About

History (Française)

In the autumn of 1958, Roy Daniells, Head of UBC's Department of English, English professor Stanley E. Read, and university librarians Inglis Bell and Neal Harlow invited lecturer George Woodcock to edit a University of British Columbia quarterly devoted solely to the critical discussion of Canadian writing. Woodcock accepted and in Autumn 1959 the first issue of Canadian Literature was published. Its title asserted their belief that Canada had its own distinct literature—a concept doubted by some individuals in the literary community, who questioned the existence of a national literature and predicted that the journal would run out of material after only a few issues. However, Woodcock's highly personal style, his previous experience with English magazine publication, and his international range of contacts helped ensure the journal's initial success. The arrival of numerous new and talented writers in the 1960s and 1970s, including Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Mordecai Richler, among others, solidified Canadian Literature's position as the venue for the critical discussion of Canadian writing. Rather than facing a shortage of submissions, Woodcock had to become increasingly selective about which articles and reviews he published. His commitment to publishing for a general readership and the lively seriousness that he encouraged in critical writing helped foster a wider academic interest in the Canadian literary field.

When Woodcock retired in 1977 after editing 73 issues, UBC invited W.H. New to edit the journal. New had been an assistant editor at Canadian Literature since 1965 and, as a respected voice in Canadian literary criticism, he had the reputation, expertise, and vision to ensure the journal's continuing success. While preserving the essence of the journal as a general critical magazine, New addressed and adjusted to new developments in Canadian literature by introducing a more thorough examination of connections between cultural and intellectual history. With the help of Associate Editors Eva-Marie Kröller and Laurie Ricou, he planned special issues on areas they felt were underrepresented in Canadian criticism. Issues on Asian Canadian writing, Caribbean Canadian writing, and other minority literatures in Canada were the result. Canadian Literature has also published three special issues on Aboriginal writing (1990, 1999, 2000).

After 72 issues and 18 years as Editor, New resigned in 1995 and was replaced by Eva-Marie Kröller. Kröller recruited an editorial board of distinguished scholars from Canada and abroad and formalized the peer review process used by the previous editors. In order to introduce a diversity of opinions and expertises to the journal, she began a tradition of having guest editors plan and supervise special issues, such as the Contemporary Poetics issue (guest edited by Associate Editor Iain Higgins in 1997) and Gabrielle Helms' and Susanna Egan's 2002 Auto/biography issue. Her commitment to representing Canada's francophone writers, led Kröller to appoint Alain-Michel Rocheleau as Associate Editor of francophone writing. Gradually French-language content is increasing, and the efforts of current Associate editor Réjean Beaudoin have produced the notable special issues Littérature francophone hors-Québec / Francophone Writing Outside Quebec (2005) and Gabrielle Roy Contemporaine / The Contemporary Gabrielle Roy (2007).

In 2003, Kröller was succeeded as Editor by Laurie Ricou. In recognition of her exceptional dedication to the journal, Ricou nominated his predecessor for the Council of Editors of Learned Journals' Distinguished Editor award, which Kröller went on to win in 2004, becoming the first Canadian to receive the honour. After editing 14 issues, Ricou stepped down in Summer 2007. He was followed by fellow UBC English professor and Canadian literature specialist Margery Fee, an associate editor from 1995 to 2000. As Fee adjusts to her new position, she will be helped by current Associate Editors Réjean Beaudoin, Judy Brown, Glenn Deer, Larissa Lai, and Laura Moss. As for the management of the journal, since 1996 Managing Editor Donna Chin has been successfully negotiating the financial challenges and daily operations associated with publishing an academic journal.

In 2009 Canadian Literature will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Since 1959, five editors have shaped the content and development of Canadian Literature and the journal has grown and evolved, reflecting the changes in Canadian society and in literary studies. Scholarship has become more specialized, eclectic, and international, and so has the journal. More contributors are now women, and more submissions are concerned with women writers. Ethnicity has become a recurrent theme reflecting Canada's increasingly multicultural population. The size of the journal has increased in order to accommodate the range of research and the much larger number of books being published in and about Canada. In 1988, Canadian Literature became the first and only journal to win the Gabrielle Roy Prize for best English book-length studies in Canadian and Québec literary criticism. In 2006, Eva-Marie Kröller and Laurie Ricou joined W.H. New, who was elected in 1986, as Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2007, the Governor General named New an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Canadian Literature continues to take its primary direction from the interests of contributors and readers. Our general issues cover a range of periods and topics while our special issues focus on more specific topics.