Description
The predilection of Canadians for what Northrop Frye has called "relentless cultural stock-takings and self-inventories" is nowhere more evident than in the many anthologies that serve as points of reference throughout the literary history of Canada. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, William Hartley Dewart's Selections from Canadian Poets (1864) and William Douw Lighthall's Songs of the Great Dominion (1889) reveal a concern with establishing the existence of a national literature. In the early decades of the twentieth century. Canadian Poetry in English (1922), edited by Bliss Carman and Lorne Pierce, and A Book of Canadian Prose and Verse (1923), selected by E.K. and E.H. Broadus illustrates a developing literary tradition extending over more than one hundred years. In the mid-century, the anthologies of Ralph Gustafson, A.J.M. Smith, C.F. Klinck and R.E. Watters combine modern critical standards with an enlarged historical perspective. Just as each of these anthologies illustrates a review of Canadian literature in the light of the ideas and concerns of a particular era, Literature In Canada reflects an examination of our literature in terms of
ISBN:0771511566
