CanLit’s comedy problem

“Despite its pretence of scope, the Leacock medal has traditionally been awarded for humour written in the mode of Stephen Leacock. Perhaps this is to be expected. After all, the prize’s host organization is expressly mandated to ‘preserve the literary ­legacy’ and ‘to honour and perpetuate the name and memory of Stephen Leacock’ by continuing ‘to initiate and support activities which widen interest in Leacock and his writings [and] in the Leacock legend.’ So it seems predictable that, as a corollary to those activities, the medal honours books that emulate the qualities of its namesake—or at least his fiction.”

 

Pasha Malla – Literary Review of Canada – June 2018

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