MEG-12 Block 8 Summary | Development of Canadian Criticism
- Last Updated On October 15, 2025
Table of Contents
Here you will get the detailed summary of IGNOU MEG 12 Block 8 – Development of Canadian Criticism.
We have provided the summary of all units starting from unit 1 to unit 4.
Introduction
IGNOU MEG-12 Block 8 focuses on the Development of Canadian Criticism, tracing the intellectual evolution of literary theory and cultural critique within Canada. This block introduces students to some of the most influential voices in Canadian literary discourse—Northrop Frye, Linda Hutcheon, and Smaro Kamboureli—who have each helped shape the identity of Canadian criticism through their distinct perspectives on myth, postmodernism, historiography, multiculturalism, and national identity. The block provides insights into how Canada, as a former colony and now a multicultural nation, has developed a vibrant, independent, and self-reflective critical tradition.
Unit 1: The Recent Development of Canadian Criticism
This unit offers an overview of the intellectual landscape of Canadian criticism, mapping its growth from imported European literary models to indigenous and postcolonial paradigms that reflect Canadian realities.
Key points include:
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Early Canadian criticism was dominated by British influences and Victorian ideals, often marginalising Canadian themes and writers.
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With the rise of Canadian nationalism in the 1960s and 70s, literary scholars sought to define a distinct Canadian identity in literature.
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Canadian criticism began addressing:
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The influence of landscape and climate
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Regionalism, bilingualism, and biculturalism
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The role of Indigenous and immigrant voices
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Later developments integrated postmodernism, feminism, multiculturalism, and diaspora studies, creating a pluralistic critical framework.
This unit highlights the dynamic nature of Canadian criticism, rooted in contestation and negotiation between local and global literary concerns.
Unit 2: Northrop Frye
This unit introduces Northrop Frye, one of the most prominent Canadian literary critics and theorists. His work has had a profound global impact, particularly through his development of archetypal criticism and mythopoeic approaches to literature.
Key Contributions:
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In The Anatomy of Criticism (1957), Frye proposes a systematic framework for literary analysis based on recurring myths, archetypes, and narrative structures.
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He argues that all literature can be understood in relation to a “mythos”—a deep structure of human storytelling involving birth, death, conflict, and renewal.
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Frye also theorized a “Canadian imagination” rooted in the country’s harsh landscape, social isolation, and the “garrison mentality”—a theme that recurs in Canadian literature as a sense of cultural defensiveness.
Frye’s theories helped Canadian literature gain intellectual respectability, offering a universal framework through which national literature could be examined and celebrated.
Unit 3: Linda Hutcheon
This unit focuses on Linda Hutcheon, a leading figure in postmodern Canadian criticism. Her work is known for its theoretical depth and practical applicability, especially in the areas of historiographic metafiction and irony.
Major Ideas:
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In books such as A Poetics of Postmodernism, Hutcheon explores how contemporary literature rewrites history through self-reflexive, ironic narratives.
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She coined the term “historiographic metafiction” to describe works that blend historical fiction with self-awareness, questioning the objectivity of historical truth.
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Hutcheon challenges binary oppositions such as high vs. low culture, history vs. fiction, and centre vs. margin.
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Her analysis is particularly relevant to Canadian literature, which often engages with colonial legacies, shifting identities, and alternative histories.
Hutcheon’s work provides tools to read Canadian texts as playful yet politically charged, deeply embedded in both local and global contexts.
Unit 4: Smaro Kamboureli
This unit introduces Smaro Kamboureli, a Canadian critic known for her work on ethnicity, race, and multiculturalism in Canadian literature. Her contributions focus on diasporic voices, cultural hybridity, and the deconstruction of national identity.
Key Themes:
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In Scandalous Bodies: Diasporic Literature in English Canada, Kamboureli explores how immigrant and racialised bodies disrupt the hegemonic narrative of Canadian identity.
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She critiques institutional multiculturalism, arguing that it often reduces cultural difference to commodified stereotypes.
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Kamboureli advocates for reading literature through the lens of marginality, dissent, and political engagement.
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Her work also discusses gender, migration, and language politics, making her a key voice in feminist and postcolonial Canadian criticism.
Her insights are crucial in understanding how Canadian criticism has evolved to include non-white, non-European experiences, reshaping the national literary canon.