Description
Book SynopsisIn recent years, Canadian authors have enjoyed tremendous international success, writing novels that become Oscar-nominated films or achieve coveted success as selections for the Oprah Winfrey bookclub. Literary Celebrity in Canada is the first extended study of the dynamics of celebrity in the field of Canadian literature. Building on the argument that celebrity is a phenomenon firmly embraced by mainstream culture, Lorraine York examines it in relation to various tensions and conflicts within the literary community and beyond.
Using as examples three contemporary literary celebrities, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, and Carol Shields, and four earlier popular writers, Pauline Johnson, Stephen Leacock, Mazo de la Roche, and L.M. Montgomery, York demonstrates that individual authors respond differently to fame in ways that can be contradictory and complex. She casts doubt on the notion of a specifically Canadian response to fame. Depending on the public interpretat
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Literary Celebrity? Earlier Literary Stardom in Canada Margaret Atwood's 'Uneasy Eminence': Negotiating with the Famous Michael Ondaatje and the 'Twentieth-Century Game of Fame' 'Arriving Late as Always': The Literary Celebrity of Carol Shields Walking the Walk: A ConclusionWorks CitedIndex
