Sue Sorenson, Ed. West of Eden: Essays on Canadian Prairie Literature

Sue Sorenson, ed. West of Eden: Essays on Canadian Prairie Literature. Winnipeg: CMU Press, 2008.340 pp. Bibliography. Index. $28.95 sc. Some readers might avoid this book, assuming that more than enough has already written about Canadian literature. After all, much was written on subject in 1960's and 1970's, and a relatively substantial building on and re-evaluating earlier work has emerged more recently. Readers familiar with this scholarly corpus might well be tempted to say, been there, done that, and leave this book unopened. However, in my view, doing so would be to lose an opportunity to see Canadian life and its literary representation with renewed enthusiasm and flashes of insight that can come from re-visiting familiar places, especially with some new companions. Indeed, readers of Canadian Ethnic Studies with an interest in ethno-religious dynamics might be particularly intrigued by this volume, which was published by CMU (Canadian Mennonite University) Press, and is, to date, that press's only publication in area of literary criticism. Moreover, editor, native Sue Sorenson--an assistant professor of English at CMU, an unapologetically Christian critic with a special interest in interface between religion and literary and filmic representation, and a background in English literature, rather than in Canadian--is a new voice on Can Lit scene who brings an unusual perspective to an examination of Canadian literature. Not surprisingly, West of Eden bears imprint of editor's Christian perspective very explicitly in title and in concluding essay, Mapping Our Mental Geography: Regionalism as Pedagogical Strategy, wherein Tina Trigg and Philip Mingay explore ways of teaching Canadian in a post-secondary institution with a Christian mandate. Sorenson's Christian perspective is also present to some degree in way her Introduction frames enterprise; however, it certainly would not be accurate to characterize this book as obvious product of a strongly and uniformly Christian ethos. Dedicated to Robert Kroetsch, arguably (seemingly quite secular) dean of writing, as opposed to avowedly Christian Rudy Wiebe, who might reasonably be thought more obvious candidate for such an honour in this context, volume comprises, in addition to aforementioned Introduction, a Foreword by Warren Cariou, and fifteen essays, latter presented within five sections: What Is This Place?, Early Voices Established Voices Cultural Studies, and Teaching Prairies. The volume also contains a bibliography and an index, though not, unfortunately, any information about various contributors. While, perhaps surprisingly, a Christian perspective is not what unifies this collection, most readers will, I believe, agree with Sorenson's assessment that work does have a certain coherence. Or, as Sorenson puts it, given that project began as a general call for papers on literature, the result was less miscellaneous than I expected. In her view, recurring argument that unites articles is that despite many calls in recent years for an end to old emphasis on the environmental basis of literature this idea is not dead yet, nor are the discussions of realism and importance of vernacular language since prairie people and writers are still enormously engaged with specific realities of land and climate, and literary academy is being called again toward these subjects (21). One might even say that at centre of this diverse collection is Northrop Frye's famous question, Where is here? slightly revised to where is here now? and that answers offered here generally point to continuing relevance of landscape to experiences and identities of those who live in region. In title, West of Eden, Sorenson offers her contributors--and readers--a fecund framework for exploring this version of Frye's perennial question. …

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