St. John, Ronald Bruce.Libya and the United States:
Two Centuries of Strife. Philadelphia: University of
Philadelphia Press, 2002.
Martha A. Sherwood
See also Foreign policy of the United States; Mid-
dle East and North America; Pan Am Flight 103
bombing; Reagan, Ronald; Terrorism; USSVin-
cennesincident; West Berlin discotheque bombing.
Literature in Canada
Definition Drama, prose, and poetry by Canadian
authors
Canadian literature consolidated its strengths during the
1980’s, a decade of remarkable achievement. At the start of
the decade, only a few Canadian writers were known world-
wide. The nation’s writers were according growing acclaim,
however, auguring a decisive expansion of the literar y
arena during the decade.
Canadian literature in the 1980’s was both similar to
and different from its American counterpart. Like
1980’s American literature, the Canadian field fea-
tured a number of disparate generations and re-
gional influences; in both countries, women writers
moved to the forefront of literary culture. Canada,
though, lacked the hip young writers and the multi-
cultural authors who emerged in the United States
during the 1980’s; these trends would come to Can-
ada in the 1990’s. On the other hand, Canada pre-
served the tradition of the mainstream novel more
than did its neighbor to the south.
Established Figures At the start of the 1980’s, only a
few Canadian writers were known outside Canada.
Mordecai Richler, a Jewish Canadian novelist from
Montreal, was widely popular for his satiric novels,
which were lauded by such prominent U.S. writers as
Joseph Heller. Robertson Davies was well known for
the Deptford Trilogy, published in the 1970’s.The
Rebel Angels(1981) the first novel of his Cornish Tril-
ogy, was reviewed across the English-speaking world
upon its publication. Richler’s amiable hijinks and
Davies’ deep immersion in magic and mysticism drew
strength from their authors’ local Canadian context.
The other widely known Canadian writer at the start
of the decade, Margaret Atwood, was a key figure in
the Canadian nationalist literary renaissance of the
late 1960’s and the 1970’s. Atwood demonstrated her
versatility in 1982 by editingThe New Oxford Book of Ca-
nadian Verse, which covered the nation’s poetry from
its eighteenth century beginnings to recent expe-
rimentation. She also drew recognition for her 1985
novelThe Handmaid’s Tale. Set in a futuristic America
in which a repressive Puritan government has re-
consigned women to traditional roles, the book por-
trayed a nightmarish vision of a harsh and patriarchal
United States that enunciated a tacitly Canadian cri-
tique of U.S. cultural arrogance.
Two women short-story writers attained world-
wide literary prominence in the 1980’s. Mavis Gal-
lant lived in Paris but still wrote poignantly and wit-
tily of her native Canada, as well as of wider worlds.
Alice Munro’s remarkable career gained full trac-
tion in the 1980’s. Munro’s stories of provincial life
in southwestern Ontario are credited with unleash-
ing the artistic potential of the short-story form.
Meanwhile, two of Canada’s most acclaimed senior
novelists published their final works of fiction in the
1980’s. Morley Callaghan’sA Time for Judas(1983)
and Hugh MacLennan’sVoices in Time (1980)
capped these venerable writers’ careers and contin-
ued to demonstrate their grasp of character and
moral situation.
Like Davies, Hugh Hood was influenced by the
tradition of the English novel, though with a distinc-
tively Canadian spin. Unlike Davies, Hood did not
write in the readily digestible form of the trilogy, in-
stead attempting a twelve-volume mega-novel,The
New Age/La Nouveau Siècle, which sought to span the
twentieth century in Canada. Four of the strongest
installments of this saga were published in the
1980’s, taking Hood’s protagonist, Matt Goderich,
through the twentieth century’s tragic middle por-
tion. A more experimental writer was Leon Rooke,
whoseShakespeare’s Dog(1984) was a garrulous nar-
rative told from the viewpoint of the title animal.
Timothy Findley managed to be both experimen-
tal and mainstream; hisFamous Last Words(1981)
presents Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, a poetic persona
created by Ezra Pound, as he wrestles with the temp-
tations of fascism and the corruptions of wealth.Not
Wanted on the Voyage(1984) tells the story of the bibli-
cal ark, from the viewpoint of Mrs. Noah. Robert
Kroetsch, in turn, combined experimentation with
regionalism in both fiction and poetry. Kroetsch’s
fellow Albertan Rudy Wiebe explored contradic-
tions of rural Christianity inMy Lovely Enemy(1983).590 Literature in Canada The Eighties in America