Ethel Wilson - Importance of Environment in Wilson's Work

Importance of Environment in Wilson's Work

Wilson is well known as one of the first Canadian writers to truly capture the beauty of BC. She wrote often of places in BC that were important to her and was able to detail the ruggedness and magic of the landscape. Yet in 1958 at the University of British Columbia, in a talk entitled "An Approach to Some Novels," Wilson stated that there was no school of 'Canadian novel-writing,' nor was one necessary. In her opinion, there were novels written in Canada by Canadians, but these were written with no prescribed formula for what would make a 'Canadian novel.' While Wilson was not overly patriotic in her writing, she did find environment to be very important to her characters. In fact, the connection to place is central in her writings to exploring relationships and the way people react to life. Wilson's characters are observed in relation to the environment. In Love and Salt Water, she states that "the formidable power of geography determines the character and performance of a people."

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