Papers from the Conference on Violence in the Canadian Novel since 1960

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

This unusual theme was deliberately chosen in order to get maximum mileage from American influence on Canadian writing during the sixties and seventies, for these were the years of Vietnam, assassinations, decaying cities, crime, and such juicy thoughts as “Murder City.” Also there are our own English — French séparatiste relations, and the violence of bombs and kidnappings. English-Canadian novels seem to reflect an American influence, while French-Canadian novels reflect French-English-Canadian violence. Contributors here include Robin Matthews, Lois MacKendrick, and Robert Kroetsch, while topics include selected books (such as The Wars, La guerre yes sir, La belle bête) and authors (Claude Jasmin, Alice Munro). Certainly these papers are worth reading, since there are precious few other items about violence in Canada, and they should be acquired by libraries with Canadian literature programs. There are twelve papers in all, three in French and the balance in English.