Transnational Canadas: Anglo-Canadian Literature and Globalization

by Kit Dobson

Transnational Canadas marks the first sustained inquiry into the relationship between globalization and Canadian literature written in English. Tracking developments in the literature and its study from the centennial period to the present, it shows how current work in transnational studies can provide new insights for researchers and students. Arguing first that the dichotomy of Canadian nationalism and globalization is no longer valid in today’s economic climate, Transnational Canadas explores the legacy of leftist nationalism in Canadian literature. It examines the interventions of multicultural writing in the 1980s and 1990s, investigating the cultural politics of the period and how they increasingly became part of Canada’s state structure. Under globalization, the book concludes, we need to understand new forms of subjectivity and mobility as sites for cultural politics and look beyond received notions of belonging and being. An original contribution to the study of Canadian literature, Transnational Canadas seeks to invigorate discussion by challenging students and researchers to understand the national and the global simultaneously, to look at the politics of identity beyond the rubric of multiculturalism, and to rethink the slippery notion of the political for the contemporary era.

258 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Kit Dobson is an associate professor of Canadian literature at Calgary’s Mount Royal University. He is the author of Transnational Canadas: Anglo-Canadian Literature and Globalization (WLU Press, 2009), and co-author, with Smaro Kamboureli, of Producing Canadian Literature: Authors Speak on the Literary Marketplace (WLU Press, 2012).

Reviews

[quasialidia · Rating 2 out of 5]

So poorly written it reminded me of an undergraduates paper at times. I don't think Kit Dobson had a very good proof reader nor editor. Bad sentence structure. Clunky writing. Bad transitioning and set ups of chapters. The writing and structuring really take away from what Dodson is trying to argue and overshadows the very interesting (and at times controversial) arguments about Canadian Literature and Identity. Also, one the poor side for criticizing Marx and Marxism, especially in the context of aboriginal identity and colonization. Also, for a text dedicated to going beyond white middle class English CanLit, this books focus on canonical texts written in English for white audiences (except maybe Slash) is so disappointing and ironic. Like, really, with all the focus on language, talking about at least one text not written in English nor for English readers would have been awesome.