Is Canadian Literature Criticism Dead?
An early excerpt from Beauty and Sadness by Andre Alexis (who kicks off our Canadian authors reading series the Eh List at Toronto Reference Library) caused a firestorm of controversy when it was first published in The Walrus.
Here’s a brief sample from The Long Decline:
These days, Canadian literary reviewers are so woefully incompetent, it makes you wonder if there’s something in our culture that poisons critics in their cradles. I was once told, by a short, pompous man with thick, dark-rimmed glasses (a self-styled “critic”), that criticism is “the rich loam out of which literature blooms.” If that were the case, Canadian literature would have withered, died, and blown away long ago.
Reactions were to say the least, spirited. The Walrus Blog provides a handy list of links to the debate entitled The Long Tail of “The Long Decline”
But Beauty and Sadness is also a very sophisticated, very literary work.
The second half is made up of personal essays and reminiscences of a writer pondering the end of two romantic relationships, the success of his first novel Childhood and the middling response to his second, Asylum. An extended version of The Long Decline entitled Water concludes the book and in its longer format suddenly becomes the thoughts of writer in mid-career with nagging doubts about what he hopes to achieve both personally and artistically.
The first half of the collection, a set of dazzlingly crafted short stories, should dispel any doubts on the artistic side. The stories are written in the styles of the writers who have most influenced Alexis including Guy de Maupassant, Jean Cocteau and Marcel Proust. These stylish imitations are the literary equivalent of Nouvelle cuisine, a Chanel dress or a Fabergé egg. Even the title of the collection comes from novelist Yasunari Kawabata
But take a second look and the stories–a man attacked by his own household furniture, ghosts coach a blind writer in a homegrown Southern Ontario Tower of Babel–become reflections of the same fears and longings that show up in the personal essays. How much of this work comes from Alexis' own life and how much comes from this thing called literary tradition? And what does it mean if Canada is losing it?
Come join us for great stories and rousing debate here:
3 thoughts on “Is Canadian Literature Criticism Dead?”
There is nothing new about writers taking cheap shots at critics under the guise of objective commentary, for all the world as if they were breaking new ground by exposing a cultural crisis everyone else has unaccountably missed.
The motive is obvious and the willingness to be self-serving is anything but deserving of respect. Andre Alexis (is that his real name? I think I’d be willing to bet money, if I had any, that it is not) has merely joined an old and long since laughed-out-of-court club, by which, I should have thought, no one was impressed anymore.
But, surprise surprise, it is still possible to get a rise out of some people with this kind of game. That’s life. I suppose some people still think it’s funny to say things like: “If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?”
The Toronto Reference Library program on March 10 will feature Mr. Alexis in an on-stage interview with Antanas Sileika, Artistic Director of The Humber School for Writers. If you care about literary criticism, or about literary writing in Canada, this is probably a program you don’t want to miss! Bring your copy for an autograph, bring your questions, settle in for an evening of literary fun!
I’ve got a better idea. Stay home and read War and Peace.