ENGL 378 B1: Contemporary Canadian Literature

J. Rak

What is “Canada” and what does it mean to be “Canadian”? Is there one CanLit, or many Canadian literatures? What does literature in Canada have to say about Canada’s colonial history and neocolonial reality, ongoing struggles for justice, the impact of social media and even pandemics? In this course, we’ll ask and try to answer these questions and more in our readings of essays, novels, poems, graphic novels, nonfiction and stories by some of the best writers in Canada who are writing right now. If you are a writer or an editor, if you dream about becoming a teacher or if you just want to learn more about contemporary writing made where you live, this is the course for you.

Texts
Dionne Brand, A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes on Belonging
Larissa Lai, The Tiger Flu
Rob Taylor, Best Canadian Poetry 2019
Heather O’Neill, Lullabies for Little Criminals
Michael Yahgulanaas, Red: A Haida Manga
Short stories, essays, radio plays