This thesis examines how knowledge production, in the form of university-level courses in English-Canadian, French-Canadian, Québécois, and Comparative Canadian literatures, both reflects and actively promotes very specific visions of Canadian identity. The literatures of Canada, a country with two official languages and a number of diverse cultural and linguistic groups, transcend the traditional boundaries of English and French language and literature departments and therefore become an ideal context in which to examine the often implicit political and social agenda(s) inherent in any country's study of its own national literature. Chapters one and two are rooted in the history of the teaching of literature, but also in theories of the literary institution and national/cultural identity formation. This, together with a wealth of quantitative research found in chapters three and four which includes data from twenty-eight Canadian universities and interviews with ninety-five professors in the field, provides a powerful snapshot of the state of the Canadian literary institution, but also serves as a unique and elaborate case study of the political and social agendas intrinsic to the production of literary knowledge. As no one has ever done an investigation of this scope in Canada, this thesis should make a major contribution to the field's understanding of itself. More importantly, it helps to explain the role played by university courses in processes such as canonization, knowledge production, and cultural reproduction.