Canadian Literature is a quarterly journal of criticism and review, founded in 1959 and published by the University of British Columbia. The journal publishes articles which discuss and inform about the academic aspects of the Canadian literary field, and also a range of creative material from Canadian and international scholars, writers, and poets. Each issue contains a variety of articles and an extensive book reviews section. Rather than focusing on a single theoretical approach, Canadian Literature contains articles on all subjects relating to writers and writing in Canada. Each issue contains both English and French content from a range of contributors and has been described as "critically eclectic".
Video Canadian Literature (journal)
Publication
Canadian Literature alternates general and special issues. The general issues deal with a range of periods and topics, while the special issues focus on more specific topics, including travel, ethnicity, women's writing, and multiculturalism.
The journal's average length is 208 pages. The print circulation is approximately 1,000 copies; readership is worldwide as it is distributed in Canada, US, and twenty-five other countries. Institutions make up 85% of the subscription base, which is largely made up of university and college libraries. In 2007, Canadian Literature's subscriber base was 45% Canadian, 36% American and 19% international.
Maps Canadian Literature (journal)
History
Founding
Canadian Literature was established in the autumn of 1958 by Roy Daniells and George Woodcock at the University of British Columbia. The first issue appeared in summer 1959 to skeptical reception because of a general belief that Canada had no national literature; some critics predicted that the journal would run out of material after only a few issues. Initially, editor George Woodcock intended that Canadian Literature would be fully bilingual in French and English, but due to the lack of French submissions, after ten years of publication French-language material never rose above 10% of an issue's content. At the time of its foundation, Canadian Literature was the first and only quarterly entirely devoted to the discussion and criticism of Canadian writing and literature.
Although the position of editor eventually went to George Woodcock, the university's first choice was folk bibliographer. UBC's only specialist in Canadian literature, Reginald Watters; the position was offered to Woodcock after Watters decided to accept a fellowship in Australia. As editor Woodcock strove to keep the journal from being purely academic, instead adopting a tone "serious but not academic, popular but not journalistic, contextual more than textual" (Fetherling). Woodcock later attributed Canadian Literature's success to having arrived "at the right moment in the development of a Canadian literary tradition, and created its own ground swell of critical activity."
Peer review
Woodcock resigned from editorship in 1977, having edited 73 issues of the journal.After Woodcock's retirement, the University of British Columbia invited William H. New, who had been an assistant editor since 1965, to act as editor. New chose to give priority to First Nations, Asian Canadian, Caribbean Canadian and other minority literatures, which previously had been under-represented in Canadian literary criticism. He also set up a peer review process for the journal, with the goal of drawing readership from both general and scholarly audiences.. New retired from the position of Editor in 1955, having edited 72 issues.
Editorial board
Between 1995 and 2003, Eva-Marie Kröller took up the role of editor. In addition to producing thirty-four issues, Kröller raised the journal's reputation worldwide by establishing an international editorial board made up of Canadian and international scholars. She refined the peer-review process for article submissions, which had been started by New. During Kröller's editorship, Canadian Literature fortified its commitment to Canadian francophone writers by appointing its first Associate Editor specifically for francophone writing, Michel Rocheleau. Under Associate Editor Réjean Beaudoin's guidance, Canadian Literature published several special issues featuring a majority of French content, such as "Littérature Francophone hors-Québec / Francophone Writing Outside Quebec."
Design changes
In 1995, the journal underwent major design changes: it moved from plain beige covers to coloured, changed to a narrower trim, and added more pages to each issue in order to accommodate an expanded focus on themes such as postcolonialism, poetics, cultural history, and multiculturalism. The journal also continued publishing original poems by Canadian writers.
In 2003, Laurie Ricou, who had been either an associate or acting editor since 1983, became the journal's editor. Ricou's term ended in 2007 and Margery Fee taking the helm as editor.
Fiftieth anniversary
Canadian Literature celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009 by holding a four-day gala from September 30 to October 3, 2009. It included a two-day conference entitled "The Future of Canadian literature / Canadian Literature" featuring talks by Canadian writers and scholars Thomas King, Roch Carrier, Steven Galloway and Aritha Van Herk, along with presentations and short talks by Canadian and international academics and graduate students.
The conference was followed by the launches of Sherrill Grace's book On the Art of Being Canadian, published by UBC Press and From A Speaking Place: Writings from the First Fifty Years of Canadian Literature, edited by W. H. New, and published by Ronsdale Press. A silent auction to support undergraduate students interning at Canadian Literature included pieces donated by Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Dennis Lee, Thomas King, Patrick Lane, Joni Mitchell, Fred Wah.
Online presence
In 2012, Canadian Literature launched a free online classroom resource called CanLit Guides. The guides use archival material from the journal to teach students about academic writing and reading.
Awards
In 1988, Canadian Literature became the only journal to win the Gabrielle Roy Prize for best English book-length studies in Canadian and Québec literary criticism. The US-based Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) presented Eva-Marie Kröller with a Distinguished Editor award in 2004 in recognition of her work with Canadian Literature. In 2004, William H. New was awarded the Governor General's International Award for Canadian Studies. In 2006, Eva-Marie Kröller and Laurie Ricou joined W. H. New, who was elected in 1986, as Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2007, the Governor General named New an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2009, Canadian Literature won a Canadian Online Publishing Award for Best Cross Platform for their poetry archive CanLit Poets. The publication of Canadian Literature is assisted by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council the UBC Faculty of Arts, and acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund towards web enhancement.
Notes
External links
- Canadian Literature website
- Canadian Literature on the Canadian Association of Learned Journals (CALJ) website.
- CanLit Guides: online classroom resources curated by Canadian Literature
Source of article : Wikipedia
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