ABSTRACT
The emergence of strong literary movements that articulated Canada’s peoples engaging in the simple tasks of the everyday world also marks the beginnings of the New World recoding of European literary forms. The Mouvement Littéraire Du Québec, founded in 1860 by the poet Octave Crémazie (1827–70), fostered a nationalistic French and French-Canadian aesthetic up until Confederation. The growing desire for confederation meant that in the Anglophone world a more self-reflexive nationalistic writing was also seen in its popular and literary presses. The desire for autonomy (that is, breaking free from British control) was not just political, but also cultural and aesthetic. While intertextual resonances between the Confederation Poets and their Romantic precursors can be heard, the New World environment also called for aesthetic adaptation and modification. Differences of gender and race also begin to be articulated, particularly in the writings of Isabella Valancy Crawford and Pauline Johnson (also known by her indigenous name which was Tekahionwake).
