 |
 |
|||
|
||||
|
|
|||
ENGL 222 |
Literature in Canada (3 credits) |
Instructor: Dr. Katja Thieme |
|
This course takes a historical approach to Canadian literature. It examines key developments in the production and discussion of Canadian literature from the 1880s to the 1990s. We move through our readings chronologically, asking ourselves the following questions. At what point and how did Canadian literature start to take up questions of industrialization and urbanization? How did ideas about literature change over the decades, and how did discussions about what is good literature shape Canadian writing? What place did and do First Nations writers have in relation to Canadian literature? The first half of the course begins by analyzing some canonical pieces of nineteenth-century poetry, considering the cultural work which that poetry set out to do. Then we will read some examples of short fiction by turn-of-the-century Canadian women writers—fascinating pieces which raise questions about motherhood, British colonialism, white attitudes toward Native culture, and working women. We will also study some modernist Canadian poetry from the interwar period and have a look at how and why these poets tried to distinguish themselves from earlier writers. In the second half of the course, we start with a biting and irreverent critique of 1960s Canadian and British society (Richler), consider short stories and short plays by Native authors as well as a comedic novel about life on a reserve in the Prairies (King), and end with a novel about an East Indian mother and daughter who live in different marital arrangements and on different continents (Badami). As we read our way through this literary history, we will discuss questions of literary form, remind ourselves of the changing social and political context, and look at the issues which contemporary literary research raises about these texts.
Course Requirements:
Tentative Readings:
Pre-requisite: 6.0 credits (completed) of First Year English or the equivalent.
|