town of Manawaka, Man. Robertson Davies set many novels in Ontario towns. He first gained fame for his Deptford trilogy--Fifth Business (1970), The Manticore (1972), and World of Wonders (1975).

A number of the most interesting modern novelists are also poets. They include Margaret Atwood, George Bowering, Robert Kroetsch, and Michael Ondaatje. Such novels as Surfacing (1972) and Cat's Eye (1988) have earned Atwood many awards and an international reputation. Kroetsch wrote The Studhorse Man (1969) and Badlands (1975). Both are boisterous, comical tales about the West. Bowering's fiction, especially Burning Water (1980), is an ironic combination of history and fiction. Ondaatje combined poetry and prose in The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970).

Rudy Wiebe wrote about the disappearance of the American Indian way of life in The Temptations of Big Bear (1973). Joy Kogawa explored the treatment of Japanese Canadians during World War II in Obasan (1981). Masterful short-story writers include Clark Blaise, Timothy Findley, Mavis Gallant, Jack Hodgins, Hugh Hood, Alice Munro, and Audrey Thomas. Significant First Nations authors include fiction writers Beatrice Culleton, Tom King, and Ruby Slipperjack, and playwright Thomson Highway.

Modern Canadian poets have produced much diverse work. Leading poets include Margaret Avison, P. K. Page, and Phyllis Webb. Their handling of language and complex psychological and philosophical themes challenges readers. Al Purdy employs casual, everyday language, which masks his passionate concern for modern society. D. G. Jones, Irving Layton, and Eli Mandel have expanded the boundaries of poetry. The younger generation of Canadian poets includes Atwood, Bowering, Dennis Lee, Gwendolyn MacEwen, and Barrie Phillip Nichol, who wrote as bp Nichol. Nichol published the first two books of his best-known poem, The Martyrology, in 1972. He had expanded the work into six published books at the time of his death in 1988.

In Quebec, the years after World War II marked a new burst of energy associated with poet Gaston Miron and the Hexagone Press. A group called the Hexagone Poets was indebted to such Quebec surrealist painters as Paul-Emile Borduas. Borduas and a group of associates rejected the past in Refus global (1948), a declaration foreshadowing the Quebec nationalist movement.

The 1960's brought the Quiet Revolution, a movement to defend Quebecois rights throughout the country. Some people called for Quebec to separate from the rest of Canada. The movement inspired such Quebec poets as Paul Chamberland, Gerald Godin, and Michele Lalonde to new heights of political protest poetry. By the mid-1970's, such poets as Louky Bersianik, Nicole Brossard, Madeleine Gagnon, and Yolande Villemaire began publishing feminist works. They used humor in attacking attitudes of male superiority. Some of their works combine poetry and fiction with the historical and philosophical essay. An example is Lueur (1979) by Gagnon.

Modern Canadian drama has become a vital and varied form of expression since the mid-1900's. Michel Tremblay is the leading Quebecois playwright. Some of his plays have been produced in English worldwide. They include two plays about life in poor sections of Montreal, Les Belles-soeurs (1968) and A toi pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou (1973). Other notable Quebecois playwrights include Robert Gurik and Robert Lepage. Gurik has produced important experimental plays on political themes. Lepage gained international recognition for such multimedia plays as The Dragons' Trilogy (1986), Polygraph (1988), and Needles and Opium (1992).

In 1967, two significant English-Canadian plays were produced in English--John Herbert's Fortune and Men's Eyes and George Ryga's The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Both are violent but deeply moving plays about society's misfits and outsiders--reformatory inmates in Herbert's play and Indians in Vancouver in Ryga's drama. The Canadian poet James Reaney began writing lyrical and symbolic dramas in the 1960's.

During the 1970's, an experimental theater group called Theatre Passe Muraille worked in Toronto. It was representative of the large number of companies devoted to performing Canadian plays. Some companies performed collective creations, plays developed by a group of actors, along with a director and, sometimes, a playwright. The best-known collective creations include The Farm Show (1976), Paper Wheat (1978), and Rick Salutin's lively treatment of Canadian history, 1837: The Farmers' Revolt (1976).

Among the best-known current Canadian playwrights are David French and Sharon Pollock. French's best-known works include powerful, realistic plays about uprooted Newfoundland families. Pollock's works include complex dramas about feminism and family life. Other modern playwrights of note are Michael Cook, John Gray, Erika Ritter, and George Walker.
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Roland Camilleri

Moderator

Sydney , Australia.