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Synopsis

Whatever it has meant historically and come to mean today, Canadian identity has always been felt passionately, even as Canadian nationhood has been perceived to be at the brink, under attack from forces both withing and without the country. In these eighteen essays Frank Birbalsingh discusses the evolution of Canadian identity and nationhood as reflected, predominantly, in the English fiction of this country, from the writings of the first British expatriate, though the colonial, Empire-conscious works of the nineteenth century, to the strongly nationalistic literary consciousness of the mid-twentieth century and finally the contemporary works of a multicultural contry continually transforming itself. This is a timely work, with fresh insights on over thirty writers, including Sara Jeanette Duncan, Stephen Leacock, Mordecai Richler, Marian Engel, Austin Clarke, Robertson Davies, Ethel Wilson, and considerations of Native, Jewish, Caribbean and South Asian writers.