A History of Canadian Literature looks at the work of individual writers and also at the social and cultural contexts that helped shape their preoccupations and helped direct their choice of literary form. W.H. New explains how - from early records of oral tales to the writing strategies of the 1980s - writer, reader, literature, and society are interrelated.
New discusses both Aboriginal and European mythologies, looking at pre-Contact narratives and also at the way Contact experience altered hierarchies of literary value. He then considers representations of the "real," whether in documentary, fantasy, or satire; the precedence of historical romance and the social construction of Nature and State; ironic subversions of power, the politics of cultural form, and the relevance of the media to a representation of community standard and individual voice. New suggests some ways in which writers of the later twentieth century codified such issues as history, gender, ethnicity, and literary technique itself. All genres are represented, with examples chosen primarily, but not exclusively, from anglophone and francophone texts. A chronology, plates, and a series of tables supplement the commentary.
Review quotes
"New offers an unconventionally structured overview of Canadian literature, from Native American mythologies to contemporary texts." Publishers Weekly
"New has done a marvelous job of detailing the taproots and multiple branches of Canada's English and French literatures, in all their forms. Beginning with Inuit and Indian myths, New charts the development of Canadian literature to early 1987. In the process, he ties many of its themes to the history, politics, and social organization of the emerging nation. A useful chronology links literature and historical events, and a fine bibliography of primarily Canadian sources is also included. New shows clearly that Canada's literature has come of age. Recommended for all academic and most public libraries." Library Journal, Terry Skeats, Bishop's University
"New ... has written an untraditional book, for it approaches Canadian literature in a novel fashion, includes a whole new aspect of the national written record, places books in a supplementary chronological table ... that relates them to international social and cultural events and movements, and assumes both the general reader and the scholar as its user. New divides his study into such chapters as Mythmakers, Reporters, Tale-tellers, Narrators, and Encoders; in the first one he offers a wealth of authoritative information on Indian, Inuit, and European cultures, mythologies, and texts; in the second he explores such topics as journals of discovery, epistolary literature, satire and speech, and documentary romance ... a challenging, refreshing history, excellent for the neophyte (because of its scope) and for the authority (because of its judgements)." Choice
W.H. New is professor of English, University of British Columbia. His books include Reading Mansfield and Metaphors of Form, Dreams of Speech and Violence: The Art of the Short Story in Canada and New Zealand, and Land Sliding: Imagining Space, Presence, and Power in Canadian Writing.
