Ha ha, well the title is self explanatory and I recall spending a ridiculous amount of time in my university days attempting to look for and analyze the "Canadian identity" in our literature.

On its way to Tarna in Finland. I dunno Tarna, this one seems a bit dated to me now. But I hope you get something out of it!!

This is embarrassing. I won in our trade; sent Pooker3 two books and got back four. Four books! I really don’t know how to thank you.

I’m so interested in Canadian literature and always try to find texts that analyze it, too. The Search for Identity is ideal for that. And don’t worry about it being somewhat dated, I do want to know how your literature and national identity were seen earlier. So this is just fantastic! Thank you.

And I love the cover. The cover painting is The West Wind, 1917, by Tom Thomson. Nice, eh?

This book has not been just gathering dust in my bookshelf during these past two years. Occasionally, I’ve been reading bits and pieces but this time I read the whole book. And loved it. Every story and every poem seemed to be better than the ones before it; I thought I found my favourite again and again. :) I would like to read these writers (plus the ones mentioned in the bibliography) more. Fortunately, I do have books by some of them, and I’ve already read a few.
Just to remind myself, I’ll list the texts presented in this book:

The Canadian Personality by Bruce Hutchison, Canada by Charles G. D. Roberts, Noblesse Oblige by Sara Jeanette Duncan, Young Canada by Alexander McLachlan, Man and Machines by Frederick Philip Grove, The Farmers’s Masters by Louis Hémon (transl. W. H. Blake), A Cry from an Indian Wife by E. Pauline Johnson, Snow by Frederick Philip Grove, After Exile by Raymond Knister, Our Country by Adjutor Rivard (transl. W. H. Blake), The Authentic Voice of Canada by Robert Fulford, The Status of Canadian Geology by Nathan Fast, Last Journey of Blair Fraser, Canadian by Douglas Marshall, Chasing the Puck by Raymond Souster, Confederation Lament by Chief Dan George, W. L. M. K. by F. R. Scott, Just a Pinch of Sin by Harry Boyle, Canada: Case History: 1945 by Earle Birney, A Sovereign Nation by Joe Wallace, An Orange from Portugal by Hugh MacLennan, Portrait Done with a Steel Pen by Irving Layton, Speaking of Criticism... by Morley Callaghan, Canada: Case History: 1973 by Earle Birney, Speaking of Identity... by Robertson Davies, National Identity by F. R. Scott, Where the World Began by Margaret Laurence, Roots by C. D. Minni, and The Discovery by Gwendolyn MacEwen.

Canadian identity was discussed quite a lot during the seventies when this book was published. I think that the most popular idea was that there is no pan-Canadian identity but several regional, ethnic, language-based and other more or less ‘local’ identities. This idea shows also in the texts chosen for this book. Identity, even the national one, is constructive and these texts represent themes that are said to be part of Canadian identity: the non-American trait, the northern dimension, survival, ice hockey, etc. — Last one seems a bit odd from a Finnish point of view but according to Decima survey 1999, ice hockey is one of the most important factors in Canadian identity. Or it was in late 1990’s, at least.
Defining Canadian identity is problematic, I know. But it’s nice to know they’ve tried.
The Search for Identity is a nice overview of some not-so-recent Canadian literature. Thanks, Pooker3! I like this book so much I might even get a copy of my own someday.
This one will soon be travelling again. It’s heading for Eastern Finland next.
Speaking of Finnish Canadian identity, I think Saint Urho might be a part of it. ;) Saint Urho is not that known in Finland, and that’s why I challenged Finnish BC’ers to add their contributions to the legend in a storytelling contest. I asked them to release a book and to tell an Urho story that had the same title than the book they released. So the story was theirs even if the title was created by someone else. One of the winners was Liinuskainen, whose contribution was a whole trilogy of stories to the Saint Urho saga. And she asked to be rewarded with this book. I hope she’ll enjoy it as much as I did.


ETA April 21, 2009. I took the book to the post office today. 2009 KTMC #21.

Thank you kindly for the book!