Canadian Literature

Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Some criticism of Canadian literature has focused on nationalistic and regional themes, although this is only a small portion of Canadian Literary criticism. Critics against such thematic criticism in Canadian literature, such as Frank Davey, had argued that a focus on theme diminishes the appreciation of complexity of the literature produced in the country, and creates the impression that Canadian literature is sociologically-oriented. While Canadian literature, like the literature of every nation state, is influenced by its socio-political contexts, Canadian writers have produced a variety of genres. Influences on Canadian writers are broad, both geographically and historically.

After the colonization of Canada, the dominant European cultures were originally English, French, and Gaelic. After Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's "Announcement of Implementation of Policy of Multiculturalism within Bilingual Framework," in 1971, Canadian critics and academics gradually began to recognize that there existed a more diverse population of readers and writers. The country's literature has been strongly influenced by international immigration, particularly in recent decades. In the past critics thought that Canada’s literature often reflected the Canadian perspective on: (1) nature, (2) frontier life, and (3) Canada’s position in the world, all three of which tie into the garrison mentality. Since the 1980s Canada's ethnic and cultural diversity have been openly reflected in its literature, with many of its most prominent writers focusing on ethnic minority identity, duality and cultural differences; themes which are in contrast to environmental readings, as Joseph Pivato argues in his critique of Atwood's Survival.However, Canadians have been less willing to acknowledge the diverse languages of Canada, besides English and French, and give equal consideration to works in such languages.

Because of its size and breadth, Canadian literature is often divided into sub-categories.

Traits common to works of Canadian literature include:

In 1802, the Lower Canada legislative library was founded, being one of the first in Occident, the first in the Canadas. For comparison, the library of the British house of commons was founded sixteen years later. It should be noted the library had some rare titles about geography, natural science and letters. All books it contained were moved to the Canadian parliament in Montreal when the two Canadas, lower and upper, were united. On April 25, 1849, a dramatic event occurred: the Canadian parliament was burned by furious people along with thousands of French Canadian books and a few hundred of English books. This is why some people still affirm today, falsely, that from the early settlements until the 1820s, Quebec had virtually no literature. Though historians, journalists, and learned priests published, overall the total output that remain from this period and that had been kept out of the burned parliament is small.

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