An Independent Stance: Essays on English-Canadian Criticism and Fiction

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.

The study of English literature (and, by forced alliance, Canadian
literature) is beset by “isms.” Critical obfuscation is rampant. And
the secondary text, not the primary, is now idolized. But here and there
a reactionary voice is heard, and none more powerful and insistent than
that of Keith, whose stance, though independent, is thankfully not
unique. Eloquently and lucidly urging the validity (even necessity) of
evaluative and formalist criticism—paying attention to the primary
text, its artistic “making” and its artistic value (what it says
about life)—Keith offers eight essays on critical theory and practice,
and a further 13 on a variety of Canadian writers, in all of which the
argument for the “inevitability of evaluation” is “consistently
and conspicuously” made.

This is a diverse set of essays, most of them previously published,
which may be read individually as commentaries on Louis Dudek, Margaret
Atwood, John Metcalf, Philip Grove, Ethel Wilson, Robertson Davies,
Margaret Laurence, Hugh Hood, and Jack Hodgins; or together as a
manifesto on modern Canadian criticism and literature. Either way, the
reading is a salutary experience whose conclusion is summed up in
Keith’s essay on Atwood’s Bluebeard’s Egg: “We need to approach
literature not with made-to-measure theory but with a flexible, verbally
sensitive critical practice that attempts, tentatively, humbly,
sometimes painfully, to develop a tradition of close and accurate
reading.” This is not, as I’m sure Keith would agree, a plea to
ignore history, biography, or cultural milieu, but rather one that urges
the paramount importance of the primary text.