English-Canadian Literature Research Articles

Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English

This new volume of the Literary History of Canada covers the continuing development of English-Canadian writing from 1972 to 1984. As with the three earlier volumes, this book is an invaluable guide to recent developments in English-Canadian literature and a resource for both the general reader and the specialist researcher. The contributors to this volume are Laurie Ricou, David Jackel, Linda Hutcheon, Philip Stratford, Barry Cameron, Balachandra Rajan, Robert Fothergill, Brian Parker, Cynthia Zimmerman, Frances Frazer, Edith Fowke, Bruce G. Trigger, Alan C. Cairns, Douglas Williams, Carl Berger, Shirley Neuman, Raymond S. Corteen, and Francess G. Halpenny.

English-Canadian Literature to 1900: A Guide to Information Sources

English-Canadian Literature to 1900: A Guide to Information Sources

A Concise Bibliography of English-Canadian Literature by Michael Gnarowski, and: On the Road Again by David McFadden, and: Ragged Horizons by Peter Trower

A Concise Bibliography of English-Canadian Literature by Michael Gnarowski, and: On the Road Again by David McFadden, and: Ragged Horizons by Peter Trower

The First Day of Spring: Stories and Other Prose by Raymond Knister

505 ally it is Samuel who kills the last survivor when Saul does not have the stomach for it. There are many other points from this introduction that I would have liked to mention more fully. Djwa's examples of Heavysege's editing of Count Filippo are especially interesting, as are her comments on how the vigour of Heavysege's tone sets him apart from other romantic writers of his time, such as Sangster and Mair. She also takes issue with Frye's reading of jephthah's Daughter, on which he rests part of his thesis that Canadians saw the land as hostile and savage. This, as well as the Atwood thesis that follows from it, has been tremendously influential, and although it may contain some truth for twentieth-century literature, it has little validity for French- or EnglishCanadian literature in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. Clearly we need more texts like this Heavysege volume, so that readers can examine for them­ selves the many generalizations that have been made about our literature. ro n ald b . hatch / University of British Columbia Raymond Knister The First Day of Spring: Stories and Other Prose, Selected and edited by Peter Stevens (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1976). xxx, 469. $22.50 cloth, $7.95 paper In his introduction to the New Canadian Library edition of White Narcissus, Philip Child states that "in his writing, whether verse or prose, Knister's originality lies in bringing to life in his pages an atmosphere in which realism, that paints sharply and clearly the Ontario landscape or the subjects of farm life, is combined with realism's own kind of poetry," and that this combination constitutes "a new note in Canadian fiction." Some years later, in a review of Michael Gnarowski's edition of Knister's stories, Dorothy Livesay argues in much the same vein, applying the term "magic realism" to his fiction, and proposes that "whereas Knister sought for a simple realistic effect he possessed, in addition, an intensity and sensitivity by which he was able to make the ordinary extraordinary." And now, in his introduction to this present collec­ tion, Peter Stevens assumes a similar position, proclaiming that "Knister has never been given the recognition that he deserves as one of the first truly modern writers in Canadian literature" (p xiii). All three of these critics thus imply that Knister as an artist in the modern tradition stood apart from his contemporaries in terms of what he did with the subject matter arid methodol­ ogy of realism, a proposition which clearly gains credence when his works are measured against the literal and unimaginative realism of a number of writers of the 1920s who for various reasons have earned a higher reputation than Knister - Stead, McClung, Grove, and Callaghan. 5o6 The views that these recent critics hold were in large part shared by a small number of Knister's own contemporaries, and one must therefore attribute his relative obscurity since then to the quantity, and not the quality, of his work. Writing in The Canadian Forum at what must have been about the precise time that Knister met his untimely death, Leo Kennedy berated those Canadian critics who maintained that Canadian literature had nothing new or experimen­ tal to offer, and suggested "to those despairing of a Canadian literary renais­ sance that the published writings of Raymond Knister be duly thumbed and well considered, for the reason that they contain matter of considerable moment to us today." Frederic Philip Grove, too, though he quibbled about the conclusion of White Narcissus, expressed constrained respect for Knister's work, though characteristically he was never one to praise extravagantly any of his contem­ poraries who posed a threat to his own stature as a novelist. Nevertheless, he was instrumental in choosing Knister's second novel, My Star Predominant, as the winning entry in Graphic Publishers' literary competition of 1930. I give this general background to Knister's reputation because in my own case I have always relegated him to the edges of Canadian literature, shouldered aside, as it were, by his more prolific contemporaries. My opinion and, I suspect, that of most readers, derived from knowing...

Garden in the Wind by Gabrielle Roy

Reviews 189 One wonders if these two seemingly disparate journeys are substantive enough to fashion a readable and cohesive book. True, both are written by Xantus but his fame as a great natural observer is not served by these accounts. He is often given to exaggeration and sarcasm as in his description of the landowners of Baja California who are, as he sees them, wholly given over to lounging about in hammocks while sipping cocoa and smoking cigars. More often than not, the narrative falters under the weight of the minutia of the logistics of travel. Knowing of Xantus’ great contribution to natural history, we, as readers, long for detailed descriptions of the wildlife and the flora. These are only occasionally forthcoming as Xantus, aware that he is writing for the layman, is more concerned with campfire tales about grizzlies and jaguars and horses that can gallop a hundred miles without rest. The structure of the book is disturbing as well, as it is equally weighted down with footnotes, a list of maps and illustrations, acknowledgements, an introduction, a superfluous note by John Hunfalvy at the end of the book about Aztec ruins that runs to six pages, a plea to Hungarian Scientific Institutions, an editor’s postscript, notes, a bibliography, and an index. All of this for so slim a volume when Xantus himself only required a foreword. There is no doubt that Xantus did much for the sciences of ornithology, botany and zoology. The fact that numerous birds in America are named after him attests to only a small part of his contribution. His drawings, some of which appear in this book, are charming and worthy of study in them­ selves. But he is not the man to tell his own story. How much better the memory and service of Janos Xantus might be served if a first rate biog­ raphy, similar to those written of Audubon, Bartram and Humboldt, could be made available. ALAN KISHBAUGH, Los Angeles Garden in the Wind. By Gabrielle Roy, trans. Alan Brown. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977. 175 pages, cloth, $10.00.) Translations of several earlier volumes, notably Where Nests the Water Hen, Street of Riches, and The Road Past Altamont, have established Gabrielle Roy among English-speaking readers as a major writer of the West. Garden in the Wind will add nothing to that reputation. It is a collection of four tales — they lack the economy and compression we expect of a modern short story— set in various places across the prairies and presumably designed to evoke poetically the spirit of the place and its people. The first tale, “A Tramp at the Door,” depicts French-Canadian settlers and retains some of the power of Roy’s earlier work. The tramp insinuates 190 Western American Literature himself into each of the lonely households by bearing tales of the settlers’ old Quebec homes and by claiming to be a lost distant relative. By the time he is exposed as an impostor, he has actually drawn the people together and served more effectively as “kin” than their blood relations. The tale evinces some of the generous acceptance of humanity which warms Roy’s earlier stories. All men are united in a vast cycle of life, and in this respect the tale is true to the genius of French-Canadian literature of the West, which tends to depict man as participating in the natural cycles of the land while the English-Canadian literature sees him as alienated and exploitive. Perhaps the word “Garden” in the title is the operative term. In spite of its isolation from Quebec and its rigorous climate, the prairie of this tale is a nurturing soil, more like Willa Cather’s Nebraska than like the prairie of English-Canadian writers. In the other three tales Roy strays further afield, portraying a Chinese restaurant operator, “Where Will You Go, Sam Lee Wong?”, a Doukhobor colony, “Hoodoo Valley,” and a Ukranian or Polish couple, “Garden in the Wind.” In these tales the reader can still find Roy’s gently humorous affection for frail humanity, but seldom the expected sharpness of insight, the inspired poetic understanding of what makes the lives of ordinary...

<i>English-Canadian Literature to 1900: A Guide to Information Services</i>, by R.G. Moyles

<i>English-Canadian Literature to 1900: A Guide to Information Services</i>, by R.G. Moyles

The Search for English-Canadian Literature ed. by Carl Ballstadt

The Search for English-Canadian Literature ed. by Carl Ballstadt

The Evolution of Canadian Literature in English ed. by Mary Jane Edwards, Paul Denham, George L. Parker

121 Reviews are necessarily brief, and in the last three novels particularly, where no broader themes or techniques have been considered elsewhere, disconcertingly narrow and simple. The author herself recognizes this, and enters a belated caveat on page 221, but there remains an uncomfortable contrast between the subtle and careful analysis of complexities throughout most of the work and the reduc­ tionist simplicity imposed here by the choice of thematic approach. Fortunately, the book does not close on this note: the last three pages of general conclusion return to the theme of truth, to Thackeray's sense of the "contradictions of existence," to his use of "irony as a means of knowing," his habit of presenting shifting points of view from alternating poses, his subtle probing of ordinary lives, and his deeply perceptive vision of humanity. McMaster has been concerned, she tells us, to prove that Thackeray was not superficial, and that he was a highly skilled craftsman in the art of the novel. She has succeeded admirably in both aims, in a work with few flaws and a host of beauties, and one moreover which is a delight to read. f .e .l . Priestley / University College, University of Toronto Mary Jane Edwards, Paul Denham, and George L. Parker, editors, The Evolu­ tion of Canadian Literature in English, 4 volumes (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973). 307; 335; 333; 288. $6.25 each volume The appearance of this large four-volume anthology of Canadian literature in English from its beginnings to 1970 is a tangible expression of the rapid growth of recognition of this literature as a proper subject of study in our universities and schools. Anyone who has recently edited an anthology of Canadian writing knows how expensive permission fees have now become, and the publishers' investment in these volumes must be staggering. Presumably they feel that there is a large market for such an enterprise, and it will be interesting to see whether their faith is justified. There is no doubt that for the most part both editors and publishers have done their work well. Although I shall at a later point question some of the editors' decisions and procedures, I must on the whole congratulate them upon their courage, their consistency, and their balance. Each volume has an interesting and fairly provocative introduction, and the individual authors are introduced by biographical and critical notes which appear to be accurate in fact and sensible in opinion. As for the publishers, they have bound the volumes in sturdy plasticized covers, each of which bears the reproduction of an appropriate Canadian painting, and have used good quality paper stock and type-faces which are attractive to look at and easy to read. The books are clearly intended to be textbooks, but they are attractive and convenient textbooks. There is perhaps not very much point in bickering about the anthologists' selections: clearly no two persons would make precisely the same selections 122 En g lish Studies in Canada from a given body of work, and the right to be occasionally whimsical in inclusion and exclusion is one of the few privileges an anthologist enjoys. However, to take issue with editors in a review is an accepted part of the literary game, and I shall not decline to play. In the first volume, dealing with preConfederation literature, I am amazed to find Joseph Howe excluded and a little disappointed not to find anything by Mrs. Brooke or Mrs. Traill. On the other hand, I would have happily sacrificed Cary, Burwell, and Adams, the last of whom is certainly not worth the fifty pages allotted to him. In the volume devoted to the period from Confederation to World War i, I am sorry not to find a short story by E.W. Thomson and a few poems by G.F. Cameron, Robert Service, and Tom Maclnnes, and would have made room for them by either reducing or eliminating Pauline Johnson, Nellie McClung, and L.M. Montgomery. The most serious omissions, however, occur in the two volumes representing the period since World War i. Surely P.K. Page, Miriam Waddington, Louis Dudek, Elizabeth Brewster, and Norman Levine deserve places —certainly I re­ gard every...

A Concise Bibliography of English-Canadian Literature, by Michael Gnarowski

<i>A Concise Bibliography of English-Canadian Literature</i>, by Michael Gnarowski

Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English

Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English

C. F. Klinck (General editor), Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, University of Toronto Press., 1965., xiv+945pp.

C. F. Klinck (General editor), Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, University of Toronto Press., 1965., xiv+945pp.

Review

German Studies in English, reviewed by M.J. Sinden Millar Maclure and F.W. Watts, Essays in English Literature from the Renaissance and the Victorian Age: Presented to A.S.P. Woodhouse, reviewed by W. Robbins Carl F. Kinck and Others, Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, reviewed by A.J.M. Smith

Literature and Nationalism after Confederation

If a choice had to be made of the year, more than any other, that marked a climax in the development of English-Canadian literature in the nineteenth century it would almost certainly be 1893, for it was then that five of Canada's most accomplished poets completed volumes of verse that reflected the maturing of their powers as creative artists. As we look back from the vantage-point of more than half a century upon the work of Roberts, Lampman, Carman, Scott, and Campbell, we can see that, although earlier writers had enjoyed some successes, the general level of the new work was higher than anything that had gone before. Throughout the eighties and early nineties the poets of the school of Roberts had been engaged in perfecting their craft, and with the possible exception of Scott, it is doubtful whether their work of later date ever much excelled the achievements of that climactic moment. Its significance did not entirely escape the notice of interested Canadians, although they were inclined to magnify it by making brash comparisons with what was being done across the border, where, it is true, a relative dearth had followed hard upon the brilliant expression of the New England genius.

English Canadian Literature, 1929-1954

English Canadian Literature, 1929-1954