In his New York Times blog in August, 2006, Douglas Coupland lamented the state of Canadian literature as, essentially, a literature in which old biddies talk about their small lives in small towns. Canadian literature is a category, he makes clear, in which he does not fit.

Yet if Coupland and his compatriots do not recognize their place in Canadian literature, Coupland does recognize himself as a Canadian writer who is intent on investigating, as well as helping to create, the culture of his country through his art. Dedicating his book Souvenir of Canada to his father, a more Canadian man is hard to imagine, Coupland adds, and to follow in his footsteps is the deepest of honors. Coupland has created numerous pieces that explicitly give language to the Canadian experience. In the category of nonfiction, Souvenir of Canada and Souvenir of Canada 2 are coffee-table books that use images of daily Canadian life to speak about and to Canadians. City of Glass performs this role for Vancouverites specifically. Terry: Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope tells a story that is close to the hearts of most Canadians. And finally, Souvenir of Canada, the documentary, draws viewers into the world of Canadiana and that of the author/filmmaker, therefore defining Coupland himself as the quintessential Canadian. In fiction, Coupland takes a slightly different approach.

Instead of Canadian literature, Coupland perhaps considers his place among the writers of American literature a more adventurous bunch, presumably. Certainly, American critics have accepted him in their fold. In Hybrid Fictions, one of the few in-depth analyses of Coupland’s work, for example, Daniel Grassian positions Coupland as an American writer of serious American fiction, to be classed among the American writers David Foster Wallace, Richard Powers, Neal Stephenson, William Vollmann, Sherman Alexie, Michele Serros, and Dave Eggers, all of whom, like the American Modernists before them, are not being sufficiently studied in their own time, according to Grassian. Grassian does admit that Coupland is Canadian (Canadian by birth, he adds in parentheses in the first of three such confessions), but he insists that despite this geographical aberration, Coupland’s writing, even when it is based in Canada, appears almost indistinguishable from American fiction.

1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

A. compare Coupland’s writing to that of other Canadian authors
B. investigate whether it is accurate to classify Coupland’s fiction as American literature
C. argue that Coupland, unlike his Canadian contemporaries, deserves to be studied like his American peers
D. discuss the merits of representing one’s country through one’s art
E. provide evidence supporting the opinion that Coupland’s work can be classified as Canadian


2. The passage implies that which of the following statements is true?

Indicate all that apply.

A. Canadian literature, despite its unique character, is inferior to American literature.
B. An artist’s dismissal of his nationality is not sufficient reason to omit mention of it from criticism of his work.
C. Coupland’s writing, due to its artistic merit, deserves further study..


3. Which of the following statements about Douglas Coupland is supported by the passage?

Indicate all that apply.

A. Had Coupland been born in the United States, his work would have received more critical acclaim.
B. Coupland’s work has not received the scholarly analyses that its breadth and value indicate.
C. Coupland’s claim that his work should not be classified as Canadian is belied by the content of his work.