Canadian Literature Review Flashcards

A comprehensive set of 100 question-and-answer flashcards covering key authors, works, historical contexts, character details, themes, and figures in Canadian literature.

What was the first novel in Canadian literature, published in 1769?

The History of Emily Montague by Frances Moore Brooke

Which early immigrant prose work by Susanna Moodie was published in 1852 to discourage prospective immigrants to Canada?

Roughing It in the Bush, Or, Forest Life in Canada

Which two Canadian sister-authors are featured on the commemorative postage stamp shown here?

Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill

Which 1970 poetry collection by Margaret Atwood reconstructed the wild landscape of colonial Canada through Susanna Moodie's perspective?

The Journals of Susanna Moodie

What 1832 historical romance by John Richardson portrays the 1763 uprising led by Chief Pontiac at Fort Detroit?

Wacousta; or, The Prophecy

What 1824 work by Julia Catherine Beckwith preceded Wacousta as a candidate for the first Canadian novel?

St Ursula's Convent; or, The Nun of Canada

Which writer and performer, born to a Mohawk father and English mother, is featured on the 5-cent Canadian postage stamp shown?

Pauline Johnson

In what 1912 collection were Pauline Johnson's poetry works published together?

Flint and Feather

What is the title of Pauline Johnson's collection of local Indigenous stories?

Legends of Vancouver

Which major Canadian poet from Newfoundland won the Governor General's Prize three times?

E.J. Pratt

Which verse drama by E.J. Pratt was burnt by him, except for one copy saved by his wife?

Clay

What blank-verse epic was written by E.J. Pratt about Jesuit martyrs in Canada?

Brébeuf and his Brethren

Which 1952 epic poem by E.J. Pratt deals with the construction of Canada's transcontinental railway?

Towards the Last Spike

What landmark 1936 poetry anthology, herald of Canadian modernism, was anonymously edited by F.R. Scott?

New Provinces

Which Jewish poet was a member of the Montreal Group included in the anthology New Provinces?

A.M. Klein

Which Winnipeg-born poet active in the Communist Party of Canada published the collection Day and Night (1944)?

Dorothy Livesay

Which Romanian-born Jewish Canadian writer was known as a rebel writer with an international reputation?

Irving Layton

What 1945 novel by Hugh MacLennan captures the conflicts between French and English communities in Quebec around World War I?

Two Solitudes

Which Hugh MacLennan novel is set against the backdrop of World War II, fascism, the Spanish Civil War, and the Great Depression?

The Watch That Ends the Night (1959)

Which French Canadian author wrote the first major Canadian urban novel set in Montreal's Saint-Henri district?

Gabrielle Roy

What was the English title of Gabrielle Roy's 1945 novel Bonheur d'occasion, which won the Prix Femina in 1947?

The Tin Flute

Which 1954 novel by Gabrielle Roy is ranked as a significant work of psychological realism in Canadian literature?

Alexandre Chenevert (translated as The Cashier)

What is the title of Gabrielle Roy's 1955 book reflecting her upbringing in St. Boniface, translated as Streets of Riches?

Rue Deschambault

Who is considered the primary English translator of Gabrielle Roy's literary works?

Patricia Claxton

Which American-born author incorporated wordplay, cartoons, and nursery rhymes into works like Ten Green Bottles and Mrs. Blood?

Audrey Thomas

What simple act sets off the events in Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy?

A young boy throws a snowball at another, but misses its intended target

Which novel opens Robertson Davies's Deptford Trilogy and explores Jungian psychology, myth, and small-town culture?

Fifth Business (1970)

What three novels make up Robertson Davies's Cornish Trilogy?

The Rebel Angels (1981), What's Bred in the Bone (1985), and The Lyre of Orpheus (1988)

Which 1967 play by George Ryga is considered one of the most important plays in Canadian literature?

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe

What is the tragic fate of the protagonist in George Ryga's play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe?

She undergoes racism, marginalization, and finally rape and murder in the city

Who served as a mentor to poet, singer, and novelist Leonard Cohen?

Irving Layton

To whom did Leonard Cohen dedicate his 2006 poetry collection Book of Longing?

Irving Layton

What are the titles of Leonard Cohen's two published novels?

The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966)

Which Japanese Canadian author wrote the 1981 docufiction novel Obasan?

Joy Kogawa

Who is the narrator of Joy Kogawa's Obasan, and what brings her family back together in 1972?

Naomi Nakane; the occasion of her uncle's death

What historical tragedy affecting Japanese Canadians during World War II forms the core of Joy Kogawa's Obasan?

The imprisonment and internment of Japanese Canadians and confiscation of their property

What was Farley Mowat's first book, published in 1952 based on a field trip to the Canadian Arctic?

People of the Deer

Which children's book by Farley Mowat won a Governor General's Award in 1956?

Lost in the Barrens

What 1963 work by Farley Mowat presents a fictionalized account of his Arctic experiences with wolves?

Never Cry Wolf

What is the subject of Farley Mowat's 1987 biography Virunga?

Dian Fossey, an American ethologist who studied gorillas and was murdered in Rwanda

How many short stories did Mavis Gallant publish in The New Yorker throughout her career?

116

Which short story collection by Mavis Gallant won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction in 1981?

Home Truths

What 1908 classic children's novel by L.M. Montgomery is set on Prince Edward Island?

Anne of Green Gables

In Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town (1912), what is the name of the fictional town?

Mariposa

Which 1941 Canadian Prairie novel by Sinclair Ross takes the form of journal entries kept by Mrs. Bentley?

As for Me and My House

What is the name of the fictional Manitoba prairie town featured in Margaret Laurence's series of novels?

Manawaka

What five novels constitute Margaret Laurence's Manawaka series?

The Stone Angel (1964), A Jest of God (1966), The Fire-Dwellers (1969), A Bird in the House (1970), and The Diviners (1974)

Who is the ninety-year-old protagonist of Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel?

Hagar Shipley

Whom does Hagar Shipley marry against her father's wishes in The Stone Angel?

Bram Shipley

In Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel, to what location does Hagar run away when her family plans for a nursing home?

Shadow Point

Who is the protagonist of Margaret Laurence's 1974 novel The Diviners?

Morag Gunn

In Margaret Laurence's The Diviners, what technique does Royland practice that symbolizes Morag's search for meaning?

Water divining (finding underground water using a witching wand)

Which 1966 Margaret Laurence novel centers on schoolteacher Rachel Cameron during a summer affair?

A Jest of God

What comic philosophical theme is presented in the later novels of Robert Kroetsch?

Dionysian chaos versus Apollonian order

Which Timothy Findley novel uses letters, clippings, and photographs to depict the impact of World War I?

The Wars (1977)

Which Ezra Pound name is adopted for the protagonist of Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words (1981)?

Hugh Selwyn Mauberley

In which region of Ontario is most of Nobel Laureate Alice Munro's fiction set?

Huron County in southwestern Ontario

What was Alice Munro's debut short story collection published in 1968?

Dance of the Happy Shades

Under what title was Alice Munro's 1978 story collection Who Do You Think You Are? published outside Canada?

The Beggar Maid: Stories of Flo and Rose

Who is the poor Jewish boy anti-hero in Mordecai Richler's 1959 novel set in Montreal?

Duddy Kravitz

In Mordecai Richler's Barney's Version (1997), what mystery surrounding Barney Panofsky drives the plot?

The mysterious disappearance of his friend Boogie

Which Mordecai Richler novel centers on alcoholic writer Moses Berger following the trail of the missing Solomon Gursky?

Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989)

From what ethnic minority group with German ancestry is Canadian writer Rudy Wiebe?

Mennonites

What was Rudy Wiebe's first epic novel presenting a saga of the Mennonite people?

The Blue Mountains of China

Which 1980 historical novel by George Bowering focuses on 18th-century explorer George Vancouver?

Burning Water

What Carol Shields novel won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as the autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett?

The Stone Diaries (1993)

What real-life murder inspired Carol Shields's 1987 novel Swann: A Mystery?

The 1975 murder of poet Pat Lowther

Who is the protagonist of Margaret Atwood's debut novel The Edible Woman (1969)?

Marian McAlpin

In Margaret Atwood's The Edible Woman, who is the English literature graduate student Marian meets?

Duncan

What symbol does Marian bake and offer to her fiance Peter at the end of The Edible Woman?

A cake shaped and decorated into the likeness of a woman

Why does the unnamed narrator return to Quebec in Margaret Atwood's Surfacing (1972)?

To search for her missing father

What disturbing vision does the narrator encounter while diving in Atwood's Surfacing?

A dead child, which she associates with her aborted baby

What is the main character's profession in Margaret Atwood's 1981 novel Bodily Harm?

Lifestyle journalist (Rennie Wilford)

What medical condition and procedure does Rennie Wilford experience prior to her journey in Bodily Harm?

Breast cancer and a mastectomy

What is the name of the totaliarian theocratic regime in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale?

Republic of Gilead

In Gilead, what title is given to women who fail to produce children and are sent to clean toxic waste?

Unwomen

What fellow Handmaid connects Offred to the Mayday resistance in The Handmaid's Tale?

Ofglen

What section at the end of The Handmaid's Tale presents academic lectures from the year 2195?

Historical Notes

Which three women are targeted by the manipulative character Zenia in Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride?

Tony, Charis, and Rox

Which historical 19th-century Canadian figure accused of murder is fictionalized in Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace?

Grace Marks

Which Margaret Atwood novel set in Port Ticonderoga won the Booker Prize in 2000?

The Blind Assassin

What are the bioengineered green-eyed humanoids called in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake?

Crakers

Which three novels comprise Margaret Atwood's dystopian trilogy?

Oryx and Crake (2003), The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013)

What planned community and prison experiment do Charmaine and Stan join in Atwood's The Heart Goes Last?

Positron (located at Consilience)

Which Shakespeare play is retold in Margaret Atwood's 2016 novel Hag-Seed?

The Tempest

Who are the three narrators of Margaret Atwood's 2019 novel The Testaments?

Aunt Lydia, Agnes, and Daisy

What is the central thesis of Margaret Atwood's critical work Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972)?

The central theme of Canadian literature is survival against forces of nature or history

Which mythological queen narrates her life from childhood in Margaret Atwood's novella The Penelopiad (2005)?

Penelope

In Margaret Atwood's short story 'Gertrude Talks Back', whom does Gertrude imply killed King Hamlet?

Gertrude herself

Where is the main setting of Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient?

Villa San Girolamo in Tuscany, Italy

What is the real identity of the 'English patient' in Michael Ondaatje's novel?

Count Ladislaus de Almásy

What event drives bomb disposal specialist Kip to leave the Italian villa in anger in The English Patient?

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Who is the forensic anthropologist protagonist of Michael Ondaatje's 2000 novel set in Sri Lanka?

Anil Tissera (in Anil's Ghost)

Which 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Yann Martel tells the story of a boy stranded at sea?

Life of Pi

Which 2008 novel by Lawrence Hill centers on Black history and human rights?

The Book of Negroes

What 1973 memoir by Maria Campbell documents Métis life, poverty, racism, and political activism?

Halfbreed

What novel by Jeannette Armstrong is recognized as the first novel by a First Nations woman in Canada?

Slash (1985)

What 1983 novel by Beatrice Culleton follows two Métis sisters, Cheryl and April, in foster care?

In Search of April Raintree

What 1989 novel by M.G. Vassanji about East African Indians won the Commonwealth Writers Prize?

The Gunny Sack

Who is the Parsi protagonist of Rohinton Mistry's 1991 novel Such a Long Journey?

Gustad Noble