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From the archives

Claim Game

The high stakes of fraudulent identity

But Blind They Were

The fallacy of an empty continent

The Canadian Conversation

A Polish journalist’s perspective on residential schools

Keith Wilson

Keith Wilson is a professor of English at the University of Ottawa.

Articles by
Keith Wilson

Author, Author!

Questioning our cherished myths about literary fame July–August 2015
I was first introduced to the study of English literature in a British high school in the 1960s. At that time, English teachers around much of the world were instilling the mysteries of literary criticism in impressionable young minds by means of the writings of two men, I.A. Richards and F.R. Leavis, who over the previous 30 or so years had become the effective high priests of English…

Literary Soulmates

Our reviewer finds the pairing of a Victorian novelist and a Canadian scholar a perfect match. June 2005

Talent and Self-Destruction

Since the 19th century, De Quincey’s addiction has eclipsed his once-brilliant literary reputation. November 2010

The Burden of Isolation

An unhappy man remains unconsoled by his own literary genius April 2008
In this age of canon reformation, Joseph Conrad’s readership, at least as evidenced by the relative infrequency with which his major novels turn up on school and university course syllabi, is smaller than it once was. It has been a long time since F.R. Leavis confidently charted for the English novel a great tradition that began with Jane Austen and passed through George…