Notwithstanding the resolute denials of its existence and serious threats to its survival, Canadian literature has over the years registered its distinct identity and unmistakable authenticity. It has come a long way from imitation and borrowed forms to vernacular spontaneity in indigenous forms, and from a pioneer settlement to a pioneer heritage. This anthology examines the social, political and cultural pressures that have contributed to the shaping of Canadian psyche and imagination on the one hand, and offers a a revaluation of the characteristic cadences discernible in quite a number of major Canadian writers on the other.
Of the two sections in this anthology, the former carries, among others, essays on the making of Canada, the dialectics of centric and eccentric debate on it, and the ethnic variety and cultural pluralism of the land nurtured by its independent as also inter-dependent society. Against this ambience of 'disunity as unity', the studies of individual authors in the later section reveal varied 'angles of vision' and 'many lines if sight' in their works. Through persistent scrutiny and stimulating enquiry they probe the extent to which Canadian literature both coheres and imbibes sharable human value.