The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary Canadian Fiction

by Linda Hutcheon (editor)

The postmodern novel was a surprisingly and often poorly understood phenomenon of the 1980s and 90s, in which many artists explored issues of how art represents the world. These works are characterized by a certain self-reflexivity, a determination to foreground the process of artistic creation, and the previously often backgrounded role played by the artist. Linda Hutcheon's groundbreaking exploration of postmodernism in Canadian fiction, first published in 1988, provides a clear and fascinating explanation of this tendency towards self-consciousness and self-parody in many of the novels of this period. Her original choice of a cover design by artist Nigel Scott is a clue to the self-reflexive nature of postmodern art, and is reproduced again in his new edition of Hutcheon's excellent study.
The Canadian Postmodern examines the theory and practice of postmodernism as seen through both contemporary cultural theory and the writings of Audrey Thomas, Michael Ondaatje, Robert Kroetsch, Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Jack Hodgins, Aritha Van Herk, Leonard Cohen, Susan Swan, Clark Blaise, George Bowering, and others.
Includes a new preface by Aritha van Herk that looks back on Hutcheon's key contributions to the field of postmodern fiction in Canada - and how this phenomenon looks some twenty years later.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory, Canadian Literature, Literary Criticism, Canada

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 13, 1989

Reviews

[Glendon Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff! I sort of hummed and hawed on how much time I was going to devote to this one given it was the last of the original set of books I'd taken out and I wasn't sure how directly relevant it would be, and then I saw it was the same writer as Theory of Adaptation which I largely really liked so I decided I'd continue with it.

The structure here is relatively similar to Theory of Adaptation meaning you get some very juicy and question-based critical insight and then a lot of examples that are kind of difficult to sift through when you're not familiar with the material she's pulling from. I would say I know more about adaptation than I do about Canadian postmodernism, so this was a tougher hang for me in that regard especially in considering the presence of complete chapters focusing on authors I haven't read. That said, it still functions as a great tour of more contemporary Canadian literature, and the embrace in Canadian writing of the fundamental paradoxes that bring so much life into postmodernism. I don't think I would have assumed the two would make such a natural pair - and likely, that's on me for not reading enough Canadian lit - but Hutcheon does a great job at suggesting that a lot of the stuff I found inherently compelling in Toews is maybe part of the greater Canadian project.

[Pavlina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes in handy as a source on CanLit of 1970s and 1980s. Although it contains pretty much information which could be found in other Hutcheon's books on postmodernism (namely The Politics of Postmodernism), this one has a sharper focus. It also contains a Hutcheon's paper on the novel from The Literary History of Canada.

[LEwis1203]

i want to read this book for my research.