"Agreed," Says The English Major

------ from End of Story: The heroic narrative of CanLit was already history. The closure of Douglas & McIntyre is merely punctuation., by Charles Foran in The Walrus, March 2013

"A broad still unfolding process of diffusion [of Canadian Literature] may underlie the current publishing dilemma. Within a few years of the end of cultural nationalism, the energy behind it had been redirected toward a range of movements, or isms, with multiculturalism and post-colonialism erecting the biggest tents, each with its own agenda and constituency. The academy, in particular, once a powerful force in CanLit, plunged down the theory rabbit hole, rooting too much scholarship in those few texts that confirm pre-existing critical discourses. It now talks mostly to itself, using an obscure dialect."

A solid personification of 'the academy.' The focus on only a few 'CanLit' texts lead me to leave the mandatory Canadian Lit course at Carleton twice before finally forcing myself to stay in and finish it. Also, the 'obscure dialect' didn't really become clear to me until my Masters, when I realized I was learning theory so complex and obscure that the average reader would never be able to join in the dialogue.