Setting in the East: Maritime Realist Fiction

Tom Venetis is a professional journalist and editor in Toronto.

David Creelman should be read by anyone studying Canadian fiction,
particularly modern Canadian fiction. In this book, he focuses on the
Maritimes and the writers who emerged between 1920 and 2000, including
Thomas Raddall, Hugh MacLennan, Alden Nowlan, Alistair MacLeod, Lynn
Coady, and Sheldon Currie.

What interests Creelman is how these Maritime authors approached the
idea of realism. While realism has a long history, stretching back to
the 19th century, realism as a form came late to the Maritime provinces.
Creelman argues that realism resulted from the shifting economic and
cultural changes that swept Atlantic Canada. As traditional industries
in the Maritimes began to decline in the early 20th century, so did
communities. Traditional ways of life began to fade or were permanently
damaged as a result.

Creelman argues that many Maritime writers are torn between the past
and its traditions and the economic and social realities of the present,
and that realism provides a way of navigating this tension. How each
writer uses realism to do this is Creelman’s focus. Some argue for a
return to tradition in order to survive the upheavals that the Maritimes
continue to suffer from, while others offer a more radical critique of
social and communal institutions. Creelman suggests that all of these
writers, despite their different approaches, are united by a communal
sense of the region.