Highways of Canadian LiteratureLogan, J. D. (John Daniel)
History
Highways of Canadian Literature
Logan, J. D. (John Daniel)
Canadian literature -- History and criticism
Two of the plays—_Brothers in Arms_ and the _Weather Breeder_—portray
life in the Canadian backwoods districts as Mr. Denison has observed
that life. Two of the plays—_From Their Own Place_ and _Marsh
Hay_—portray, according to Mr. Denison, life in the poorer or more
sordid farming districts of Canada. The dramatist has explained his
motive and aim. He says: ‘These plays have their origin in the needs of
a theatre—not _the_ theatre. _Brothers in Arms_ was written because a
Canadian comedy was needed to fill a bill and none could be found. In
writing it as an innovation, I wrote of a part of Canada I knew, and
introduced as characters actual Canadians. The result was new, but, as
might have been expected, Canadian. It must be remembered that these
plays were written for a Canadian theatre, not Broadway, and that any
literature of the theatre in Canada must follow the same course—be
written for Canadian production.’
It may be regretted that Denison went to sordid and vulgar society in
Canada for his dramatic subjects or material. But he had just cause to
satire Canadian life by means of realistic Canadian plays. For the
intellectual dishonesty, and the ‘immoral moral psychology,’ which
creates the spurious or hectic sentimentality in certain Canadian
fiction would compel a sane-minded man to show the other side of the
picture, and to show it with pervasive and vivid realism. Denison
perceived and felt the profound untruth or falsity of certain forms of
20th century Canadian fiction. In his view, it was all too ‘nice’ and
saccharine as art; it had neither truth nor strength. Denison felt that
no such men and women as appear in many of the novels of the Realistic
Romances exist in Canada. In his opinion, the substance of these novels
is puerile and vain invention. He, therefore, decided to present to the
Canadian public real men and women as they really live, move and have
their being in Canada—even if they are, as indeed they are, sordid and
vulgarized men and women. Denison’s plays, then, are a Protest; they are
also a Satire. What the dramatist is protesting against is not the life
that he presents in his plays. What he is satirizing is not Canadian
life as such. He is protesting against intellectual dishonesty and
spurious sentimentality in Canadian fiction. He is satirizing the life
and characters which these Canadian fictionists have presented in their
romances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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