Nationalism

Canadian Literature is proud to present Reading and Writing Canada: A Classroom Guide to Nationalism, our first completed TLEF-supported learning resource. Reading and Writing Canada is part of the CanLit Guides project, which takes full advantage of Canadian Literature’s online archives to introduce students to academic discourse on Canadian literature.

This guide was developed by a team at Canadian Literature to introduce Canadian culture, writing, and criticism with a focus on the fluctuating concept of nationalism. We would like to thank all of the scholars who donated their time to making a useful and engaging resource for university instructors and students.

Reading and Writing Canada follows currents in nationalism throughout Canadian history, introduces scholarly criticism and commentary, and engages students with academic discourse in their own reading and writing.

Some highlights of the guide include:
History and Culture
Students are encouraged to think about the historical and cultural contexts that inform literature. Reading and Writing Canada introduces students to scholarly criticism by giving a condensed overview of the development of nationalism in Canada, examining issues such as colonialism, war, immigration, discrimination, and multiculturalism.
Case Studies
Students are given a chance to apply close reading strategies with literary Case Studies on Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Wayson Choy’s The Jade Peony, and Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For. With reading questions and connections to articles published in Canadian Literature, students are introduced to in-depth reading strategies in conjunction with literary criticism.
Poems
To enrich students’ experience with Reading and Writing Canada, we have interspersed the guide with poems originally published in Canadian Literature. These poems reflect on some of the issues surrounding nationalism introduced throughout the guide, and encourage students to think about connections between literature and the contexts introduced in other chapters.

Thank you for visiting. We hope you enjoy Reading and Writing Canada: A Classroom Guide to Nationalism.