The Bicentennial Lectures on New Brunswick Literature

Don Precosky teaches English at the College of New Caledonia and is the
co-editor of Four Realities: Poets of Northern B.C.

The three essays in this book are from lectures given at Mount Allison University in 1984/85. The first is “Bliss Carman and the Poetry of Mystery: A Defence of the Personal Fallacy,” by Malcolm Ross. It is highly personal recollections of Ross’s first childhood encounters with Carman’s poetry. Ross recalls that he loved the poetry because it was about New Brunswick as he knew it. He makes the important point that Carman was not the mere dreamer he has often been pictured as. Through nostalgia Ross skillfully creates a sense of the continuity of the New Brunswick literary tradition. The second essay is “Some Aspects of the Linear and Non-Linear Novel,” by Fred Cogswell. It does not say much about New Brunswick writers specifically, being instead a general, theoretical piece. While Ross looks back, asking us to change our evaluation of Carman, Cogswell looks forward, telling us we must change our methods of reading new fiction. The third essay, “La littérature acadienne: d’un printemps a l’autre,” is by Marguerite Maillet. The subtitle captures her thesis: Acadian writing goes from one beginning to another, but these several starts, when put together, present a commendable record of accomplishment. Hers, unfortunately, is the only essay that gives attention to contemporary New Brunswick writers.