11 Canadian Francophone Writings: Focus on Novel

Mr. Rindon Kundu

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. French-Canadian Novel Before 1837

3. French-Canadian Literature from 1837 to 1900

4. French-Canadian Literature from 1900 to 1948

5. French-Canadian Literature from 1948 to 1968

6. French-Canadian Literature from 1968 to present

7. Summary

About the Chapter:

This module starts with defining the term ‘French-Canadian’ and ‘québécois’, which are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not entirely the same. Jonathan Weiss and Jane Moss in their book French-Canadian Literature (1996) have noted that the term ‘French- Canadian’ most appropriately refers to the “literature of Québec” as well as refers to the literature of “French Canada,” that is, the entire Québec and other French-speaking parts of Canada before the 1960s. At this time there was a strong nationalist sentiment running throughout Québec and the adjectival French term ‘québécois’ has replaced the term ‘French- Canadian’.

1.   Introduction 

I will begin this module with a quotation that problematizes the French-Canadian identity. Jean Bouthillette, in his seminal book titled Le Canadien français et son double (The French- Canadian and His Double), published in 1972, wrote, “The Canadian identity is a mirror which reflects the image of the Other when we look at ourselves in it.” In other words, the French-Canadians want to present themselves directly rather than representing through the mirror of a homogenous Canadian identity. For this the French speakers, especially those are involved in literature and cultural fields, redefined themselves as ‘Québécois’ and around 1970s this adjectival term becomes a vehicle of nationalist identity.2 The vast literature that is coming out of Québec shows that there are things common, common reality, common themes and above all a common language – French, which can give the Québec literature its own identity. In spite of having differences in writing the term Québec literature demands its separate entity vis-à-vis English-Canadian literature. Québec literature at the present time has been given diverse names like, Francophone literature of Canada or North American literature written in French.

2.   French-Canadian Literature Before 1837

Etymologically the term ‘French-Canadians’ get their name from the state itself ‘Canada’ which originally referred to the land area along the St. Lawrence Rives, which was divided in three districts (Québec, Trois-Rivières and Montréal) as well as to the Pays d’en Haut (Upper Countries). From 1535 to 1690, the French word Canadien was referred to the First Nations (the predominant Indigenous peoples in Canada south of the Arctic) whom the French people have encountered in the St. Lawrence River valley at Stadacona and Hochelaga –  two villages at modern day Québec. At the end of the 17th century, Canadien became an ethnonym distinguishing the inhabitants of Canada from those of France. After World War I, English-Canadians appropriated the term ‘Canadian’ and French-Canadians identified as ‘Québécois’ instead.5 The term ‘French-Canadian’ is still used in general historical and cultural contexts, or when it is necessary to refer to Canadians of French-Canadian heritage communally, such as in the name and directive of national organizations which serve francophone communities across Canada. Francophone Canadians of non-French-Canadian origin such as immigrants from francophone countries are not frequently tagged by the term “French-Canadian”. Usually, the more general term “francophones” is employed for French- speaking Canadians across all ethnic origins, i.e., Québec, Acadiens, Franco-Alberans, Fransaskois, Franco-Columbians, Franco-Manitobans, Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Yukonnais, Franco-Nunavois, Franco-Ténois etc. French-Canadian literature before 1837, to describe it in a nutshell, has never go beyond the colonialist-missionary-evangelist rationale like Latin American literature.

3.   French-Canadian Literature from 1837 to 1900

The year 1837 is important because of the famous historical event, the Rebellion of 1837. Following this there were two other major events that shaped the Québec consciousness – the Canada Act of 1840 and the British North American Act of 1867. But apart from these two other major events like, making of constitution and construction of railroads have not influenced the Québec literature. Around 1840s Francophone Canadian literature distanced itself from the mainstream Canadian literature and restricted itself within the bounds of Québec.7 These French-Canadians defined themselves a separate entity from both the British Canadians as well as the French of France.8 At that time very little fictions started to be published in newspaper columns. Stories of folklores, legends, oral tradition, ghosts, adventures etc started to appear in print mediums i.e., in the newspaper L’Ami du people, Georges Boucher de Boucherville published a short story, titled “La Tour de Trafalgar” [Trafalgar Tower] 1835, grotesquely quixotic, concerning a uncanny adventure on a tempestuous Montreal night.

In the year 1837, a French-Canadian writer Phillipe-Ignace François Aubert du Gaspé wrote a novel titled L’Influence d’un livre (The Influence of a Book). Although the book was not well received initially, it has come to be recognized as a major landmark in terms of Canadian literature especially Francophone Canadian Literature. It is the story of Charles Amand’s pursuit for gold. Between alchemy, the courtship of his daughter Amélie, the legend of Rose Latulipe and the assassination of the peddler Guilmette, there is a sardonic premise intended for spiritual dearth in Québec. The author himself wrote in the preface of the novel, “I offer to my country the first novel of Canadian life. The pure ways of life of our countryside are a vast mine to explore; perhaps I will have given birth, in some of my fellow citizens abler than am I, to the desire to enrich this country.” Though the author claims that this novel has been written after Balzac’s realism, the plot has nothing of that sort and it also lacks structure and verisimilitude. In 1840 Joseph Doutre wrote Les Fiancés de 1812 (The Fiancés of 1812), an adventure fiction which deals with the social issues like family, immigration but the book is condemned and considered immoral by the Catholic clergy. Critics have accused that his novel is rather poorly constructed, poorly written and poorly edited. Patrice Lacombe wrote a novel titled La Terre paternelle (published in 1846) which was more simple and realistic and voiced for the farmer’s right. Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau’s novel Charles Guérin (published in 1847) portraits young Québécois in the 1820s, who were disgusted with the rule of the English, and hungry for establishing autonomous society in the Eastern Townships. The style is very high, as is the language of the main characters. However, the author regularly speaks “inhabitants” with the local language, sometimes explaining certain expressions or deformations of popular words. Antoine Gérin-Lajoie novel in two parts: Jean Rivard le défricheur (Jean Rivard the Pioneer, 1862) and Jean Rivard l’économiste (Jean Rivard the Economist, 1864) depicts the overpopulation and lack of job opportunities for the new generation of French-Canadians. While the first draws a romantic, optimistic futurist vision and nostalgia for an idealised past as well as a glorified picture of French-English clashes in New France; the second tells an economic reality of the present day. There are a few novels that falls under the genre of “historical novel” like L’Intendant Bigot by Joseph Marmette and Thomas Chapais’s Le Marquis de Montcalm. Critics have commented that the trend of the French-Canadian fiction around the middle of the Nineteenth century was intransigent, conformist and utterly idealistic, historical and the urban life was completely absent whereas Québec was slowly transforming towards metro society.

An institution that influenced French-Canadian writing, critical thinking and culture, named “Institut canadien de Montréal”, was founded on 17 December 1844, by a group of 200 young liberal professionals in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Institute provided a public library and debating room for its members.

One of the most prominent writers of late Nineteenth century is Laure Conan, pen name of Marie-Louise-Félicité Angers, who is French Canada’s first women novelist in its true sense. She penned around four autobiographical novels and three historical, Angéline de Montbrun (1884) [translated as Angéline de Montbrun, (1894)], À l’oeuvre et à l’épreuve (1891) [translated as The Master Motive, (1909)], L’oublié (1900), Élizabeth Seton (1903), L’obscure souffrance (1919), La sève immortelle (1925), Oeuvres romanesques [in three volumes] (1974-75).10 Amongst them Angéline de Montbrun is the most popular and critically acclaimed. It is a psychological tale, first of its kind in the entire oeuvre of Canadian literature, written in a very complex narrative structure, which is unique in the Canadian literature produced in nineteenth century. Except this novel, the entire nineteenth century Francophone Canadian literature has been tagged by the critics as “a dozen good class-C books”. But the importance of the nineteenth century French-Canadian literature lays in the fact that it has defined it as a national literature, instilled certain sense of nationhood into it, and a confidence that French-Canadian literature can be tagged as a separate independent entity on which the twentieth century Québec literature can stand on its own.

4.   French-Canadian Literature from 1900 to 1948

Critics have compartmentalized pre-1837 period as ‘pre-literary’, 19th C is an ‘affirmation of literary identity’, 20th C is the maturity period of Francophone Canadian literature. As nineteenth century French-Canadian literature has been seen as reactionary for its overdependence on idealism and romanticism, twentieth century French-Canadian literature is utterly cosmopolitan as Québec was becoming rapidly urbanized.13 At this outset, a group of poets formed L’École littéraire de Montréal (The Montreal Literary School) to meet and read their verse. Despite the rise of French-Canadian poetry, the twentieth century French- Canadian literature was marked by fiction, especially novel. It has seen in every corner of the world that the rise of novel is directly proportionate to the growth of the middle class and the same happened at Québec also. With this there was an increase of readership and the Catholic Church has started to influence the development of novel a great deal.

Louis Hémon, a Frenchman who came to Québec, is the first author who has created a true picture of the Canadian countryside. His novel Maria Chapdelaine (1914) became hugely popular in international market. The theme of the novel is deeply regionalist, portraying a peasant literature depicting rural life. This novel has a major influence on Félix-Antoine Savard, a renowned Canadian folklorist, who has explored Charlevoix countryside and it became the setting of his most polular novel titled, Menaud, maître-draveur [Master of the River] (1937), a hallmark of Québec literature till date. Both Maria Chapdelaine and Menaud maître-draveur were immensely successful not only in terms of monetary but set an example of describing countryside, everyday life in village and picturesque setting. Claude-Henri Grignon, a contemporary novelist has declared, which can be seen as the manifesto of the time, “Notre culture sera absolument paysanne ou elle ne sera pas.” (“Ours will be an absolutely peasant culture, or it will not be.”).15 His novel La Scouine [The Scouine] (1918) painted an explicit image of rustic, pastoral lifestyle. Ringuet, the pseudonym for Philippe Panneton, another contemporary, maps out in his novel Trente arpents [Thirty Acres] (1938) the transformation of life of a French-Canadian native from rural richness to urban adversity in a New England milltown.16 Germaine Guèvremont, one of the prominent women writers of early twentieth century, published in 1945 her novel titled Le Survenant (The Outlander) which gives a balanced depiction of peasant life. The sequel titled Marie-Didace also explored marriage and the hardships of life in rural Québec, the death of loved ones and the comforts of religion and the formidable and sometimes terrifying power of nature.

Around 1930s with the growth of Québec city the urban life became a major theme in the upcoming novels. Jean-Charles Harvey’s Les Demi-civilisés [The Half Civilized] (1934) is considered as the first major urban novel in French-Canadian literature but it was banned by the church for being political as it claims right for free speech and liberation from clerical censorship. Roger Lemelin’s Au pied de la pente douce [The Town Below] (1944) and Les Plouffe [The Plouffe Family] (1948) both are set in the city of Québec and portrays the everyday life of middle class urban family.18 Gabrielle Roy’s Bonheur d’occasion [The Tin Flute] (1945) has been considered the best urban novel of that time and it portrays the urban working class people of Québec society. His next novel Alexandre Chenevert [The Cashier] (1954) follows the same tradition of urban based writing but this time Roy has depicted the social, economical matrix of a white collar job as it is based on an ordinary bank cashier. Gabrielle Roy’s writing has marked an era, a major shift from rural life to urban city, from idealism to true realism and he has been considered as the best writer of Francophone Canadian literature. This is the new fiction that breaks away from French and European literature and becomes as true québécois but not regionalist, anchored in a North American reality but universal in its appeal.

5.   French-Canadian Literature from 1948 to 1968

The reason behind compartmentalization of French-Canadian literature at the year 1948 is the publication of a manifesto, titled Refus global (Global Refusal), issued by a group of sixteen writers and artists which declares the artistic declaration of complete independence. Anne Hébert’s Les Chambres de bois [The Silent Rooms] (1958) is a close introspection of an individual’s life. André Langevin’s Poussière sur la ville [Dust Over the City] (1953) is set against the backdrop of a mining town. Yves Thériault is an important figure of this phase of French-Canadian novel.21 His novels like La Fille laide [The Ugly Girl] (1950), Agaguk (1958) are different types of psychological texts which were not limited to Québec but about universal human being. The tradition of introspective novel has progressed with novelists of this period like Claire Martin, author of Doux-amer [Bittersweet (1960)] and Dans un gant de fer [In an Iron Glove, (1965)]; Louise Maheux-Forcier, author of Amadou (1963); and Monique Bosco, author of Un Amour Maladroit [A Clumsy Love, 1961] etc.

Around mid 20th century there was a new kind of writing called nouveau roman (New  Novel) emerged in France which was broadly termed as ‘antinovel’. Following the theories of Alain Robbe-Grillet and other French proponents, this avant-garde writing marked a radical departure from the conventions of the traditional novel as it ignores such elements as plot, dialogue, linear narrative, and human interest. Starting from the premise that the potential of the traditional novel had been exhausted, the writers of New Novels sought new avenues of fictional exploration. In their efforts to overcome literary habits and to challenge the expectations of their readers, they deliberately frustrated conventional literary expectations, avoiding any expression of the author’s personality, preferences, or values.23 Gérard Bessette’s Le Libraire (Not for Every Eye) published in 1960 is the ideal example of this transition in writing. Here Bessette leaves the judgment to the reader as he ends the novel rather openly. Bessette rather was interested in the act of writing itself. Hubert Aquin’s Prochain épisode (Next Episode, 1965) is a classic example of this kind of writing where on the surface it is an adventure novel, but a deeper analysis will show it as a story of an imprisoned revolutionary.24 Jacques Ferron, the most original voice of this era, amalgamates the social reality of modern Québec with Indian legends, for example Cotnoir (Dr. Cotnoir, 1962), La Nuit (The Night, 1965), L’Amélanchier (The Juneberry Tree) and Le Ciel de Québec (The Sky of Quebec). Roch Carrier has experimented with oral tradition in his most famous novel La Guerre yes sir! (La Guerre Yes Sir!, 1968) and his storytelling capacity was further expanded in his two more important works Il est par là le soleil (Is it the Sun, Philibert?) and Il n’y a pas de pays sans grand-père (There is no Country without a Grandfather). Jacques Godbout L’Aquarium (The Aquarium) was written in 1962 against the backdrop of “Révolution tranquille” or “Quiet Revolution” and Le Couteau sur la table (Knife on the Table) represents the voice of Québec youth. Marie-Claire Blais, one of the most prominent women writers of contemporary Canada, portrayed personal fictional world in her very first novel Une Saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel (A Season in the Life of Emmanuel (1966). So this brief period of twenty odd years has seen a quantum leap not only in terms of social, political and economical change but a radical change in creative writing and imagination on which newer landscapes will be drawn in the next decade.

6.  French-Canadian Literature from 1968 to present

The next two decades have seen a topsy-turvy political situation. The quest for identity is a recurrent theme in terms of Québec literature which was championed in Anne Hérbert’s Kamouraska (1970). Réjean Ducharme experiments with word-play and fantasy in his novels like, Le Nez qui voque (a pun on the word équivoque, 1967), L’Océantume (a pun on the word amertume, meaning bitterness, 1968), La Fille de Christophe Colomb (Christopher Columbus’s Daughter, 1969), L’Hiver de force (Wild to Mild, 1973), Les Enfantômes (a word play on the words enfants, children, and fantômes, ghosts, 1976) and Dévadé (1990). Yolande Villemaire, a noteworthy female voice of contemporary time, experiments with violence, body, sexuality and mysticism in her novels such as, La Vie en prose (Life in Prose, 1980) La Constellation du cygne (The Constellation of the Swan, 1985). Denise Bombardier, another female voice, has written probably the best novel on the topic of education, Une enface à l’eau bénite (1985). So these themes show that the present Québec literature is not engulfed into the boundary of nationalism, rather exploring newer issues.

7.  Summary 

In conclusion, it could be argued that, modern Québec literature is a vibrant, diverse, innovative, experimental, creative literary corpus. We have dealt with the political, social and economical changes in Québec and informed the readers about the storytellers, writers and the cultural history of French-Canada. Finally, we have traced the development of French- Canadian literature with special focus on novel categorizing them in the blocks of time as they evolved.

References:

• Lorne Pierce, An outline of French-Canadian literature, Montreal and New York: Louis Carrier & Co, 1927.
• Unwin, Timothy. The Cambridge Companion to The French Novel: From 1800 to the present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
• Weiss, Jonathan M. and Moss, Jane. The ACSUS Papers French-Canadian Literature, Michigan: Michigan State University Press. 1996.