TheMostWidelyAcknowledgedPrairieWriter

授課教師馬愛梅FrederickPhilipGroveisoneofthemostwidelyacknowledgedPrairiewritersbecausethecorpusofhiswork.HeisthemostoutstandingfigureduringTheAdventofLiteraryModernismandtheBoomofRegionalism(1941-1940)HismajorworksareOverPrairieTrails(1922),TheTurnoftheYear(1923),SettlersoftheMarsh(1925),AsearchforAmerica(1927),OurDailyBread(1928),TheYokeofLife(1930),FruitsoftheEarth(1933),TwoGenerations(1939),TheMasteroftheMill(1944),ConsiderHerWays(1949),InSearchofMyself(1946)etc.GroveisrecognizedasaveryimportantpredecessorinCanadianliteraryhistory,whosenovelswerewrittenwithvividdescriptionofprairielifeduringthedifficultpioneeringyearsofsettlement.HisnovelsbecamestaplesforCanadianliteraturecoursesacrossCanada.OverPrairieTrails.It’sGrovefirstbookpublishedinCanadaandit’shisbestlovedone.ItconsistsofautobiographicalsnippetsaboutsevenjourneyshemadonweekendsthroughruralManitoba,anditdepictsaprairielandscapeundergoingthetransformationofmodernity,reflectingontherelationsbetweenmanandnature,andthusstandsoneoftheearliestCanadianbookswithanecologicalconcernSettlersoftheMarshisGrove’sfirst,possiblybest,farmnovelwhichdescribesthepsychologicalimpactoftheprairies.Thenovelprovokedcontroversyaspartofitwascondemnedpornographicinitsfrankdescriptionofsexuality.Themajorthemesofman’sstrongurgetodominatethelandandhisneglectoffamilyfeelingrecurASearchforAmerica,whichremainsoneofGrove’smostpopularworks,isadissectionoftherealityoftheNewWorld;TheMasteroftheMillblendsadeterministicsocialphilosophywithapropheticvision.

Grove’snovelsaregenerallyresistanttoliterarycategorization,ashecombineselementsofnaturalism,romanticism,classicism,andrealisminhiswriting.GrovewasthefirstCanadianwritertoconcentrateontheuniversalproblemsofmanandnatureintherelentlessprogressofmodernity.

Locatinghiswritingfirmlyintheb