Society in Transition: Fiction and Canadian Society 1890-1940

Abstract

By examining a broad sample of the novels that describe the period from the turn of the century to the start of the Second World War, we can learn a great deal about the nature of the emerging modern society and about the attitudes of those who lived through this important period of transition, and in particular whether Canadian society is "liberal" and "progressive" or "conservative" and "tory." Such issues as individualism, religion, material/monetary values, social optimism, industrialization, and existentialist values are discussed in the work. Authors discussed include Sara Jeanette Duncan, Phillip Grove, Morley Callaghan, Hugh MacLennan, George Grant, Agnes Maule Machar, Stephen Leacock, and others