Canadian Literature

In its most basic sense, Canadian literature is literature, including fiction and poetry, written by authors from the nation of Canada; however, the county’s history is infused with various cultural influences, making a simple definition difficult. Prior to becoming a unified nation in 1867, Canada was a collection of British provinces, some of which were originally founded by France and maintained deep connections to the French culture. In addition, the country has a rich and vibrant First Nations heritage. As a result, Canadian literature is as diverse as its population, traditions, and geography. This can be seen in works as varied as Anne of Green Gables (1908), the story of a girl coming of age on a nineteenth-century farm, and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), a dystopian science-fiction novel about a society in which women are forced into submissive roles. Among all Canadian writers, Alice Munro may be the most accomplished, despite never having published a full-length novel. Munro is often recognized as a master of the short story and, as of 2024, was the only Canadian author to have won the Nobel Prize for literature, having won in 2013.

Brief History

For thousands of years, Canada was home to groups of Indigenous peoples who lived among the mountains, plains, and forests from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. The first Europeans to arrive in North America were the Vikings, who landed in what is today Newfoundland and Labrador about the year 1000; however, they did not stay and abandoned their settlements after a short period. In 1497, explorer John Cabot landed on the shores of either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia and claimed the land for England. However, the British did not establish any settlements in North America at the time.

In the 1530s and 1540s, French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence River and claimed the land for France. The French established their first settlements in Canada in 1604, and by 1608 had built a fortress at what is today Québec City. During the seventeenth century, the British began establishing colonies along the Atlantic coast in eastern Canada and America, resulting in growing conflict with the French. The two world powers competed for land and resources in North America; after years of conflict, British victory in the French and Indian War (1756–63) resulted in their acquisition of nearly all French lands in Canada. The French Catholics living in Canada now found themselves under control of the Protestant British, who were not always open to religious tolerance. However, the British allowed the French to maintain a certain degree of their religion and cultural heritage.

For much of the nineteenth century, Canada was a collection of British provinces and territories that was expanding westward, as settlers spread into the prairies and mountains and displaced Indigenous residents. In 1867, the British Parliament united three of its Canadian colonies into the Dominion of Canada, a self-governing nation still under the oversight of Great Britain. During the next few decades, Canada expanded from the east coast to the west coast and into the north. In 1931, Canada was granted legal independence and equal status with England, but it was not until 1982 that the country adopted its own constitution, making Canada a truly independent nation.

Overview

Many sources define Canadian literature as works that were written after the British provinces confederated in 1867. Much of what was produced in the Canadian provinces reflected the literary styles of the people’s respective homelands, rather than a distinct Canadian identity. The Indigenous peoples of Canada were not a unified group and developed their own unique cultures and traditions. Their “literature” consisted of tales and histories passed down by word of mouth and reflected each group’s specific cultural identity rather than a national one. Early French settlers wrote about their explorations and the new lands and peoples they had encountered. English settlers in the east wrote poetry that mirrored the themes and styles popular back in their homeland.

British Influence. By the mid-nineteenth century, a few writers were producing works that captured a growing Canadian consciousness. Canadian-born British soldier John Richardson is considered to be the first true Canadian novelist. His 1832 novel, Wacousta, is a work of historical fiction set in the Canadian wilderness in the 1760s. A pair of English sisters, Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, both recounted their daily lives and experiences as new settlers to Canada. Traill penned The Backwoods of Canada in 1836, and Moodie wrote Roughing It in the Bush in 1852. Nova Scotian author T. C. Haliburton introduced the character of Sam Slick in his 1836 collection The Clockmaker. Slick’s humorous takes on life in Nova Scotia would go on to become popular in both the United States and Canada.

In the years after confederation, Canadian literature embraced a nationalistic mindset with a decidedly British-centered voice. Stories of the country’s First Nations people became popular, too, but these works often portrayed Indigenous cultures as a “backwards” and fading people. For example, in Duncan Campbell Scott’s 1894 book of poetry, The Onondaga Madonna, the author describes the title character as a “tragic savage” and part of a “waning race.” A few authors tried to portray Indigenous Canadians in a more accurate light. One of those, poet E. Pauline Johnson, who was of Mohawk and British descent, disputed the popular negative stereotypes of the day and criticized the nation’s treatment of Indigenous people.

Other popular works of the era included stories of western pioneers, journeys of immigrant families, and romantic tales from the Anglo-centric eastern provinces. In 1908, author Lucy Maud Montgomery published what may be the most well-known Canadian novel in history. Anne of Green Gables tells the story of Anne Shirley, an eleven-year-old orphan sent to work on a farm on Prince Edward Island in the Maritime Provinces. The farm’s owners had expected to be sent a boy, but the imaginative and joyful Anne soon earns a place in their hearts and is embraced by the community. The book would go on to sell more than fifty million copies worldwide and spawn several sequels.

War and Change.The literature written about the time of World War I (1914–18) marked a decided shift away from British-oriented writings and the development of a more independent Canadian identity. Not surprisingly, the conflict dominated Canadian literature of the era. In prose, poetry, and nonfiction alike, authors explored themes of bravery, loss, and the horrific realities of war. One of those authors, poet John McCrae, wrote arguably the most famous wartime poem in history, 1915’s “In Flanders Fields.” The work offers a contrast against the guns of war and the peace of the poppy-covered fields where the dead are buried. McCrae himself became one of more than sixty thousand Canadian casualties of World War I when he died while serving overseas in 1918.

Other works, such as Francis Marion Beynon’s Aleta Day, which was published in 1919, viewed the war through the eyes of a pacificist on the homefront in rural Canada. In 1930, Generals Die in Bed by Charles Yale Harrison compared the realities of combat with the irrational actions of military bureaucracy. In the interwar years, Canada’s literature took on a more socially active tone, with authors championing causes such as women’s rights, civil rights, and immigrant rights. Themes and language became more realistic with a focus on marginalized members of society who had historically been ignored in previous literature.

Diverse Modern Literature.After World War II (1939–45), writers built upon this trend to create a new wave of socially consciousness material mixed with feelings of national pride. At the same time, Canadian literature, and the arts in general, were being fueled by an increased governmental effort to promote and fund writing programs and small publishers throughout the nation. Literature not only flourished, but diversified into many different genres and formats. One of the most impactful of these was the short story, with Ontario author Alice Munro emerging as the nation’s preeminent master of the form in the 1950s. Munro wrote hundreds of short stories, which were published in various collections over the decades. Her work often focused on small-town Canadian life and the dual nature of the nation as a modern civilization and untamed wilderness. Among her most famous collections was Dance of the Happy Shades (1968), Who Do You Think You Are? (1978), and The Progress of Love (1968), all of which won the Governor General’s Award for fiction, one of the highest literary honors in Canada. In 2013, Munro was awarded a Nobel Prize in literature for her career achievements.

Margaret Atwood is a multifaceted poet and novelist who has explored themes ranging from feminist identity, environmental activism, historical fiction, and myths and legends. Her most famous work was the 1985 science-fiction novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, about a futuristic society in which a group of women are forced to bear children for the ruling male elite. Other notable works by Atwood include 2000’s The Blind Assassin and 2019’s The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. Both were awarded the Man Booker Prize for best English-language novel published in the United Kingdom.

In 1992, Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient, a character study set in the final days of World War II, was also awarded the Man Booker Prize. A decade later, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, the tale of a young shipwreck survivor, won the honor as well. Both books were later made into popular films that earned recognition from the Academy Awards; additionally, Life of Pi was adapted for the stage in a critically acclaimed Broadway play that debuted in 2023. In 2024, Held (2023) by Anne Michaels and This Strange Eventful History (2023) by Claire Messud were both longlisted for the Booker Prize. In 1995, The Stone Diaries, a fictional autobiography set in the twentieth century, garnered a Pulitzer Prize for fiction for author Carol Shields.

In 1999, Alistair MacLeod published No Great Mischief, a sweeping family saga set in the Atlantic Maritime Provinces. Lawrence Hill’s 2007 novel, The Book of Negroes, follows a young woman attempting to escape slavery in the United States. The novel’s title comes from an actual document recording the names of Black loyalists who fought for Great Britain during the American Revolution and were evacuated to Canada after the war.

Emily St. John Mandel's post-apocolyptic novel Station Eleven (2014) tells the story of a troupe of Shakespearean actors who roam the Great Lakes region performing on their traveling stage. Because the novel centers around a fictional pandemic, sales of the book soared during the real-life COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The best-selling novel was made into an HBO Max series in 2022.

French-Canadian Literature.While much of Canada’s internationally popular literature was written in English, a flourishing body of French-Canadian and Quebecois works have also been produced, primarily in the province of Québec. Philippe-Ignace-François Aubert de Gaspé is considered to have written the first French-Canadian novel, L’Influence d’un Livre (The Influence of a Book), in 1837. His novel, about one man’s search for gold, was later reprinted until the title Le Chercheur de Trésors.

Prior to the mid-twentieth century, most French-Canadian literature was dedicated to preserving the French-Catholic traditions and way of life, and maintaining Quebecois identity in a British-dominated society. Then, just as the nation was experiencing a period of rising national pride, French Canadians began to embrace their culture more openly and express their pride in diverse forms of literature. In 1945, Gabrielle Roy published The Tin Flute, a novel about the impact of World War II on a poor French-Canadian community in Montreal. The novel became the first Canadian work to win France’s Prix Femina, an award given to the best French-language work of prose or poetry.

Novelist and poet Anne Hébert won the 1960 Governor’s General Award for poetry for Poèmes, and won two Governor’s General Awards for fiction for Les Enfants du Sabbat (1975) and L’enfant Chargé des Songes (1992). Perhaps the most iconic French-Canadian literary work is The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier. The 1979 short story is about a young Montreal Canadiens hockey fan whose mother inadvertently orders him a sweater of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. The Hockey Sweater was so popular, that a quote from the story appeared on the back of the Canadian five-dollar bill from 2002 to 2013.

Bibliography

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Cloutier, Stephen, and Alec Follett. “The First World War in Canadian Literature.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 1 May 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-first-world-war-in-canadian-literature. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

“Discover Canada—Canada’s History.” Canadian Government, 26 Oct. 2015, www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/discover-canada/read-online/canadas-history.html. Accessed 13 Oct. 2024.

“80 Things to Know about Master Short Story Writer Alice Munro.” CBC/Radio-Canada, 10 July 2020, www.cbc.ca/books/80-things-to-know-about-master-short-story-writer-alice-munro-1.4088507. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Granholm, Kirsti. “10 Facts You May Not Have Known about Anne of Green Gables (and L.M. Montgomery).” Canadian Children’s Book Centre, 11 July 2019, bookcentre.ca/news/10-facts-may-not-known-anne-green-gables-l-m-montgomery. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

McKenzie, Athena. “15 Novels to Help You Celebrate Canada’s Unique Literary History.” Everything Zoomer, 26 June 2019, www.everythingzoomer.com/arts-entertainment/2019/06/26/15-best-canadian-novels/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024..

New, W.H. “Literature in English.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 27 Mar. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/literature-in-english. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Sanchez, Sandra. “10 Acclaimed French-Canadian Writers.” Culture Trip, 19 Oct. 2016, theculturetrip.com/north-america/canada/articles/10-acclaimed-french-canadian-writers/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Sheckels, Theodore F. Margaret Atwood and Social Justice: A Writer's Evolving Ideology. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2022.

Sugars, Cynthia, editor. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature. Oxford UP, 2016.