MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Is there a 'theme' in the national literature of your country?

ficbot · 04-03-2010, 05:42 PM

This is a spin-off from a discussion in the 'what are you reading' thread about Canadian literature

I remember reading in university a book by Margaret Atwood where she theorizes that every nation has a central theme or image that keeps recurring in its literature. For example, Britain has 'the island' and America has 'the frontier.' Canada's theme is 'survival.' At first, this was literal survival i.e. the snow and wilderness and wild animals etc. Now (as in, 1972 when the book was written) it manifests as a more metaphorical survival---and witnessing the always prolific literary sub-genre of 'man comes home from the war' books we seem to get every year, I think that her theory still holds up.

It seems many American books are still about the 'frontier' in some way. Many American books deal with 'man' going out into the world to seek his/her fortune. And many Canadian books deal with 'man' coming home. In other words, he is not going out and exploring but rather he is going out and trying to survive the exploring he has already done. There are lots of family secret books, lots of coming home from the war books, lots of 'group of friends dealing with some great tragedy' books. Atwood's theory really does hold up, even though the book is almost 40 years old.

So, what do you think? Is there a theme or image that keeps recurring in the literature of your country? What is it?

04-03-2010, 05:42 PM	#1
ficbot Wizard Posts: 2,409 Karma: 4132096 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: Kindle Paperwhite/iOS Kindle App	Is there a 'theme' in the national literature of your country? This is a spin-off from a discussion in the 'what are you reading' thread about Canadian literature I remember reading in university a book by Margaret Atwood where she theorizes that every nation has a central theme or image that keeps recurring in its literature. For example, Britain has 'the island' and America has 'the frontier.' Canada's theme is 'survival.' At first, this was literal survival i.e. the snow and wilderness and wild animals etc. Now (as in, 1972 when the book was written) it manifests as a more metaphorical survival---and witnessing the always prolific literary sub-genre of 'man comes home from the war' books we seem to get every year, I think that her theory still holds up. It seems many American books are still about the 'frontier' in some way. Many American books deal with 'man' going out into the world to seek his/her fortune. And many Canadian books deal with 'man' coming home. In other words, he is not going out and exploring but rather he is going out and trying to survive the exploring he has already done. There are lots of family secret books, lots of coming home from the war books, lots of 'group of friends dealing with some great tragedy' books. Atwood's theory really does hold up, even though the book is almost 40 years old. So, what do you think? Is there a theme or image that keeps recurring in the literature of your country? What is it?