Recovering Canada's First Novelist

Recovering Canada's First Novelist PDF Author: Catherine Sheldrick Ross
Publisher: The Porcupine's Quill
ISBN: 9780889840676
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 108

Book Description
`An introduction, six papers from the conference at the University of Western Ontario and a brief biographical note constitute the first ``full scale scholarly examination'' of Canada's earliest novelist. But neither the editor nor her team of biographer, textual critic, literary historian and literary critics are under any delusions; to reconstruct the life, work and reputation of the mercurial Major John Richardson after one hundred years of comparative neglect is not the work of a single moment, nor of a single conference. One ought perhaps to leave unasked the question if there is any other nation's literary primogenitor who, with a few notable exceptions, has been so poorly served by the literary and academic community; particularly when, as Michael Hurley argues, so many of Richardson's obsessions are equally those of contemporary Canadian writing. `This short collection makes an impressive start on that grand task of refurbishment; especially since it, wisely, clears some of the rank vegetation which has encroached on Richardson during the years of neglect. Carl Klinck, David Beasley and Douglas Cronk open the discussion by usefully telling us what is not helpful to think about: Morton (in Wacousta) was not modelled on John Norton, the champion of Indian rights; the biography reveals a more urbane and likeable man than legend reports; and one must handle the received texts with considerable care until a more careful editor has rendered what Richardson actually wrote and not what American publishers pirated. Until a more reputable text emerges it is difficult for literary critics to go to work, but I.S. MacLaren, Jay Macpherson and Michael Hurley each attempt to place Richardson within the mainstream of the Anglo-American Gothic tradition. -- David Richards, British Journal of Canadian Studies

Canadian Brothers or the Prophecy Fulfilled

Canadian Brothers or the Prophecy Fulfilled PDF Author: John Richardson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773573771
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 625

Book Description
Major John Richardson (1796-1852) was a prolific and popular Canadian author. The Canadian Brothers, first published in 1840 in Montreal, is set on the northwest frontier during the War of 1812 and features such historical personages as Sir Isaac Brock, Captain Robert Heriot Barclay, and the famous Indian chief Tecumseh. The sequel to Wacousta (1832), The Canadian Brothers is not only a suitably horrific completion to the story of vengeance and hate begun in Richardson's earlier novel. It is also, and most importantly, a fictionalized narrative of events, people, and places from Richardson's own childhood and adolescence in Amherstburg, Upper Canada, that both reveals the psychology of its author and reflects seminal mythologies about Ontario and Canada.

Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-First-Century Irish Novel

Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-First-Century Irish Novel PDF Author: Kathleen Costello-Sullivan
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 0815654332
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
The desire to engage and confront traumatic subjects was a facet of Irish literature for much of the twentieth century. Yet, just as Irish society has adopted a more direct and open approach to the past, so too have Irish authors evolved in their response to, and literary uses of, trauma. In Trauma and Recovery in the Twenty-First-Century Irish Novel, Costello-Sullivan considers the ways in which the Irish canon not only represents an ongoing awareness of trauma as a literary and cultural force, but also how this representation has shifted since the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. While earlier trauma narratives center predominantly on the role of silence and the individual and/or societal suffering that traumas induce, twenty-first-century Irish narratives increasingly turn from just the recognition of traumatic experiences toward exploring and representing the process of healing and recovery both structurally and narratively. Through a series of keenly observed close readings, Costello-Sullivan explores the work of Colm Tóibín, John Banville, Anne Enright, Emma Donohue, Colum McCann, and Sebastian Barry. In highlighting the power of narrative to amend and address memory and trauma, Costello-Sullivan argues that these works reflect a movement beyond merely representing trauma toward also representing the possibility of recovery from it.

Canada - An American Nation?

Canada - An American Nation? PDF Author: Allan Smith
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773564985
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 405

Book Description
Are Canadians so influenced by the United States that they lack a distinct identity? This question has preoccupied Canadians and Canadianists for years. Canada - An American Nation? is a compilation of Allan Smith's essays on the influence of American society on Canadian identity. Based on the notion that Canada can best be understood if viewed in relation to the United States, the book explores the ways in which American influences have challenged Canada's cultural independence and asks whether Canada has maintained its own identity.

Wacousta or, The Prophecy

Wacousta or, The Prophecy PDF Author: John Richardson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773573445
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 649

Book Description
Set on the northwest frontier during the Pontiac conspiracy of the 1760s, this story of false identity, wasted love, diabolic vengeance and unquenchable hatred articulates themes and mythologies relevant to French, British, Canadian and American history.

The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature PDF Author: Eva-Marie Kröller
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521891318
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
This book offers a comprehensive and engaging introduction to major writers, genres and topics in Canadian literature. Contributors pay attention to the social, political and economic developments that have informed literary events. Broad surveys of fiction, drama, and poetry are complemented by chapters on Aboriginal writing, francophone writing, autobiography, literary criticism, writing by women, and the emergence of urban writing in a country traditionally defined by its regions. Also discussed are genres that have a special place in Canadian literature, such as nature-writing, exploration- and travel-writing, and short fiction.

Listening to Old Woman Speak

Listening to Old Woman Speak PDF Author: Laura Smyth Groening
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 0773572228
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Groening argues that what Frantz Fanon terms the "manichean allegory" has shaped European understanding of the New World to such an extent that the image patterns fundamental to the allegory continue to dominate depictions of Native characters. Although a world separated into two categories defined by light and dark, reason and emotion, mind and body, technology and nature, future and past is no longer also characterized as good and evil, revaluing the tropes has not made them disappear. And without their disappearance, good intentions notwithstanding, nonaboriginal Canadian writers will continue to portray Native characters as part of a dead and dying culture. Groening demonstrates that the real issue cannot be about censorship as censorship involves the abrogation of freedom, and the imagination is never truly free.

Is Canada Postcolonial?

Is Canada Postcolonial? PDF Author: Laura Moss
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554587565
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
How can postcolonialism be applied to Canadian literature? In all that has been written about postcolonialism, surprisingly little has specifically addressed the position of Canada, Canadian literature, or Canadian culture. Postcolonialism is a theory that has gained credence throughout the world; it is be productive to ask if and how we, as Canadians, participate in postcolonial debates. It is also vital to examine the ways in which Canada and Canadian culture fit into global discussions as our culture reflects how we interact with our neighbours, allies, and adversaries. This collection wrestles with the problems of situating Canadian literature in the ongoing debates about culture, identity, and globalization, and of applying the slippery term of postcolonialism to Canadian literature. The topics range in focus from discussions of specific literary works to general theoretical contemplations. The twenty-three articles in this collection grapple with the recurrent issues of postcolonialism — including hybridity, collaboration, marginality, power, resistance, and historical revisionism — from the vantage point of those working within Canada as writers and critics. While some seek to confirm the legitimacy of including Canadian literature in the discussions of postcolonialism, others challenge this very notion.

Rapt in Plaid

Rapt in Plaid PDF Author: Elizabeth Waterston
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802086853
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 362

Book Description
Illustrate a long-lasting connection between Scottish and Canadian literary traditions and illuminates the way Scottish ideas and values still wield surprising power in Canadian politics, education, theology, economics and social mores.

Lines Drawn upon the Water

Lines Drawn upon the Water PDF Author: Karl S. Hele
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
ISBN: 1554580978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
The First Nations who have lived in the Great Lakes watershed have been strongly influenced by the imposition of colonial and national boundaries there. The essays in Lines Drawn upon the Water examine the impact of the Canadian—American border on communities, with reference to national efforts to enforce the boundary and the determination of local groups to pursue their interests and define themselves. Although both governments regard the border as clearly defined, local communities continue to contest the artificial divisions imposed by the international boundary and define spatial and human relationships in the borderlands in their own terms. The debate is often cast in terms of Canada’s failure to recognize the 1794 Jay Treaty’s confirmation of Native rights to transport goods into Canada, but ultimately the issue concerns the larger struggle of First Nations to force recognition of their people’s rights to move freely across the border in search of economic and social independence.