Canadian Literature - I've never been!

[Mr. Skeleton]

But I ever would love to go.

I want to start on a few Canadian authors, as many as half a dozen, and I want to select them at the recommendation of constant readers. I'd go to a strictly 'Can-lit' forum, but I want the opinions I hear to be from a group of a broad perspective, outside of the loop that might adopt trends existing in themselves out of some backyard necessity. Us Canadians, with our garrison mentality, might relate too much to characters that don't share some universal quality that should be inherit, I think, in all great work.

Suggestions? Much appreciated.

[JBI]

You quote Frye, so you must know something; And is that last little bit perhaps a suggestion of an allusion to Hutcheon's Canadian Post Modern?

Is this to be limited to just anglophones, or should we stick the francophones in too, and also the other minority language others?

[Annamariah]

Lucy Maud Montgomery is one of my favourite authors :nod:

[dfloyd]

Margaret Atwood. I'll take notes. Maybe I'll learn something about out northern neighbors.

I did read many of the Renfrew of the Mounties books as a child. I assumed the author was a Canadian.

[cynara]

How about Robertson Davis, I loved Fifth Business

[haprdgn]

What do guys you think would be Canada's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "Moby Dick?"

In other words, the piece of fiction that basically sums the romantic ideals of the country's culture.

[JBI]

What do guys you think would be Canada's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" or "Moby Dick?"

In other words, the piece of fiction that basically sums the romantic ideals of the country's culture.

No text really speaks for all Canada, and the epic isn't as defined as it is in America - there is no real "Great Canadian novel", and Canadian writers would laugh at you if you suggested anything of the sort, given that goes against the fundamental ideas of Canadian literature.

Still, in terms of Huck Finn, I think the closest would be Anne of Green Gables, but still, there isn't that "definitive classic" status in the sense of the way people see Huck Finn as "The Huckleberry Finn".


As for great Canadian novel, that's even harder. Canadian literature is both regional and political - it is very concerned with the concept of cultural identity, and as such, a single, dominant voice can't really be singled out.

Still, I'd put for Quebec Prochain Episode (newly retranslated as Next Episode), and, for me, The Double Hook in English, though, that's hardly an epic, I personally think it is a very fun and brilliant book. Perhaps The Diviners, or The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence would be another good choice, and that essential text of Frye's Conclusion To the Literary History of Canada published in the 70s, which is perhaps the most important thing written in the study of Canadian literature.

Still, as a dominant form, I think the short story here is more powerful, as is lyric poetry (though the long poem, and the anthology as form seem to have quite a strong tradition as well). Particularly in literature written by women you see a lot of very good short stories - in truth, arguably the best prose written in English in Canada.

Drama to me as well seems more dominant a genre than novels, but that is perhaps an idiosyncrasy.

[Etienne]

Hello, long time I haven't been here. For French Canadian literature, as JBI said, Next Episode by Hubert Aquin is as close as can be to "the national work" for Quebec. Although JBI was right (as he often is) that there is no "Great Canadian Novel" (or Great Quebec Novel, although Next Episode was more than once hailed as such). Other works you might look for in French Canadian literature would be Menaud, Maître draveur (Boss of the river as it's supposed to be translated... sigh) by Félix-Antoine Savard, which is a classic.
There is also the Tales by Jacques Ferron (no idea if it has been translated). He was notably the founder of the rhinoceros party, a Marxist-Lennonist party (as in Groucho Marx and John Lennon) which was active as a political satire over a few decades. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Party_of_Canada.
Then there is Anne Hebert, which is also a must. You might read Kamouraska or In the Shadow of the Wind (Les Fous de Bassan), which are her best know works. If you want more you might just ask, there are quite a few more which are worth mentioning (and reading).

[JBI]

Lets not forget Michel Tremblay, especially his play Les Belles-Soeurs.

[Etienne]

Lets not forget Michel Tremblay, especially his play La Belles-Soeurs.

:brickwall Indeed, indeed. Is it this one which has been translated in "scottish english"?

[JBI]

:brickwall Indeed, indeed. Is it this one which has been translated in "scottish english"?

Dunno, I read it in the original, though I think it has been translated many times. Scottish English would make sense though, given the dialect that the woman speak.

[African_Love]

The only Canadian literature I can think of (that I know is by a Canadian author) is the Hominids/Humans/Hybrids trilogy by Robert J. Sawyer. He irritated me at times but overall, I would recommend it.

It's about this woman who falls in love with a Neanderthal man from a parallel universe where Homo sapiens went extinct and neanderthals became the dominant species.