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)

9780521579124, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 October 1996

226 pages, 10 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 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]