The Canadian Suburban Novel 1940-2020: Redefining the Rudiments of the Genre

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F46747885%3A24510%2F25%3A00013765" target="_blank" >RIV/46747885:24510/25:00013765 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-01787-1_6" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-032-01787-1_6</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-01787-1_6" target="_blank" >10.1007/978-3-032-01787-1_6</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Canadian Suburban Novel 1940-2020: Redefining the Rudiments of the Genre

Original language description

This chapter examines the suburban novel as a distinct genre in Canadian literature. Phyllis Brett Young‘s The Torontonians (1960) may be recognized as the first Canadian instance of the genre, but MacLennan‘s trio of „nationalist novels” published as early as in the 1940s is suggested to be also considered. MacLennan‘s novels offer a philosophical frame related to the issue of nation-wide discussions on Canadian identity that the country was immersed into for decades, and they were part of that discussion. Brett Young‘s novel is seen as fitting into MacLennan‘s framework, and both novelists‘ works as ones complementing the others. With this foundational context in mind, an analysis of five post-1960 novels by Bruce Wright, Barbara Gowdy, Gerald Lynch, Colin McAdam, and Carrianne Leung - published between 1970 and 2018 - will be undertaken. Out of two layers of analysis, the first one will involve a comparative, imagologically oriented analysis of common thematic denominators such as the emergence and the anticipated inevitable decline of Canadian suburbs, the impact of materialism and consumerism on suburbanites, as well as a portrayal of human relationships against the backdrop constituted by the first two aspects. Based on this analysis, two additional questions will be addressed. The first one will attempt to determine whether the suburbs are reluctant to change in time. The second will examine the necessity of a strict distinction between the urban and the suburban while also exploring the potential implications of such a conceptual shift for individual novels in the analyzed corpus of texts.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60206 - Specific literatures

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Suburbia Reconsidered, Volume 1: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Suburbia and Literature

ISBN

978-3-032-01786-4

Number of pages of the result

14

Pages from-to

67-80

Number of pages of the book

183

Publisher name

Springer

Place of publication

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UT code for WoS chapter

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