Nationalism and Literature
The Politics of Culture in Canada and the United States

This 1996 book presents a theory of formation of national literatures, based on analysis of 200 American and Canadian novels.

Sarah M. Corse (Author)

9780521570022, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 October 1996

226 pages, 10 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.449 kg

"Sarah Corse's comparative study of Canadian and American literature...asks why two industrialized, predominantly English-speaking neighboring nations should espouse such radically different images of their own national characters." Graham Fraser, College Literature

Sarah Corse's analysis of nearly two hundred American and Canadian novels offers a theory of national literatures. Demonstrating that national canon formation occurs in tandem with nation-building, and that canonical novels play a symbolic role in this, this 1996 book accounts for cross-national literary differences, addresses issues of mediation and representation in theories of 'reflection', and illuminates the historically constructed nature of the relationship between literature and the nation-state.

1. Introduction: cultural fields and literary use
2. Nation-building and the historical timing of a national literature in the United States
3. Nation-building and the historical timing of a national literature in Canada
4. The canonical novels: the politics of cultural nationalism
5. The literary prize-winners: revision and renewal
6. The bestsellers: the economics of publishing and the convergence of popular taste
7. Literary meaning and cultural use
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Cultural studies [JFC]