Canada Cinema and Literature in English

By | December 25, 2021

During the first fifteen years of the millennium, the reference figure in the Anglo-Canadian literature has remained Margaret Atwood (n. 1939), who with The year of the flood (2009; trans. It. The year of the flood, 2010) and MaddAddam (2013; it. The other beginning, 2014) completed the post-apocalyptic trilogy started in 2003 with Oryx and Crake (it. The last of men, 2003). But the most important event of this turn of the century was the award in 2013 of the Nobel Prize for literature to Alice Munro (v.), The greatest exponent of that art of short story – see the collections Too much happiness (2009; trans. it. Too much happiness, 2011) and Dear life (2012, trans. it. Come out alive, 2014) – in which Mavis Gallant (no. 1922) and Alistair MacLeod (b. 1936), who passed away in 2014. In the field of fiction, there are figures of veterans such as Jack Hodgins (b. 1938), with the introspective The master of happy endings (2010); Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943), with Divisadero (2007; trans. It. 2008) and The cat’s table (2011); George Fetherling (b.1949), author of the biographical novel Walt Whitman’s secret (2010); Wayne Johnston (b.1958), who in A world elsewhere (2011) intertwines the history of Canada with that of the United States – as also Michael Crummey (b. 1965) in Galore (2009; trans. It. From the belly of the whale, 2013); and Yann Martel (b. 1963), who after Life of Pi (2001; trans. it. Vita di Pi, 2003) continues his investigation into the animal world in the allegorical Holocaust novel Beatrice and Virgil (2010; trans. it. Beatrice and Virgilio, 2013). Among the emerging novelists, Annabel Lyon (b. 1971), Steven Galloway (b. 1975) and Esi Edugyan (b. 1978) should be mentioned. For Canada 2000, please check neovideogames.com.

The Canadian poem in English, which laments the death of Robert Kroetsch (1927-2011), includes in addition to the consolidated George Bowering (b.1935), Don McKay (b.1942), Dionne Brand (b.1953) and Leonard Cohen (b.1934), who however prefers to use his inspiration in musical production, newer names that do not disdain daring experimentation and contamination, such as Karen Solie (b.1966), Christian Bök (b.1966), Ken Babstock (b. 1970) and Shane Koyczan (b.1976). Recent Anglo-Canadian dramaturgy is often oriented towards multicultural perspectives, as evidenced by the production of Tomson Highway (b.1951), Rahul Varma (b.1952) and Drew Hayden Taylor (b.1962).

Cinema. – Faced with a flourishing Québécois cinema (in terms of quality and revenue, as demonstrated by Erik Canuel’s comedy Bon cop, bad cop, 2006; Double investigation), the English-speaking Canada confirms the inability of his films to affect the North American market, on the local box office and on an imaginary that has always been subjected to the Hollywood one. The result is a divided cinematography: on the English-speaking side closed above all in consumer products – including the films of Michael Dowse (such as Fubar of 2002), a possible interpreter of a competitive Canadian comedy – and on the Québec side capable of imposing international proposals. (Oscar for best foreign film in Les invasions barbares, 2003, The barbarian invasions, by Denys Arcand; nominations for Incendies, 2010, The Singing Woman, by Denis Villeneuve, for Monsieur Lazhar, 2011, by Philippe Falardeau and for Rebelle, 2012, by Kim Nguyen). Even on a symbolic level, cinema struggles to find a common identity: when this happens it is always through tragic and absurd translations (the incest at the basis of Incendies) or indirect parodies (the only father of 533 children in Starbuck, 2011, Starbuck– 533 children and… not knowing!, By Ken Scott). However, there are many significant authors active in the country.

Scene by Monsieur Lazhar

Bruce McDonald works between gender, youth subculture and technological revolution (The Tracey fragments, 2007, which can be dismantled and reassembled online by users), Atom Egoyan updates his way to new social and media conflicts (Adoration, 2008), Bruce La-Bruce pursues a queer militancy that becomes radical in horror (Otto, or Up with dead people, 2008) and tames itself in comedy (Gerontophilia, 2013), while Guy Maddin exalts his own surrealist poetics of cinephile recovery and unconscious sounding (Keyhole, 2011)). Peter Mettler perseveres in a critical repositioning between images (The end of time, 2012) and Sarah Polley, also an actress, continues directing with intimate dramas about memory, regret and possibility (Stories we tell, 2012). The Québécois Jean-Marc Vallée signed the coming of age CanadaRAZY. (2005) and started working in the United States (Dallas Buyers Club, 2013), as well as Villeneuve, an author in tension between thrillingand classical tragedy (Enemy, 2013). Meanwhile, the peculiar realist cuts of Louise Archambault (Gabrielle, 2013), Nguyen (Rebelle, 2012), Sébastien Pilote (Le vendeur, 2011), and festivals acclaim the grotesque, experimental and queer minimalism of Denis Côté (Bestiaire, 2012) and the pop vehemence of Xavier Dolan, who made his debut at 19 with J’ai tué ma mère (2009), capable of reworking Hitchcock and Fassbinder in a theater of the absurdity of the search for identity (Tom à la ferme, 2013) or of inventing a social mélo that knows how to experiment on language and at the same time be healthy popular (Mommy, 2014, Grand Jury Prize at Cannes).

Canada Cinema and Literature in English