Canadian Culture, Identity, and Canadian Children’s Literature

Abstract

This paper illuminates Canadian children’s literature in relation to Canadian cultural characteristics. Canadian children’s literature is a cultural product of Canada’s soil, reflecting and shaping the identity of Canadians. In other words, the questions of what Canadian culture is and what Canadian children’s literature is have been the main concerns of Canadians who have attempted to find and build value systems that differentiate themselves from Britain, France and the United States, By the end of the 20th century, regionalism and multiculturalism, in particular, emerged as the core values ​​of Canada. Canadian values ​​that respect the characteristics and diversity of each region and pursue the coexistence of different cultures are found in children’s literature, and such Canadian values ​​are firmly established through multiculturalism. Voices that had been neglected in the traditional discourses began to be expressed. Minorities, including oppressed women, indigenous peoples, and people with disabilities, expressed their positions more actively and created a new cultural landscape by publishing various texts, reflecting the way of thinking and emotions of minorities and their lives.