The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature

The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature
Author: Cynthia Conchita Sugars
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 993
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199941866

The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature provides a broad-ranging introduction to some of the key critical fields, genres, and periods in Canadian literary studies. The essays in this volume, written by prominent theorists in the field, reflect the plurality of critical perspectives, regional and historical specializations, and theoretical positions that constitute the field of Canadian literary criticism across a range of genres and historical periods. The volume provides a dynamic introduction to current areas of critical interest, including (1) attention to the links between the literary and the public sphere, encompassing such topics as neoliberalism, trauma and memory, citizenship, material culture, literary prizes, disability studies, literature and history, digital cultures, globalization studies, and environmentalism or ecocriticism; (2) interest in Indigenous literatures and settler-Indigenous relations; (3) attention to multiple diasporic and postcolonial contexts within Canada; (4) interest in the institutionalization of Canadian literature as a discipline; (5) a turn towards book history and literary history, with a renewed interest in early Canadian literature; (6) a growing interest in articulating the affective character of the "literary" - including an interest in affect theory, mourning, melancholy, haunting, memory, and autobiography. The book represents a diverse array of interests -- from the revival of early Canadian writing, to the continued interest in Indigenous, regional, and diasporic traditions, to more recent discussions of globalization, market forces, and neoliberalism. It includes a distinct section dedicated to Indigenous literatures and traditions, as well as a section that reflects on the discipline of Canadian literature as a whole.

Anthologizing Canadian Literature

Anthologizing Canadian Literature
Author: Robert Lecker
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2015-11-02
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1771121106

The first collection of critical essays devoted to the study of English-Canadian literary anthologies brings together the work of thirteen prominent critics to investigate anthology formation in Canada and answer these key questions: Why are there so many literary anthologies in Canada, and how can we trace their history? What role have anthologies played in the formation of Canadian literary taste? How have anthologies influenced the training of students from generation to generation? What literary values do the editors of various anthologies tend to support, and how do these values affect canon formation in Canada? How have different genres fared in the creation of literary anthologies? How do Canadian anthologies transmit ideas about gender, region, ideology, and nation? Specific essays focus on anthologies as national metaphors, the controversies surrounding early literary collections, representations of First Nations peoples in anthologies, and the ways in which various editors have understood exploration narratives. In addition, the collection examines the representation of women in Canadian anthologies, the use of anthologies as teaching tools, and the creation of some very odd Canadian anthologies along the way.

The Perilous Trade

The Perilous Trade
Author: Roy Macskimming
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Total Pages: 514
Release: 2012-01-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1551992612

A book that will fascinate and inform readers who love Canadian writing Part cultural history, part personal memoir, this accomplished, sweeping, yet intimate book demonstrates that the story of Canadian publishing is one of the cornerstones of our literary history. In The Perilous Trade, former publisher, literary journalist, and industry insider Roy MacSkimming chronicles the extraordinary journey of English-language publishing from the Second World War to the present. During a period of unparalleled transformation, Canada grew from a cultural colony fed on the literary offerings of London and New York to a mature nation whose writers are celebrated around the world. Crucial to that evolution were three generations of book publishers–mavericks, gamblers, entrepreneurs, political activists, and true believers–sharing a conviction that Canadians need books of their own. Canadian publishing has long made headlines—be it Jack McClelland’ s outrageous publicity stunts, American takeovers, the collapse of venerable imprints, or bold political moves to ensure the industry’s survival. Roy MacSkimming takes us behind the headlines to draw memorable portraits of the men and women who built Canada’s literary renaissance. With a novelist’s eye for character and incident, he weaves their tangled relationships with authors, agents, booksellers and each other into a lively narrative rich in anecdote and revealing personal recollection. Canadian publishers large and small have nurtured a literature of extraordinary diversity and breadth, MacSkimming argues, giving us English Canada’s greatest cultural achievement.

Material Cultures in Canada

Material Cultures in Canada
Author: Thomas Allen
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2015-06-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1771120169

Material Cultures in Canada presents the vibrant and diverse field of material culture studies in Canadian literary, artistic, and political contexts today. The first of its kind, this collection features sixteen essays by leading scholars in Canada, each of whom examines a different object of study, including the beaver, geraniums, comics, water, a musical playlist, and the human body. The book’s three sections focus, in turn, on objects that are persistently material, on things whose materiality blends into the immaterial, and on the materials of spaces. Contributors highlight some of the most exciting new developments in the field, such as the emergence of “new materialism,” affect theory, globalization studies, and environmental criticism. Although the book has a Canadian centre, the majority of its contributors consider objects that cross borders or otherwise resist national affiliation. This collection will be valuable to readers within and outside of Canada who are interested in material culture studies and, in addition, will appeal to anyone interested in the central debates taking place in Canadian political and cultural life today, such as climate change, citizenship, shifts in urban and small-town life, and the persistence of imperialism.

The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies

The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies
Author: Wilfried Raussert
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317290658

An essential overview of this blossoming field, The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies is the first collection to draw together the diverse approaches and perspectives on the field, highlighting the importance of Inter-American Studies as it is practiced today. Including contributions from canonical figures in the field as well as a younger generation of scholars, reflecting the foundation and emergence of the field and establishing links between older and newer methodologies, this Companion covers: Theoretical reflections Colonial and historical perspectives Cultural and political intersections Border discourses Sites and mobilities Literary and linguistic perspectives Area studies, global studies, and postnational studies Phenomena of transfer, interconnectedness, power asymmetry, and transversality within the Americas.

New Canadian Library

New Canadian Library
Author: Janet Beverly Friskney
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0802097464

In the mid-1950s, much Canadian literature was out of print, making it relatively inaccessible to readers, including those studying the subject in schools and universities. When English professor Malcolm Ross approached Toronto publisher Jack McClelland in 1952 to propose a Canadian literary reprint series, it was still the accepted wisdom among publishers that Canadian literature was of insufficient interest to the educational market to merit any great publishing risks. Eventually convinced by Ross that a latent market for Canadian literary reprints did indeed exist, McClelland & Stewart launched the New Canadian Library (NCL) series in 1958, with Ross as its general editor. In 2008, the NCL will celebrate a half-century of publication. In New Canadian Library, Janet B. Friskney takes the reader through the early history of the NCL series, focusing on the period up to 1978 when Malcolm Ross retired as general editor. A wealth of archival resources, published reviews, and the NCL volumes themselves are used to survey the working relationship between Ross and McClelland, as well as the collaborative participation of those who, through the middle decades of the twentieth century, were committed to studying and nurturing Canada's literary heritage. To place the New Canadian Library in its proper historical context, Friskney examines the simultaneous development of Canadian literary studies as a legitimate area of research and teaching in academe and acknowledges the NCL as a milestone in Canadian publishing history.

Shifting the Ground of Canadian Literary Studies

Shifting the Ground of Canadian Literary Studies
Author: Smaro Kamboureli
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2013-02-26
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1554583969

Shifting the Ground of Canadian Literary Studies is a collection of interdisciplinary essays that examine the various contexts—political, social, and cultural—that have shaped the study of Canadian literature and the role it plays in our understanding of the Canadian nation-state. The essays are tied together as instances of critical practices that reveal the relations and exchanges that take place between the categories of the literary and the nation, as well as between the disciplinary sites of critical discourses and the porous boundaries of their methods. They are concerned with the material effects of the imperial and colonial logics that have fashioned Canada, as well as with the paradoxes, ironies, and contortions that abound in the general perception that Canada has progressed beyond its colonial construction. Smaro Kamboureli’s introduction demonstrates that these essays engage with the larger realm of human and social practices—throne speeches, book clubs, policies of accommodation of cultural and religious differences, Indigenous thought about justice and ethics—to show that literary and critical work is inextricably related to the Canadian polity in light of transnational and global forces.