QUILLBLOG

Loading the canon

There is nothing – aside from the sight of paint drying, perhaps – quite like the creation of fantasy CanLit canons.

On Canada Day, The Globe and Mail had a number of people – mostly professors – propose new additions to the list of the 10 best Canadian novels drawn up at a conference in 1978. The newly proposed books don’t exactly shock with their left-fieldness – though there are a few less-expected nominees such as Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach, Rawi Hage’s IMPAC-winning De Niro’s Game, and Elizabeth Hay’s A Student of Weather. But then, canon-building is really about being counter-counter-intuitive, anyway. Read the Globe piece here.

BTW: Back in November, 2001, Q&Q took a close look at the evolving nature of the CanLit canon. Read Stephen Smith’s feature article here.

As a further post-Canada Day distraction, LWOT (“Lies With Occasional Truth”) magazine is hosting a contest entitled The Most Mediocre Canadian, created “to honour Canada’s glorious historical celebration of all things lackluster and second-rate.” You can vote for your choice here.

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