From modest colonial beginnings, literature in Canada has arrived at the center stage of world literature. Works by English-Canadian writers - both established writers such as Margaret Atwood and new talents such as Yann Martel - make regular appearances on international bestseller lists. French-Canadian literature has also found its own voice in the North American and francophone worlds. 'CanLit' has likewise developed into a staple of academic interest, pursued in Canadian Studies programs in Canada and around the world. This volume draws on the expertise of scholars from Canada, Germany, Austria, and France, tracing Canadian literature from the indigenous oral tradition to the development of English-Canadian and French-Canadian literature since colonial times. Conceiving of Canada as a single but multifaceted culture, it accounts for specific characteristics of English- and French-Canadian literatures, such as the vital role of the short story in English Canada or that of the chanson in French Canada. Yet special attention is also paid to Aboriginal literature and to the pronounced transcultural, ethnically diverse character of much contemporary Canadian literature, thus moving clearly beyond the traditions of the two founding nations. Contributors: Reingard M. Nischik, Eva Gruber, Iain M. Higgins, Guy Laflèche, Dorothee Scholl, Gwendolyn Davies, Tracy Ware, Fritz Peter Kirsch, Julia Breitbach, Lorraine York, Marta Dvorak, Jerry Wasserman, Ursula Mathis-Moser, Doris G. Eibl, Rolf Lohse, Sherrill Grace, Caroline Rosenthal, Martin Kuester, Nicholas Bradley, Anne Nothof, Georgiana Banita, Gilles Dupuis, and Andrea Oberhuber. Reingard M. Nischik is Professor of American Literature at the University of Constance, Germany Aboriginal oral traditions / Eva Gruber -- The whites arrive: white writing before Canada, 1000-1600 / Iain M. Higgins -- Historical background / Guy Laflèche -- Literature on New France / Guy Laflèche -- Colonial literature in New France / Guy Laflèche -- Historical overview / Dorothee Scholl -- English-Canadian colonial literature / Gwendolyn Davies -- French-Canadian colonial literature under the union Jack / Dorothee Scholl -- English-Canadian literature, 1867-1918: the making of a nation / Tracy Ware -- French-Canadian literature from national solidarity to the École littéraire de Montréal / Fritz Peter Kirsch -- Politics and literature between nationalism and internationalism / Julia Breitbach -- English-Canadian poetry, 1920-1960 / Lorraine York -- The English-Canadian novel and the displacement of the romance / Marta Dvorak -- The modernist English-Canadian short story / Reingard M. Nischik -- Early English-Canadian theater and drama, 1918-1967 / Jerry Wasserman -- French Canada from the first world war to 1967: historical overview / Ursula Mathis-Moser -- French-Canadian poetry up to the 1960s / Ursula Mathis-Moser -- French-Canadian novel between tradition and modernism / Doris G. Eibl -- The French-Canadian short story / Doris G. Eibl -- French-Canadian drama from the 1930s to the révolution tranquille / Dorothee Scholl -- Sociopolitical and cultural developments from 1967 to the present / Sherrill Grace -- English-Canadian literary theory and literary criticism / Caroline Rosenthal -- The English-Canadian novel from modernism to postmodernism / Martin Kuester -- The English-Canadian short story since 1967: between (post) modernism and (neo) realism / Reingard M. Nischik -- English-Canadian poetry from 1967 to the present / Nicholas Bradley -- Contemporary English-Canadian drama and theater / Anne Nothof -- Canons of diversity in contemporary English-Canadian literature / Georgiana Banita -- Literature of the first nations, Inuit, and Métis / Eva Gruber -- The Quebec novel / Doris G. Eibl --The French-Canadian short prose narrative / Doris G. Eibl -- French-Canadian poetry from 1967 to the present / Ursula Mathis-Moser -- Orality and the French-Canadian chanson / Ursula Mathis-Moser -- Drama and theater from the révolution tranquille to the present / Dorothee Scholl -- Transculturalism and écritures migrantes / Gilles Dupuis -- The institutionalization of literature in Quebec / Andrea Oberhuber
|