Abstract
In relation to the corpus of the prefaces the lack of studies about nineteenth-century Canadian literature is a serious handicap for the present work. This lack of secondary literature is particularly apparent in the case of nineteenth-century English-Canadian literature. The situation is somewhat better in French-Canadian literature of the period, but there too, there are important areas where basic work is needed.
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Since the overwhelming majority of prefacers is identical with the authors of the novels, the calculation of women prefacers from the total number of prefacers is a statistically acceptable way to determine the ratio.
Cf. Lowell 130. In French literature, for example, as in most literatures this is only recently recognized (cf. Waelti-Walters). In English-Canadian scholarship, several important articles appeared in McMullen (1990).
Statistically, the 16 authors whose profession is unknown is too high a number to obtain an accurate ratio.
This aspect of French-Canadian literature has been established in Québécois-Canadian scholarship (cf. Lauzière [1957, 239], [1958, 234]; Hayne [1944, 12 and passim],Savard [1967], and Viatte [1980, 46, 5253, 84]).
This number does not include re-editions such as those of Haliburton’s and Richardson’s novels. Prefaces of re-editions do not contain significantly different data. Usually, in addition to the original preface of the work, a biographical preface on the author is added.
This number does not include re-editions of novels with prefaces and it does not include cases where the novel contains more than one preface. Consequently, the number of prefaces is actually higher. However, the structure of the typology prohibits the duplication of prefaces and thus the lower, typologically speaking, and more exact number was chosen.
Cf. Hare who lists 52 French-Canadian novels, excluding re-editions between 1831 and 1900.
These numbers were arrived at with the same exclusion of re-editions and multiple prefaces, as in the case of the English-Canadian figures.
Critical“ and ”ethical“ are used here in the sense of the definitions established in Chapter two of this work.
The English-Canadian predominance of the FFN configuration could also be understood as a more stringent commitment to what Lennard J. Davis described in the history of the early English novel the “unity of news, novels, ideology, history, fact, and fiction” (223).
For an interesting treatment of canon-building in the Canadian literatures see Lecker (1991), containing a number of articles dealing with this question from various points of view and of various levels of insights.
Although, as Rosmarin Heidenreich convincingly demonstrated, exceptions to this general observation occurred (cf. Heidenreich’s analysis of Conan’s Angéline de Montbrun).
15 On the local colour in nineteenth-century English-Canadian fiction cf. Bissell 24–40, 77–92.
This differentiation is important. In second language acquisition research distinction is made between the BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) levels. For novel reading a lower level of CALP would be necessary. It appears that Graff’s or Greer’s literacy figures would include no more than 40% of a lower level CALP.
Although the “proletarian” novel existed in English Canada, neither the genre nor the readership could have been significant (cf. Watt 41–59).
Cf. e.g., J.D. Logan and Donald D. French, Highways of Canadian Literature (1924); Desmond Pacey, Creative Writing in Canada (1952); Vernon Blair Rhodenizer, Canadian Literature in English (1965); John Moss, ed., The Canadian Novel: Beginnings (1980); and Robert Lecker, Jack David, Ellen Quigley, eds. Canadian Writers and Their Works (1983).
A discussion of this issue is included in Edwards 147–54.
On the precarious state of nineteenth-century translations see, for example, Hayne 1983, 35–46. Also, Kathy Mezei’s Bibliography of Criticism on English and French Literary Translations in Canada/Bibliographie de la critique des traductions littéraires anglaises et françaises au Canada contains important sources.
English to French: Clemo, Le Foyer canadien…, tr. H. Émile Chevalier (1859), De Mille, Le Baron americain…, tr. Louis Ulbach (1877), Kirby, Le Chien d’or: Légende canadienne, tr. Pamphile LeMay (1884), Leprohon, Le Manoir de Villerai…, tr. E.L. de Bellefeuille (1861), Antoinette de Mirecourt…, tr. Joseph-Auguste Genand (1881). French to English: d’Ennery, A Martyr…, tr. Aristide Filiatreault (1886), Proulx, Pierre Cholet…, tr. M.J. Murphy (1888), Aubert de Gaspé, The Canadians of Old…, tr. Charles G.D. Roberts (1890). English to German: Saunders, Der schöne Sepp…, tr. A. Henrich (1896).
Literary texts or authors were not, at the time, legally protected with regards to translation.
It may be of note that in this preface the author is described as having been born in 1832. In the CIHM she is listed as born in 1829.
This translation is not listed in the Dictionnaire des oeuvres littéraires du Québec.
Cf. Guildo Rousseau’s Préfaces des romans québécois du XIX“ siècle (75).
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Tötösy de Zepetnek, S. (1993). Analysis of the Systemic Dimensions of the Preface Typologies and of the Systemic Data of the Prefaces. In: Barsch, A. (eds) The Social Dimensions of Fiction. Konzeption Empirische Literaturwissenschaft, vol 15. Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-13909-6_5
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