English Short Story in Canada

Reingard M. Nischik is professor and chair of American Literature at the University of Konstanz in Germany. She has published extensively on Canadian, American, and comparative literature. A three-time winner of the Best Book Award of the Margaret Atwood Society, she is one of the most renowned and productive scholars of Canadian literature studies internationally.

“Nischik has written another landmark study...the book is likely to give the sort of pleasure experienced when reuniting with a friend of long standing, whose conversation is sure to delight and enlighten in equal measure. The volume forms a tightly-knit whole, packed with information”—Canadian Literature; “Here is as thorough and detailed an overview of the Canadian short story in English as might be found, tracing its trajectory broadly while also highlighting well-chosen examples by the form’s most eminent practitioners.”—Robert Thacker, Professor of Canadian Studies and English, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York; “Nischik’s book is the most comprehensive work on the Canadian short story out there. It provides an excellent overview of the genre’s development and prevalent themes as well as close readings of individual stories...a must-read for anyone involved with Canadian short fiction.”—Caroline Rosenthal, President of the Association of Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries and Professor of American Studies at the University of Jena, Germany; “Nischik lucidly analyzes the evolution, breadth, and finesse of Canada’s national art form. This important study celebrates the formidable contributions of well-known authors and introduces readers to the next generation of Canadian short-story writers.”—Marlene Goldman, Professor of English, University of Toronto, Canada; “This is an important book by one of our foremost scholars on the Canadian short story and will prove invaluable to both scholars and students alike.”—J. Brooks Bouson, Professor of English, Loyola University Chicago, Illinois.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on TerminologyIntroductionPart One: History1. The Modernist Canadian Short Story: Forging a Tradition2. The Modernist Canadian and American Short Story: A Comparative Approach3. The Canadian Short Story Since 1967: Between (Post)Modernism and (Neo)Realism4. The Noble Genre: Alice Munro Brings the Nobel Prize in Literature to CanadaPart Two: Approaches5. “Pen Photographs”: On Short Story Poetics and the Canadian Short Story Cycle6. Multiple Challenges: The Canadian Artist Story and Gender7. Gender and Genre: Margaret Atwood’s Short Stories and Short Fictions8. Multiple Liminality: Aging in the Canadian Short Story 9. Liminal Spaces, Liminal States: Crossing the Canada−U.S. Border in Canadian Border Stories10. Cultural Locations of Ethnicity: Vancouver Short Fiction by First Nations and Chinese Canadian Writers in EnglishPart Three: Analyses11. (Un-)Doing Gender: Alice Munro, “Boys and Girls”12. Canadian Artist Stories: John Metcalf, “The Strange Aberration of Mr. Ken Smythe”13. Blending Indigenous and Western Traditions of Storytelling: Thomas King’s Short Fiction14. Crossing Generic Borders: Margaret Atwood’s Short Prose Collection The TentChapter NotesWorks CitedIndex