Anne of Tim Hortons: Globalization and the Reshaping of Atlantic-Canadian Literature

Anne of Tim Hortons: Globalization and the Reshaping of Atlantic-Canadian Literature is a study of the work of over twenty contemporary Atlantic-Canadian writers that counters the widespread impression of Atlantic Canada as a quaint and backward place. By examining their treatment of work, culture, and history, author Herb Wyile highlights how these writers resist the image of Atlantic Canadians as improvident and regressive, if charming, folk.

After an introduction that examines the current place of the region within the Canadian federation and the broader context of economic globalization, Anne of Tim Hortons explores how Atlantic-Canadian writers present a picture of the region that is much more complex and less quaint than the stereotypes through which it is typically viewed. Through the works of authors such as Michael Winter, Lisa Moore, George Elliott Clarke, Rita Joe, Frank Barry, Alistair MacLeod, and Bernice Morgan, among others, the book looks at the changing (and increasingly corporate) nature of work, the cultural diversification and subversive self-consciousness of Atlantic-Canadian literature, and Atlantic-Canadian writers’ often revisionist approach to the region’s history.

What these writers are engaged in, the book contends, is a kind of collective readjustment of the image of the region. Rather than a marginal place stranded outside of time, Atlantic Canada in these works is very much caught up in contemporary economic, political, and cultural developments, particularly the broad sweep of economic globalization.

Introduction: “Now Our Masters Have No Borders”

Herb Wyile

The introduction situates trends in contemporary Atlantic-Canadian literature in a series of contexts, including the region’s place in the larger federation, the history of the region, and the wider context of economic globalization and neoliberalism.


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Section One | I’se the B’y That Leaves the Boats: The Changing World of Work

Herb Wyile

The first section of the book examines how the image of the region has been shifted through writers’ representations of the changing nature of work. It focuses on the decline of the region’s traditional resource sectors and the rise of the service industry, as well as the impact of neoliberal thinking.

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Section Two | “About as Far From Disneyland as You Can Possibly Get”: The Reshaping of Culture

Herb Wyile

The second section examines the reconfiguration of culture in contemporary Atlantic-Canadian literature in a couple of key ways: it looks at the demographic diversification of that writing, but also its self-conscious subversion of cultural stereotypes of the region, as well as the impact of tourism on regional culture.


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Section Three | The Age of Sale: History, Globalization, and Commodification

Herb Wyile

The final section addresses the preoccupation with history in recent Atlantic-Canadian literature; it stresses the revisionist and postcolonial character of most of this literature, and its resistance to simplified and glorified images of the region’s past.