Wacousta is a novel by John Richardson. [1] It was first published in December 1832 by Thomas Cadell in London and William Blackwood in Edinburgh. [2] Wacousta is sometimes claimed as the first Canadian novel, [3] although in fact it is preceded by Julia Catherine Beckwith's St. Ursula's Convent; or, The Nun of Canada (Kingston, 1824). Wacousta is better categorized as the first attempt by a Canadian-born author at historical fiction.
However, it is one of the first novels written by a Canadian-born author about Canada, and, in spite of its overwrought sentimentalism, it has been treated as a seminal work in the development of a Canadian literary sensibility. [4]
Its themes include prophecy and opposites, such as manliness vs. effeminacy, wilderness/wildness vs. civilization, sensibility vs. compassion and the natural vs. the supernatural among others.
In the period of publication, Wacousta was quite popular not only in Canada, but also in the United States. A contemporary novel it competed with was James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans . Where they differ is that Cooper's novel focuses on the efforts of the individual within the whole, but Richardson's novel concerns itself with broader cross-cultural motivations. Canadian critic Joseph Pivato has pointed out that the image of the British settlers huddled together inside the fort inspired Northrop Frye to propose his "garrison mentality" theory for Canadian literature.
Herman Northrop Frye was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century.
Edwin John Dove Pratt, who published as E. J. Pratt, was a Canadian poet. Originally from Newfoundland, Pratt lived most of his life in Toronto, Ontario. A three-time winner of the country's Governor General's Award for poetry, he has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."
John Richardson was a Canadian officer in the British Army who became the first Canadian-born novelist to achieve international recognition.
Arthur James Marshall Smith was a Canadian poet and anthologist. He "was a prominent member of a group of Montreal poets" – the Montreal Group, which included Leon Edel, Leo Kennedy, A. M. Klein, and F. R. Scott — "who distinguished themselves by their modernism in a culture still rigidly rooted in Victorianism."
Jeffery William Donaldson is a Canadian poet and critic.
Jean Jay Macpherson was a Canadian lyric poet and scholar. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls her "a member of 'the mythopoeic school of poetry,' who expressed serious religious and philosophical themes in symbolic verse that was often lyrical or comic."
Alvin A. Lee, is a Canadian literary critic and former academic administrator.
Isabella Valancy Crawford was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer.
Bruce William Powe, commonly known as B. W. Powe, is a Canadian poet, novelist, essayist, philosopher, and teacher.
Imre Salusinszky is an Australian journalist, political adviser and English literature academic who is currently media adviser to former Australian Government Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, Paul Fletcher.
The theory of garrison mentality argues that early Canadian identity was characterised by fear of an empty and hostile national landscape. It suggests that the environment's impact on the national psyche has influenced themes within Canadian literature, cinema and television. The term was first coined by literary critic Northrop Frye in the Literary History of Canada (1965), who used the metaphorical image of a garrison to illustrate that Canadians are defensive and hiding from external forces. It was then expanded upon by various other critics, including authors and academics. The garrison mentality is apparent in both older and more contemporary Canadian literature and media. The theory has received criticism and praise for its overarching premise that the natural environment has determined the qualities of a population.
The Frye Festival, formerly known as the Northrop Frye International Literary Festival, is a bilingual literary festival held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada in April of each year. The festival began in 1999 and honours noted literary critic Herman Northrop Frye (1912–1991), who spent his formative years in Moncton, graduating from Aberdeen High School.
Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake is a 1947 book by Canadian literary critic Northrop Frye whose subject is the work of English poet and visual artist William Blake. The book has been hailed as one of the most important contributions to the study of William Blake and one of the first that embarked on the interpretation of many of Blake's most obscure works. As Frye himself acknowledges, Blake's work is not to be deciphered but interpreted and seen within its specific historical and social contexts.
John Errington Moss is a Canadian author. Notable for the Quin and Morgan novels that he began after teaching for many years at the University of Ottawa, he has lectured on Canadian literature in Europe, the United States, Japan, Greenland, and the Canary Islands. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Edward Killoran Brown, who wrote as E. K. Brown, was a Canadian professor and literary critic. He "influenced Canadian literature primarily through his award-winning book On Canadian Poetry (1943)," which "established the standards of excellence and many of the subsequent directions of Canadian criticism." Northrop Frye called him "the first critic to bring Canadian literature into its proper context".
Southern Cross is the sole wordless novel by Canadian artist Laurence Hyde (1914–1987). Published in 1951, its 118 wood-engraved images narrate the impact of atomic testing on Pacific islanders. Hyde made the book to express his anger at the US military's nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll.
Oscar Pelham Edgar was a Canadian teacher. He was a full professor and head of the Department of English at the Victoria College, Toronto from 1910 to 1938. He wrote many articles and several monographs on English literature. He had a talent for identifying and encouraging promising new authors. He was an active member of various literary societies, and was the force behind the establishment of the Canadian Writers’ Foundation to help needy authors.
John Daniel Robins was a Canadian academic and humorist. A longtime professor of German and English literature at the University of Toronto's Victoria University, he was most noted for his book The Incomplete Anglers, which was co-winner with E. K. Brown's On Canadian Poetry of the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1943 Governor General's Awards.
Francis William Grey (1860–1939) was a British-born Canadian writer and academic. He was most noted for his 1899 novel The Curé of St. Philippe, which was republished by McClelland and Stewart's New Canadian Library series in 1970.
The Canadian Brothers; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled: A Tale of the Late American War is a novel by John Richardson first published in 1840. A sequel to Richardson's 1832 novel Wacousta, Canadian Brothers concerns the titular brothers Gerald and Henry Grantham, two British army officers in the War of 1812, and Gerald's ill-fated romance with Matilda Montgomerie, an American who is revealed as the daughter of villain Jeremiah Desborough.