The A30 course is a #CanLit course – Canadian Literature.

There’s a discussion that can be had regarding what literature should be claimed as Canadian. Some authors are born and raised in other countries and only become Canadian citizens later in life, in their 50s even, and if they publish work at that point it’s considered Canadian Literature.

Some question whether CanLit shouldn’t be more about Canada – the plot happens somewhere in Canada, it reflects Canadian culture, or recounts a typical Canadian experience. Take Life of Pi, for example. Of the whole story, Canada is mentioned near the beginning because an East Indian family is selling their zoo and accompanying it and moving to Canada. It ends with a narrator who’s living in Toronto. That’s all. The rest of the story is about Indian culture, religion, customs, and happens at sea and overseas. It is still Canadian Literature, though.

If you’re curious about this notion, of what makes Canadian literature Canadian, here’s an article written on the same topic. Short answer – there is no clear answer.

So.. with that in mind, there are a lot of great titles to select from.

1. Some are fiction.
2. Others are non-fiction.

Here’s a GoodReads link to my ELA A30 shelf – on it you can skim through the summaries of the books I have for you to select from. If there’s another title you’re interested in reading, talk to me about it and it could be your selection if appropriate.

The main focus of this reading activity is to enjoy the book.
The second focus of your reading activity is to be an objective reader and pay attention to the writing style of your chosen text – do you like the way they use language, how they formatted the book, the way they’ve developed characters, how they’ve established a bias for the reader to follow along with, and other elements. Track this so you can identify 3-4 examples of specific elements of the author’s style of writing that you’ll later develop an essay on.