Death So Noble

by Jonathan Franklin William Vance

1997 · UBC Press

Examines the ways in which Canadians remembered and celebrated their participation in WWI, viewing the war as a cultural and philosophical force as opposed to a political and military event. Looks at the country's mythical reconstruction of the war and recounts how the myth's proponents responded to conflicting visions of the war. Touches on the symbolism of the soldier, Canadian nationalism, and the idea of a just war, drawing on memoirs, newspaper reports, and popular culture. Includes bandw photos. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A History of Canadian Literature

by William H. New, William Herbert New

2003 · McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

"New offers an unconventionally structured overview of Canadian literature, from Native American mythologies to contemporary texts." Publishers Weekly A History of Canadian Literature looks at the work of writers and the social and cultural contexts that helped shape their preoccupations and direct their choice of literary form. W.H. New explains how – from early records of oral tales to the writing strategies of the early twenty-first century – writer, reader, literature, and society are interrelated. New discusses both Aboriginal and European mythologies, looking at pre-Contact narratives and also at the way Contact experience altered hierarchies of literary value. He then considers representations of the "real," whether in documentary, fantasy, or satire; historical romance and the social construction of Nature and State; and ironic subversions of power, the politics of cultural form, and the relevance of the media to a representation of community standard and individual voice. New suggests some ways in which writers of the later twentieth century codified such issues as history, gender, ethnicity, and literary technique itself. In this second edition, he adds a lengthy chapter that considers how writers at the turn of the twenty-first century have reimagined their society and their roles within it, and an expanded chronology and bibliography. Some of these writers have spoken from and about various social margins (dealing with issues of race, status, ethnicity, and sexuality), some have sought emotional understanding through strategies of history and memory, some have addressed environmental concerns, and some have reconstructed the world by writing across genres and across different media. All genres are represented, with examples chosen primarily, but not exclusively, from anglophone and francophone texts. A chronology, plates, and a series of tables supplement the commentary.

Le Chien d'or/The Golden Dog, Critical Edition

by William Kirby, Mary Jane Edwards

2012 · McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

William Kirby's Le Chien d'or / The Golden Dog, a dramatic historical romance that vividly details the intertwined French and English foundations of Canada, is one of the nation's best-known pieces of nineteenth-century literature. A complicated publishing history, however, resulted in severe distortions of the text, so that each edition of the novel moved further from the author's original vision. Now, in the final work produced by the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts at Carleton University, editor Mary Jane Edwards returns this beloved piece of literary history to its intended form. First published in 1877, Le Chien d'or draws upon the threads of legend spun around the real-life tablet of the Golden Dog, which can still be seen in Quebec City. The novel's author William Kirby begins his tale in the 1740s, with the murder of the prosperous merchant who lived in the house that bore the tablet, and brings his work to a tragic end that coincides with the destruction of France's North American empire. Weaving historical, literary, and religious allusions together with a powerful lyricism, Le Chien d'or develops an epic narrative of the heroic past and promising future of the Dominion of Canada. Though many versions of Le Chien d'or have been published in both French and English, very few people have read what the author intended to see in print. This edition brings Kirby's unfulfilled legacy full circle by presenting a critically reliable version of his iconic Canadian novel.