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During the first half of the twentieth century in British Columbia, French language was considered a school subject to be taught as any other using formal classical approaches. Generally, no specific provincial or local policies existed to guide how French was taught and learned. By 1981, however, British Columbia had developed explicit language policies for implementing various programs, such as "core French," "French immersion," and "programme-cadre." It did so despite the fact that fewer than two per cent of British Columbians spoke French as their mother tongue, and only about one-half of one per cent used French to communicate at home. The discussion in this article reconstructs the historical context and events that led British Columbia to embrace French language as a subject of study as well as French as a vehicle for learning and instruction. Why, from the end of World War II to the 1980s, did the province embrace core French, cadre and immersion programmes? (Contains 20 endnotes.)

In this article, I have presented findings from survey data to describe elementary teachers' and teacher-librarians' use of various genres of children's literature and their use of children's literature in specific curriculum areas. Data analysis revealed that teachers and teacher-librarians most frequently used the genres of non-fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy in their teaching. They used children's literature in language and social studies to a greater extent than in other curricular areas. In general, teachers' and teacher-librarians' use of Canadian literature was limited. I have concluded the article with a discussion of the importance of national literature in Canadian classrooms. (Contains 4 notes.) [Published May 2004]

In a country as diverse as Canada, spread over an incomprehensibly large land mass, the connections between citizens may require more imagination. One way that these connections have been traditionally imagined in Canada is through national myths, including the myth of the wilderness. This myth draws the Canadian identity out of an "untouched" wilderness landscape. As much as there are problems with the wilderness myth of Canada, the land provides a valuable connection between all disparate members of Canadian society. And so, the author proposes a much more inclusive re-imagining of this myth, in which people draw national identity from the land in all the variety of its meanings and uses. In this way, Canadians can work to develop attachments to their specific pieces of land, while acknowledging the interconnections of the national landscape. In this article, the author discusses how to build national identity through place-based outdoor education. She argues that educators need to introduce their students to the places in which they live, and encourage them to find the connections between their selves and their places in addition to fostering an understanding of their connections to others and other people's places.

Describes a U.S. literature course and a comparative literature course that focuses on Asian, African, Canadian, Caribbean, and Latin American literature. Asserts that students need to be aware of the European impact on the U.S. identity, even where it is unpleasant. Discusses the magical realism in the distinct artistic vision of Latin America. (PRA)

In 2006, the grade 12 program "Headwaters" was initiated and offered the following four courses: (1) Environment and Resource Management; (2) Canadian Literature; (3) Outdoor Activities; and (4) Interdisciplinary Studies. The author has always described the program as simply "school." The teachers teach curriculum courses outlined by the Ministry of Education. They are certified teachers hired by the public school system, and they support students to continue to play sports or music with their home schools. Their integrated programs are not intended to exist in isolation, but rather to support and enhance the educational possibilities for those in their community. The skills and lessons they impart are meant to be "taken back" and used in each student's home school, university or college. The overall theme of the Headwaters program is "A Journey to the Source." They attempt, metaphorically, to journey farther upstream, to the source of environmental and community problems, and to the source of solutions for a sustainable future. (Contains 2 endnotes.) [The full version of this article was first published in "Pathways," vol. 19, no. 3, p14-19 (2007).]

The paper deals with the processes of integration in Canadian society as represented by three different contemporary ethnic authors – Sharon Bala (The Boat People), Tea Mutonji (Shut up You’re Pretty) and Souvankham Thammavongsa (How to Pronounce Knife), all somewhat translating their transgenerational experiences as immigrants into their works. The negotiation of identities, in their respective works, happens at the margins of the Canadian society – the integral position of the immigrant individual whose marginalized status prescribes the performatives pertaining to class, race and gender. The commodification of this status underscores the shifting nature of Canadianness – as perceived by the margins and the center. The problematics of immigrant identity, its otherness and conditions of integration are represented in a highly ironic and postmodern manner, highlighting the issue of hypocritical enforcement of liberal policies in western societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study explores factors contributing to refugees’ resilience in Regina, Saskatchewan. It aims to add to the emerging body of Canadian literature on refugees’ strengths and experiences as they navigate resettlement in smaller urban centres. Data were collected from three focus groups that explored the experiences of 15 people from seven countries who had settled in Saskatchewan. Findings show common patterns that contributed to resilience for refugees, including pursuits of Canadian education, employment, social networks, and personal qualities. Conclusions indicate that protective factors (i.e., personal characteristics, social supports and networks, starting over in education and employment) that facilitated resilience for participants interacted and worked together to help them overcome adversity during settlement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article explores the experiences of Eastern and Central European immigrants in North America, focusing on themes of memory, identity, and belonging. It discusses the challenges faced by these immigrants, including nativist rhetoric and the risk of assimilation. The article examines the changing representations of Eastern and Central Europe in North America through various narrative forms such as novels, memoirs, graphic novels, and TV shows. It highlights the importance of memory and identity in understanding the complex experiences of these immigrant communities, and includes analyses of specific works and an interview with a Polish American writer. Overall, the article provides a diverse and nuanced perspective on the presence of Eastern and Central European communities in North America. [Extracted from the article]

This review looks at Canadian Literary Fare by Nathalie Cooke and Shelley Boyd, with Alexia Moyer. The book gives an unconventional exploration of 'food voices' in Canadian literature. The authors examine the food narratives of celebrated Canadian writers, like Alice Munro, Eden Robinson, Fred Wah, M. NourbeSe Philip, Tomson Highway, Rabindranath Maharaj, and others. The book explores the interactions between literary characters and food, challenging preconceptions about Canadian cuisine. It highlights the voices of Indigenous and immigrant writers, emphasizing the role of food in decolonization and reshaping identities. The authors discuss iconic Canadian foods, the symbolism of food markets, and food as demonstrative of struggles with poverty. Canadian Literary Fare is a valuable resource for those interested in the interplay between food culture and identity. It provides a refreshing departure from traditional approaches, examining Canadian culture through alternative 'food voices'.

There have been increased calls to address the growing mental health concerns of postsecondary students in Canada. Health promotion focuses on prevention and is needed as part of a comprehensive approach to student mental health support, with an emphasis on not just the individual but also the sociocultural environment of postsecondary institutions. The aim was to conduct a scoping review of the literature pertaining to the associations between postsecondary institutional factors and student wellbeing. The review included a comprehensive search strategy, relevance screening and confirmation, and data charting. Overall, 33 relevant studies were identified. Major findings provide evidence that institutional attitudes, institutional (in)action, perceived campus safety, and campus climate are associated with mental wellbeing, suggesting that campus-wide interventions can benefit from continued monitoring and targeting these measures among student populations. Due to the large variability in reporting and measurement of outcomes, the development of standardized measures for measuring institutional-level factors are needed. Furthermore, institutional participation and scaling up established population-level assessments in Canada that can help systematically collect, evaluate, and compare findings across institutions and detect changes in relevant mental health outcomes through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes different forms of intertext (biblical, artistic, and mythological) in L.M. Montgomery's bestselling novel Anne of Green Gables in order to determine the novel's intertextual connections with various phenomena of literature and art, and explore how the meanings of these intertextual elements are transformed in Anne of Green Gables as opposed to their original sources. While the plot of Anne Shirley's growing up unravels locally (in a small Canadian town named Avonlea), it is also part of a broader cultural context, which is represented largely by intertextual means (direct and indirect quotations, allusions to the works by R. Browning, H.C. Andersen, W. Shakespeare, L. Carroll, W. Scott et al.). In this way, the author emphasizes Anne's romantic worldview, her open-mindedness and vivid interest in literature, art and nature. By referencing the works of W. Shakespeare and S.T. Coleridge, L.M. Montgomery aims to further illustrate the motive of loneliness and abandonment as they are related to her heroine's story (having lost her parents and spent the majority of her life in an orphan asylum). Biblical intertext also plays an important role when it comes to the relationship between Anne Shirley and Matthew Cuthbert. Different forms of intertext (literary, biblical, mythological) fulfil important functions in the text, especially in terms of creating multi-faceted characters, the social and cultural atmosphere of L.M. Montgomery's era, and the various problems (social, moral, and artistic) discussed in her works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Künstlerroman may well be considered one of the genres that have blossomed most prominently in the 20th century English-Canadian literature, research investigating its poetics has remained on the fringes of literary scholarship. This paper examines L.M. Montgomery's sophisticated use of the Künstlerinroman through her portraits of female writers in the Emily and Anne series. My goal is to explore how Montgomery's heroines choose to narrate themselves and the world around them, how they transcend difficulties and assert their own unique perspectives. Therefore, this paper examines not only the socio-cultural environment which served as background for the creation of literature, but also the writer's reflections regarding the process of bringing said literature into the world. Drawing on the scholarship of J. Buckley, R. Seret, E. Varsamopoulou, F. Hammill, K. Macfarlane, G.A. Guth and others, this paper aims to analyze L.M. Montgomery's "sophisticated handling of genre" (E.R. Epperly) in greater depth and place her portraits of the female artists within a broader cultural and literary context. The question of female subjectivity, which concerns women's perceptions of their own writing (and their fate as artists), is central to my research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people who make refugee claims in Canada negotiate a complex nexus of identity, belonging, and citizenship. Drawing on insights from TGNC refugees, immigration lawyers, and frontline workers, in this paper we examine the ways the state controls the trans body through the refugee claims process and in the process of integration into life in Canada, while also highlighting trans refugee methods of survival and resistance. What emerges is an understanding of the ways that refugees navigate the tension between gender, sexuality, and homecoming as both intimately felt and geopolitically managed. We convey TGNC refugee narratives to demonstrate how they both confirm and expand upon the existing literature on Canadian LGBTQ+ refugees. TGNC refugees' experiences at the Immigration and Refugee Board confirm insights from existing LGBTQ+ refugee studies. However, TGNC refugees' day‐to‐day lives differ significantly from LGB refugee lives as recounted in the literature. In TGNC refugees' attempts to access gender‐affirming documentation, healthcare, housing, and income, they confront distinct systems of transgender exceptionalism, border imperialism, and racial and heteropatriarchal capitalism that limit their access to basic necessities and impact how they build home both conceptually and materially. Key Messages: Refugee narratives elicited at the Immigration and Refugee Board follow a logic of "transgender exceptionalism" and often diverge from the complexity of Trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) refugee experiences.TGNC refugees experience barriers to accessing housing, healthcare, adequate documentation, and employment due to histories and systems of oppression.These narratives demonstrate that the trans refugee homemaking process is implicated in nationalism, but also shows the needs to push against this limiting frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes two versions of feminine nihilism in the French-speaking Canada: Nelly Arcan, especially in her posthumous book, Burqa de chair, and Catherine Mavrikakis, in two of her novels, Deuils cannibales et mélancoliques and La ballade d’Ali Baba. By emphasizing the terms mélanomanie and néantisme, the headliners of the “professors of despair” in the homonymous book by Nancy Huston, my text defends the idea that the story-telling operation specific to the search for the “great novel” in La ballade d’Ali Baba is capable, through its reiteration of nomadism, cosmopolitanism and a “poisoned narrative”, to overcome the nihilism inherent to the solipsistic writings of Nelly Arcan.

Mark Anthony Jarman’s characters are often down and out, and often wandering and wondering. Using theories of wonder, this essay argues that wonder plays a key role in many of Jarman’s stories—stories that are marked not by narrative or psychological closure, but by a sense of wonder as characters muse on their lot in life. After briefly considering Jarman’s role within Canadian literature, including his innovative approaches to the short story form, and his odd status as an influential yet often ignored writer, the essay moves to a discussion of the various ways that wonder is at play in his works, both as a verb and a state. Jarman’s characters are frequently in doubt, and the act of wondering takes us into their drifting, self-reflecting minds. However, there is also the sense of wonder as the miraculous. Jarman’s narrators find optimism in the world around them, thanks to flashes of the beauty of the unlikely. Wonder, thus, has a crucial structural function.

This article attends to non-human agency and plant communities in Martha Ostenso’s 1925 novel Wild Geese. As non-humans shape the novel’s setting and plot, they are entwined with human action but not subordinated to human agency or political systems; on the contrary, plant communities are political forces who ally, resist, and clash during the implementation of European agricultural practises in the early twentieth century. Thus, the setting details of this CanLit novel can be repurposed to think about the possibilities of community beyond colonial control. This article begins by drawing on Vanessa Watts’ articulation of ecosystems-as-societies as a framework for plant agency. It then follows Margret Boyce’s eco-critical engagement with Wild Geese to examine how the farm’s monocrops are connected to, but not determined by, the heteropatriarchal family and the colonial state. Further, by considering how homoeroticism emerges against colonial heteropatriarchy in non-agricultural settings, queerness is shown to pre-exist and resist the organizing tendencies of settler colonialism. Finally, this article turns to non-human alliances in the novel’s finale to demonstrate the ongoing struggle between political powers. To grapple with colonialism and its legacies, non-human agency and political power must also be recognized.

In 2012, the Mohawk saint Catherine Tekakwitha was finally canonized by the Catholic church. She has been the subject of many accounts and narratives —both historical and fictional—and figures as the main subject of Leonard Cohen’s 1966 novel Beautiful Losers. While having been lauded for its post-modernist and presumably postcolonialism stance on Tekakwitha’s figure, Cohen’s novel remains controversial in its depiction and appropriation of Indigenous womanhood. Beautiful Losers relies heavily on missionaries’ accounts of Tekakwitha and is entrenched in the male protagonist’s sexual claim and fixation on her character. Given the significant status of women in Indigenous communities, I argue that Cohen’s novel not only participates in an ongoing violation of the Indigenous female body but also denies the integrity of Indigenous family structures and their social as well as narrative authority. It hinders, rather than encourages, a shift in narrative authority pertaining to Canada’s colonial heritage. While Cohen’s text remains a necessary testament to the shortcomings and failures of history and its criticism, what is required in forthcoming scholarship and narratives dealing with Tekakwitha and figures similar to her is a narration originating in Indigenous communities. An emergence of such narratives requires a definite reckoning with Canada’s violent history of mistreating Indigenous womanhood that continues to this day.

The CBC operates on a mandate that defines it as a company of content whose vision is to connect Canadians through attractive Canadian content and whose values include serving the Canadian public. This article responds to the questions of how the CBC uses social media to disseminate national literatures, taking a Facebook wall, Canada Reads, as a case study, based on the small stories method (Georgakoupoulou) to analyze narrative activities that are important for recognizing the identity-forging work of their narrator as well as the social fabric of practices that people become involved in, with the objective of discovering if it has created a virtual community of practice (as conceived by Robert V. Kozinets) and if it has achieved, at the same time, the ultimate goal of discussing contemporary Canadian identities and if it has fulfilled its aim to disseminated contemporary regional and national quality content. Methodology: Small Stories, Virtual Communities, and Communities of Practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses patriarchy and sexuality portrayed in Milk and Honey; a poetry collection written by Canadian author Rupi Kaur. Kaur is an amazing poet, artist, and performer who touches on trauma, feminism, migration, love, and loss in her works. Milk and Honey is a unique book of poetry as it combines written poetry with line art images. The collection is split into four chapters: "the hurting," "the loving," "the breaking," and "the healing." This research aims to show how the illustrations that appear alongside the poems have amplified the speaker's voice in response to patriarchy and sexuality. This study deployed a descriptive, qualitative approach with close textual analysis. The illustrations are highly meaningful in how they intimately depict women's bodies. Thus, these poems were analyzed within the framework of feminist literary criticism. Existing research will be considered to define the terms of the study and enrich discussion of patriarchy and women's issues. The results show that patriarchal traditions portrayed in the poems deem women as inferior, marginalizing them in a family setting (as a mother and daughter), in the setting of romantic or intimate relationships, and even in the social and economic environment due to cultural norms. It is also revealed that women and their sexuality functioned as recreational objects for males' pleasure. Within the text, women are expected to be sexually submissive, thus prone to sexual abuse in a patriarchal society. However, the speaker consistently expresses her stance against these patriarchal values throughout all chapters of this poetry collection. In conclusion, this work criticizes patriarchy and its treatment of sexuality by presenting the speaker's experiences of patriarchy while also taking a stand against it through poems and illustrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common assumption is that translation helps to share ideas and build bridges between societies, cultures and languages. Nevertheless, in Canadian history translation has been a tool of colonial domination and oppression of indigenous communities as well as francophone minorities scattered across Canada after 1763. In view of the above, this paper aims to show from a translational point of view the attempts to redress decades of persecution and assimilation that are currently taking place, particularly in light of the findings and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released in June 2015. The analysis covers a unique context, involving the translation of works of Indigenous Literature into a minority language such as French in Canada. After presenting current trends in this area, the paper will discuss an autobiographical novel Halfbreed by Metis author Maria Campbell, which appeared in French translation in 2021 almost half a century after the original was published. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore the intertextual dialogue and its meaning that is continuously articulated as cultural heritage in the prose of the well-known Canadian writer Jane Urquhart. By including the famous Victorian poet Robert Browning in the plot of her short story "The Death of Robert Browning," Urquhart highlights the postmodern tendency to express the basic human need to mythologize and perpetuate illusions about death. In a broader context, as an author from Canada, she emphasizes the difference between reality and fiction by revising historical facts through various textual interactions and revisions that help to construct an entirely new literary world freed from the psychological influence of British heritage in the context of Canadian culture. The story "The Death of Robert Browning" demonstrates a literary procedure in which a real person was placed at the center of the plot and his fictional life, which continued less than a hundred years after his death, served to allow readers to experience the real character of a historical figure in a special way. Thus, we get a completely new text in which all the sensibility and syncretism that the poet himself reflected are imprinted, but also a text in which the boundaries between values, rules, and prohibitions disappear and in which the mixture of reality and fiction gives way to the classical vision of the text.

Language is used in our daily routine as a communicative tool. Language users engage in a wide range of activities within the context of their daily social life and interact in several ways to make their goals understandable to their peers. Style is defined as an individual method of expressing ideas while speaking the common language exceptionally well. An individual's style dictates how one shapes one's language use to fit his or her objective. In a language, there are a variety of designs that may be characterised as scientific, literary, historical, legal, religious, rite, and rhetorical. These designs supported the modalities of communication and, as a result, the realms of language use. These communicative idioms take on completely diverse meanings in various fields of study. Atwood is widely regarded as a writer who is easy to read. She is the most well-known writer in Canadian literature. Her unique way of thinking is shown in her book, The Handmaid's Tale, through the writing process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a number of practices of observation as represented in contemporary Canadian dystopias in light of technological developments as seen by transhumanist thought. It argues that the transhumanist scopic practices that underlie their science-fictional imaginaries are in fact dystopian, and, as such, it takes examples from dystopian literature to illustrate how the nature of sight and seeing in the techno- and image-mediated context presents dangerous pitfalls for subject formation, identity politics, and agency. The article distinguishes between “vision” as a body of ideas and “sight” as the actual ways of seeing that may be reciprocal and create bonds of affectivity or, in the case of the transhumanist predicament, be instead founded on watching as the one-sided commodifying alternative.

The paper explores the dimensions of focalization from the point of view of cognitive poetics leaning on the idea that focalization directly affects the reading experience and, therefore, the reception of the narrative discourse. The importance of deixis, their referential value in the storytelling process and reception, is illustrated on the example of the short story “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” by Alice Munro. Focalization is treated as a rhetorical instrument modifying various layers of the narrative discourse and strategically guiding the process of reception. The first section presents the theories relevant for the understanding of the concept of focalization, and it includes a short overview of deixis from the point of view of cognitive poetics. The analysis of the short story by Alice Munro follows to serve as an illustration of the rhetorical flexibility of storytelling. Finally, the concluding remarks offer arguments against the conventional comprehension and interpretation of third-person narration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]