Writing in the Time of Nationalism: From Two Solitudes to Blue Metropolis

by Leith, Linda

• ISBN13: 9781897109489
• ISBN10: 1897109482
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-30
• Publisher: Utp Distribution

Summary

Montreal was the literary centre of Canada in the 1940s, a hotbed of literary activity in both English and French crowned by the international success of Hugh MacLennan’s Two Solitudesand Gabrielle Roy’s The Tin Flute. With the rise of nationalism in both English Canada and Quebec, Toronto emerged as the literary centre of English Canada, with Montreal the literary centre of Quebec. In literary terms, Canada and Quebec became two different countries, with two different languages and two different literatures. English Montreal went into decline and its once-great writers were marginalized. Writing in the Time of Nationalism: A Montreal Lifeis an insider’s story of the writers who have been caught between these rival nationalisms. Herself a writer, Linda Leith was a leading figure in the creation of the Quebec Writers’ Federation, and she is founder of Blue Metropolis Foundation. The story she tells is the story of a literary community that went missing from the map of Canada for a generation, and that has reemerged over the past ten years in a renaissance that has garnered international attention.

Author Biography

Linda Leith is a Montreal writer born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is the author of three novels, the most recent of which is The Desert Lake (2007), and of three works of literary non-fiction, including the memoir Marrying Hungary (2008). She founded Blue Metropolis Foundation in 1997 and is artistic director of the Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival.

Table of Contents

Separate Legends	p. 9
Writers Without a Country	p. 17
The Good Old Bad Old Days	p. 31
Nationalism and Its Discontents	p. 43
A Case Study in Marginality	p. 66
Making a Start	p. 83
Late in the Afternoon	p. 94
Ferment	p. 106
The City of Words	p. 120
The Nationalist Response	p. 134
Revival	p. 146
Notes	p. 168
Bibliography	p. 176
Index	p. 195
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