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An uncomfortable match: Canadian literature and Englishdepartments in Canada, 1919--1965

King, Sarah D. The University of Western Ontario (Canada), ProQuest, UMIDissertations Publishing, 2003. NQ96696.Active la funcin de subrayado de resultados en los navegadores por voz

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Using Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of field and capital, this thesis traces the development of

courses in Canadianliterature in Canadian university English departments. Its main argument

is that the lengthy process of admitting Canadian literature to the English curriculum, which

began in the 1920s but was not widely successful until the late 1960s, is due, not to debate

over the literary merit of Canadian literature, but to a lack of agreement about the purpose

and content of English studies. This disagreement has its roots in the two arguments used to

justify English studies in Canada: Arnoldian idealism and Romantic nationalism.

In the 1880s, the first Canadian English professors established an English curriculum devoted

solely to theliterature of England. They defended these new departments on the basis of the

literary merit and cultural significance of English literature to Canadians. Beginning as early

as 1908, Canadian English departments introduced courses in Canadian literature and

adapted the study of American literature, sanctioned by English departments in the United

States, to Canadian purposes by creating a new hybrid: courses in American and

Canadian literature. These courses were taught at every university in Canada and enabled

Canadianliterature to find a place on an English curriculum dominated by Arnoldian idealism

and, as of the 1930s, New Criticism. Throughout the 1930s, 1940s, and into the 1950s,

professors interested in promoting Canadianliterature taught American and

Canadian literature, adapting the new critical terminology and methodology and applying

them to Canadian literary tradition. After World War II, departments began separating North

American literature into independent courses in Canadian literature and American literature.

They also developed graduate work in Canadian literature.

The thesis includes a general account of the development of Canadian literature studies in

Canada, as well as histories of Canadian literature studies at seventeen Canadian

universities: Acadia University, Dalhousie University, Mount Allison University, the University

of New Brunswick, McGill University, Bishop's University, Sir George Williams/Concordia

University, the University of Montreal, the University of Sherbrooke, the University of

Toronto, Queen's University, the University of Western Ontario, Carleton University, the

University of Manitoba, the University of Saskatchewan, the University of Alberta, and the

University of British Columbia.

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