The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature
Edited by Cynthia Sugars
Abstract
The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature provides a broad-ranging introduction to some of the key critical fields, genres, and periods in Canadian literary studies. The chapters in this volume, written by prominent theorists in the field, reflect the plurality of critical perspectives, regional and historical specializations, and theoretical positions that constitute the field of Canadian literary criticism across a range of genres and historical periods. The volume provides a dynamic introduction to current areas of critical interest, including (1) attention to the links between the literary and the public sphere, encompassing such topics as neoliberalism, trauma and memory, citizenship, material culture, literary prizes, disability studies, literature and history, digital cultures, globalization studies, and environmentalism or ecocriticism; (2) interest in Indigenous literatures and settler-Indigenous relations; (3) attention to multiple diasporic and postcolonial contexts within Canada; (4) interest in the institutionalization of Canadian literature as a discipline; (5) a turn toward book history and literary history, with a renewed interest in early Canadian literature; (6) a growing interest in articulating the affective character of the “literary”—including an interest in affect theory, mourning, melancholy, haunting, memory, and autobiography. The book represents a diverse array of interests—from the revival of early Canadian writing, to the continued interest in Indigenous, regional, and diasporic traditions, to more recent discussions of globalization, market forces, and neoliberalism. It includes a distinct section dedicated to Indigenous literatures and traditions, as well as a section that reflects on the discipline of Canadian literature as a whole.
Keywords:
Canadian literature,
postcolonialism,
Indigenous literature,
diaspora,
ecocriticism,
literary criticism,
literary history
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Jan 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199941865
- Published online:
- Dec 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199941865.001.0001
Editor
Cynthia Sugars,
editor
Cynthia Sugars is Professor of English at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of Canadian Gothic: Literature, History, and the Spectre of Self-Invention (U of Wales P, 2014) and is the editor of Unhomely States: Theorizing English-Canadian Postcolonialism (Broadview, 2004), Home-Work: Postcolonialism, Pedagogy, and Canadian Literature (U of Ottawa P, 2004), Unsettled Remains: Canadian Literature and the Postcolonial Gothic (with Gerry Turcotte; Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2009), and the historical anthology, Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts (with Laura Moss; Pearson/Penguin, 2009). She has recently edited, with Eleanor Ty, the collection Canadian Literature and Cultural Memory (Oxford, 2014), and is the co-editor, with Herb Wyile, of the journal Studies in Canadian Literature.
