Highways of Canadian LiteratureLogan, J. D. (John Daniel)
History
Highways of Canadian Literature
Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)
Canadian literature -- History and criticism
But in 1907 another singing voice was heard; and there developed a group
of poetasters and picaresque fictionists whose leader was Robert
Service. Their special literary _métier_ was verse, though Service and
his literary _confrères_ also essayed fiction. This group we call the
Vaudeville School of Canadian Poetry. Its vogue lasted for an
insignificant period of five years, or from 1908 up to the beginning of
the Great World War.
In 1913 appeared a new group of younger Canadian poets and prose
writers, who may be regarded as having begun the Second Renaissance in
Canadian literature. They inaugurated, as it were, a Restoration Period
in Canadian literature, inasmuch as, with some changes in ideals of form
and craftsmanship, they essentially ‘restored’ the literary principles
and aims of the First Renaissance Group. All these distinctions in
nomenclature and dates are, of course, only used for expository or
pedagogical purposes. Accordingly, it is convenient to mark the
beginning of the Second Renaissance, or the Restoration Period, in
Canadian Literature with the publication of Marjorie Pickthall’s first
volume of verse, _Drift of Pinions_, in 1913.
This period in Canadian Literature in English is still in process. It is
showing definitive originality in several ways, including original
developments in modernity of theme and moral substance, in formal
novelty, and in fresh expression of neglected or hitherto unessayed
literary _genres_, such as, for instance, poetic and stage drama, and
essays strictly in _belles-lettres_.
Contemporary with the poets of this period is a group of fictionists,
who have produced and are producing novels, romances, and tales which
are Canadian in theme, in social background, and in color. This group
may be distinguished as the Realistic School of Canadian Fiction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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