Talk:Canadian literature/Archive 1

This is an archive of past discussions about Canadian literature. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Intro

Contrary to popular belief, Canadian literature is literature written by Canadians.

Where does this "popular belief" come from, and what is it? I don't think the entire first paragraph should be whining, either. It should explain the topic like any other Wiki page. Oddity- (talk) 05:58, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

IMHO the whole text, particularly the 1st paragraph setting the stage, is quite condescending, it even has a taste of political revisionism if not simply opinionated with gratuitous and oriented perceptions. Hence, from that stand point stating that Canadian literature is a colonialist literature would have been as relevant (and more honest when coming from that stance)... One single example: French literature in Canada is rich and exists since a long time, but it seems to be considered by a colonialist stand point: portrayed as being essentially politic or or somewhat rebel and revolutionary, which is a wrong perception of course. Same goes for the text that has been removed, and which portrayed English Canadian literature to be driven by some hidden intention with a will to distinguish itself from their american neighbors, which is as wrong: pattern matching is good for binary logics in mathematics or cognitive studies, although humans are much more than just stupid cognitive machines! lol... --HawkFest (talk) 01:27, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Misc

What about writers like Rudy Wiebe or Miriam Toews? I think some information about "Mennonite-Canadian literature" on this page would be quite usefull... (Peter Wiens)

Someone who knows more about it than I do really ought to put much more material about French-Canadian literature. I'm startled that there's no material here about that. - Montréalais

Why be startled? The page was mostly written by Sara Parks Ricker, who has an English degree. Apparently no one who knows about French-Canadian literature has discovered this article yet. --Stephen Gilbert 02:31 Oct 14, 2002 (UTC)

There's a really good resource for Canadian literature online at http://www.canadiana.org/eco/index.html ("Early Canadiana Online is a digital library containing over 1,410,000 pages in more than 8,400 volumes.") I'm not yet familiar with the new article-structure, but it might be worthwhile adding this URL in an 'external links' section. -- April 03:03, 22 Oct 2003 (UTC)

There is no mention of Canadian Native literature in this entire article. Particularly in post-modern lit, the Canadian Native voice is strong and brings a very unique perspective to Canadian Lit. I'm new and don't want to mess with this article too much. Any suggestions on changing it or adding a section on this "third root"? -- Amanda 03:59, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

I find this sentence rather strange: "Canada only officially became a country on July 1, 1867, so some have argued that what was written there before that time was really the literature of British citizens living away from Britain, French citizens away from France, etc.". I am not sure that writers in Upper Canada would have considered themselves as "British" writers, but for sure French-speaking writers in Québec (or Lower Canada) were not "French citizens". Maybe someone can rewrite this sentence, or just drop it. -- Gsandi 18:58, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

In reply to above: They kind of were or more like British Subjects. This whole "Canadian" thing didn't really start until after the Second World War and it wasn't until 1949 we got a separate citizenship. Up until then most people living in Canada besides some French Canadiens were happy being British subjects. There was no such thing as British citizens at the time either and maybe should be changed to subjects? As I wrote about the tree of England and France, they planted the seeds. So we are of the same seed and are roots come from the same place we are merely a different branch of this one big tree. If you look at Canada and its culture by itself it seems quite small and little but if you add on our origins of Great Britain and the British Empire our culture is really quite grand and impressive. That is why we have this so called identity crisis because we don't look at all of our history and origins.Matthew Samuel Spurrell 17:05, 12 May 2006 {UTC}

Please note that most of the content I have deleted is written in essay style, with there being no apparent solution for making it encyclopedic. Moreover, most of the information presented is too specific, and lacks sources. The sentences are long and meandering. Some are just plain silly, like Canadian literature, while often implying an underlying love and concern for the nation, is not rah-rah patriotic propaganda. Many of them seem like verbatim quotes from Canadian lectures, as indicated by the many references to colleges and professors. Rintrah 18:29, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

There are too many examples. It seems that every second sentence is about someone's book. I have cleaned up the most ridiculous content, which covered a large part of the article. Rintrah 18:55, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

The entire page should be rewritten. It is, first of all, ridiculous to assume that English Canadian literature today derives from a British model of writing. It doesn't, and it hasn't for forty years. The bicultural model for "Canadian" literature ignores the advent of nationalism in Quebec since the 1970s (so we should talk about English Canadian and Quebecois literatures--the article leaves out just about everything to do with la francophonie, which is embarassing). Biculturalism (as opposed to bilingualism) ignores the impact of multiculturalism on Canada itself and on the literary scene since the 1980s in particular. And, as others have noted, it ignores other kinds of writing like Aboriginal writing in Canada, writing by expatriates or writing with reference to one's ethnic experience. Frankly, "nature" themes do not any longer characterize most literature written in Canada today--the criticism which assumed this to be true is almost 30 years old. The copyright references for the generalizations in here would therefore have to be for works of thematic criticism which are decades out of print. Come on! The Canadian Encyclopedia articles are better, and they are out of date by a decade!

I agree that this page needs work. I was going to add some easy references from Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature, but I am not certain that the three themes are all that we focus on. Northrope Frye's The Bush Garden is another good source, however, before I do anything, I'd like some feedback. What other sources (less than 20 years old) do we have at our disposal? Mcculloche 19:41, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:English Patient Oscar Advert 02.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 06:46, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

contested statements removed

Canadian authors often emphasize the effect of climate and geography on people's lives.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Frontier life as cultural myth is frequently observed, as many authors evoke the westward march across Canada. Others document the drama in the lives of fishermen. The ever-present northern frontier is also widely used, with the constant expansion in the Arctic. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Many Canadian writers reflect upon Canada's position in the world. French Canadians often feel surrounded by their English-speaking neighbours; they determinedly preserve their own institutions and culture. Similarly, English Canadians frequently feel surrounded by the people and culture of the United States. Many novels and poems show how Canadian writers regard such problems. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Canadian identity is closely tied to its literature. Leon Surette writes, "a disproportionate amount of commentary on Canadian writing has been cultural history (or prophecy) rather than truly literary commentary." {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Traditionally, there are at least three ways that critics and scholars have chosen to categorise Canadian literature:{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
French-Canadian literature evolved separately from English literature on a different path. It was not appended to its parent culture, unlike its English counterpart; rather, the struggle of French Canada sought its own style and identity. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Québécois authors adopted [Henri-Raymond Casgrain's] view and wrote works which were considered bland. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}

Please do not return this information to the artilce without a citation.--BirgitteSB 18:07, 4 June 2008 (UTC)

Article Headings

There is redundancy in some of the headings, specifically "traits" and "characteristics." I don't think both headings need to be there, so I will try to combine those sections. --Jane Bond (talk) 02:14, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

I see that someone pointed out that the traits section is not necessarily based on any specific source. I agree that this is a problem, so for now will do my best with the "characteristics" section and go from there. --Jane Bond (talk) 02:18, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

article needed: Literary Storefront, Vancouver

Please see Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Vancouver#Literary_Storefront.Skookum1 (talk) 19:47, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

William Hoffer, Bookseller

While I'm at it, here's another bio of a prominent literary/publishing figure in need of at least a stub; I knew him personally and have memorialized him elsewhere on some talkpage somewhere in Wikipedia and am a bit COI/AUTO about him; but if someone else would care to use what's on this ABC Bookworld bio and this review of a bio about him, please do so....not that he's alone among Canadian literary and publishing figures to not have Wikipedia articles yet, but definitely worthwhile....Skookum1 (talk) 19:56, 1 February 2010 (UTC)

Not good

I came to this article from German WP, because Kanadische Literatur is so awful, but this really is not all that much better.--Radh (talk) 08:16, 5 June 2010 (UTC)

McMaster University Wikipedia Visiting Scholar position

Of possible interest to editors of this article: McMaster University is accepting applications for a Wikipedia Visiting Scholars position with a possible focus on Canadian literature. Through the Visiting Scholars program, educational institutions provide experienced Wikipedians with remote access to their libraries' research resources. The Wikipedian is given an official university login and agrees to create/improve articles on Wikipedia in a subject area of mutual interest. The positions are unpaid, remote, and usually go for 6 or 12 months. If you have at least 1000 edits, an account at least 1 year old, and experience improving content, you're eligible. For more information see Wikipedia:Visiting Scholars. Ryan (Wiki Ed) (talk) 15:24, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

Beware the dual-language myth

This article has a problem with giving WP:Undue weight to English and French literature while ignoring literature in Scottish Gaelic and various Native American languages. A prime example (which I have removed): "In the past critics thought that Canada’s literature, whether written in English or French, often reflected the Canadian perspective..." Please keep this in mind while editing Alázhlis (talk) 07:19, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

Also I'd like to nominate #Comments for deletion: It has been unsourced since 2010 and is primarily opinion-based

Because of its size and breadth, Canadian literature is often divided into sub-categories.^{[citation needed]}

The most common is to categorize it by region such as the prairie novel or by province such as Quebec theatre province.
Another way is to categorize it by author. For instance, the literature of Canadian women, Acadians, Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and Irish Canadians, as well as Italian-Canadians and South-Asian-Canadians have been anthologized as bodies of work.
A third is to divide it by literary period, such as "The Confederation Poets", "Canadian postmoderns" or "Canadian Poets Between the Wars."

Alázhlis (talk) 07:22, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

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