The first anthology of critical interpretations of major Canadian short
stories.
Beginning in the 1890s, reaching its first full realization by modernist
writers in the 1920s, and brought to its heyday during the Canadian
Renaissance starting in the 1960s, the short story has become Canada's
flagship genre. Itcontinues to attract the country's most accomplished
and innovative writers today, among them Margaret Atwood, Mavis Gallant,
Alice Munro, Clark Blaise, and many others. Yet in contrast to the
stature and popularity of the genreand the writers who partake in it,
surprisingly little literary criticism has been devoted to the Canadian
short story. This book redresses that imbalance by providing the first
collection of critical interpretations of thirty well-known and
often-anthologized Canadian short stories from the genre's beginnings
through the twentieth century. A historical survey of the genre
introduces the volume and a timeline comparing the genre's development
in Canada, the US, and Great Britain completes it. Geared both to
specialists in and students of Canadian literature, the volume is of
particular benefit to the latter because it provides not only a
collection of interpretations, but a comprehensive introduction to the
history of the Canadian short story.
Contributors: Reingard M. Nischik, Martina Seifert, Heinz Antor, Julia
Breitbach, Konrad Gross, Paul Goetsch, Dieter Meindl, Nina Kück, Stefan
Ferguson, Rudolf Bader, Fabienne C. Quennet, Martin Kuester, Jutta
Zimmermann, Sylvia Mergenthal, Caroline Rosenthal, Wolfgang Klooss,
Lothar Hönnighausen, Heinz Ickstadt, Heinz Ickstadt, Gordon Bölling,
Christina Strobel, Waldemar Zacharasiewicz, Nadja Gernalzick, Eva
Gruber, Brigitte Glaser, Georgiana Banita.
Reingard M. Nischik is Professor of American Literature at the
University of Konstanz, Germany.
