Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts, Volume 2 by Cynthia Sugars

Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts, is a comprehensive, multi-genre Canadian literature anthology that strives to give a broad, complete picture of the history of English-Canadian poetry, short fiction, pamphlets, nonfiction, and essays, ranging from the sixteenth century to the present.

The text includes important writings by canonical and non-canonical, literary and “non-literary” Canadian authors for each time period, and combines these with visual materials and contextual pieces such as political speeches, government documents, maps, photographs, paintings, newspaper articles, cartoons, autobiographical statements, songs, and popular culture texts. The text is divided into seven sections, each prefaced by an introductory essay that links the selections within that section and provides historical, cultural, and literary context.

Careful attention has been paid to finding works that make intertextual references to each other, allowing students to chart the central debates surrounding the formation of Canadian national literary and cultural traditions.