Avant-Garde Canadian Literature offers an entrance into the vocabulary of the ongoing and primarily international debate surrounding the idea of avant-gardism, providing readers with a functional vocabulary for discussing some of the most hermetic and yet energetic literature ever produced in this country.

Gregory Betts is a professor in the Faculty of Humanities at Brock University.

‘This book greatly advances our understanding of the experimental élan of Canada’s avant-garde throughout the century, and provides insight into collaborative authorship, radical networks, and surrealist and automatist writing and painting.’

Nicholas Bradley:

‘A fascinating work of scholarship, the book is an affront to the persistent belief that Canadian literature of the early twentieth century is a dreary subject. Betts has shown that in fact it is hardly comprehended….Avant-Garde Canadian Literature is an admirable and welcome contribution to the history and interpretation of literature in this country.’

Alessandra Capperdoni:

‘Betts’ weaving of past and present, theory and literary practice, aesthetics and politics is carried out in a brilliant way.’