The Canadian Postmodern: A Study of Contemporary English-Canadian Fiction

by Linda Hutcheon

This book studies the work of some of Canada's most prominent fiction writers in the context of postmodernism. Hutcheon shows that in Canada, this cultural phenomenon has not only found particularly fertile ground on which to develop but has also taken a distinctive form. She examines
contemporary cultural theory and the writings of Margaret Atwood, Clark Blaise, George Bowering, Leonard Cohen, Timothy Findley, Jack Hodgins, Robert Kroetsch, Michael Ondaatje, Chris Scott, Susan Swan, Audrey Thomas, Aritha van Herk, and others.

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

246 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.