Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, Vol. IV

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

The state of the literary art in Canada has changed almost beyond belief
in the 25 years since the single-volume first edition of this work came
out. The current volume is dedicated to the original editor, Carl
Klinck, who undertook in that 1965 introduction to document a tradition
whose existence seemed in doubt.

The next edition was published as a three-volume set in 1976, covering
1960–1972. The current volume deals with 1972 through 1984. Given the
pace of publication in these years, it has not been an easy task, and
the thoroughness of the coverage is of course uneven. It has taken 10
years to bring the work to completion.

William New’s 20-page introduction claims to redefine the field it
surveys and to establish the notion of “indeterminacy” through a new
self-consciousness about the processes of interpretation.

Sixteen chapters cover poetry, short fiction, the novel, translation,
theory and criticism, scholarship and criticism, the media, theatre,
children’s literature, folklore, anthropological literature, political
science, history, life-writing, and writings in psychology.

France Halpenny’s “From Author to Reader,” a fitting conclusion,
addresses the book trade, analytical bibliography, and the place of
books in Canadian society.

Carl Berger’s wide-ranging essay on the many types of Canadian
historical writing provides an intellectual history of these years.

Vol. 4 of Literary History of Canada is an impressive work and an
invaluable aid both to the general reader and to scholars in the
humanities.