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https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ Theses Digitisation: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/research/enlighten/theses/digitisation/ This is a digitised version of the original print thesis. Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Representations of cultural identities in Quebecois literature from 1980: the rise of migrant voices. Dissertation submitted for a M. Litt. Date of Submision: September 2003 Dissertation presented by: Celine M.G. Reynaud University of Glasgow Department of French Language and Literature - Faculty of Arts. © Celine Reynaud 30 September 2003. 1 ProQuest Number: 10753976 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10753976 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 'GLASGOW UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: 1^33 5 C o P V \ ABSTRACT Migrant literature in Quebec has always existed. However, in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, a change occurred in the attitude of migrant authors. Instead of blending into Quebecois society and literature by adopting similar lifestyles and topics, they started retaining their cultural differences, and used their personal experience of displacement as material for their fictional literary work. During the 1990s particularly, the concept of transculture - based on topics associated with migration such as dislocation and hybridity - developed and began to challenge - within literary work at least - the existing cultural and geographical borders. In this thesis, we will explore the work of four selected groups of migrant authors - namely French, Middle Eastern, Haitian and Jewish authors - and highlight the topics specific to each group. Coming from very different backgrounds, their reasons for migrating and their expectations about Quebec vary greatly. The French show characters who feel out of place in France because they are unable to accept the changes within their own society. They idealise Quebec and see it mainly as a bastion of traditional French values, which is bound to lead them to disillusion. Middle Eastern authors, mainly female, present characters originally migrating to Quebec in hope of a better material life, but who also found an unexpected liberation. In Middle Eastern novels, women are the true beneficiaries of migration because they discover independence through feminist theories and the support of laws that guarantee personal freedom. As for Haitian writers, they focus mainly on the topic of memory and attempt to hold on to the past through literary creation. Their work also questions the process of becoming a migrant and dealing with Otherness in an adoptive culture. Contrary to Haitians, Jewish writers express a fragmented sense of identity due to gaps in their personal and collective memories, an overlap between their national and Jewish identities, and their migration to a new country. Despite their different origins, the four groups of authors have topics in common. Some novels depict the different steps to becoming a migrant and how individuals become disconnected from their cultures and lands of origin. Another part of migrant authors’ work shows the identity crisis that ensues from living in a foreign country and features some of the mechanisms that migrants adopt in order to cope with the new elements of their adoptive country and to retain their sense of cultural identity. Learning to compromise, they recreate a ‘home’ in their adoptive country, but they also reinvent the borders between cultures and countries by combining elements from both worlds. Migrant authors show that dislocation renders individuals less dependent on national identity, and allows them a greater freedom and an increased role in the concept and composition of cultural identities. 2 CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 CONTENTS 3 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 5 Introduction 7 Chapter 1: Writers of French origin: migration as an escape to the present. 13 Introduction 13 Migration and French identity 14 Portraying France 17 Quebec/France: Comparisons and hopes 21 Social topics 28 Conclusion 35 Chapter 2: Middle Eastern writers: Breaking free from an oppressive past 37 Introduction 31 Causes of migration 42 Idealising one’s origin and past 49 Conformism and rebellion against old social rules and order 54 Conclusion 59 Chapter 3: Haitian writing in Quebec: the importance of memory. 61 Introduction 61 Memory and embeddedness 62 The languages 64 The recreation o f the original environment: ‘mapping’ memories 68 Spirituality, Imagination and History: *mapping ’ the imagination 72 Relationships with the family and the community 15 Conclusion 81 Chapter 4: Jewish writers or the fragmentation of memory 82 Introduction 82 Habiter la langue 84 The image o f the translator 94 Relations with the Jewish community in Montreal 95 Holocaust and Jewish identity 97 Conclusion 102 Chapter 5: The process of Acculturation: Becoming a Migrant. 103 Introduction 103 Circumstances o f acculturation within one’s culture 109 The different stages in becoming a migrant 115 A passionate affair 119 Conclusion 122 Chapter 6: Coming to terms with alterity 123 Introduction 123 The causes of crisis 123 Symptoms o f the crisis and coping mechanisms 137 Conclusion 145 Chapter 7: The process of ‘Re-enculturation’. 146 Introduction 146 Questioning one’s culture and embracing changes 146 Freedom and the discovery of feminist theories 151 Children as internediary to change 155 Returning to one’s (place of) origin 159 3 Conclusion 169 Chapter 8: Representation of Quebecois society: Underscoring problems and redefining landscapes. 170 Introduction 170 1Pure laine ’ vs. newcomers 171 Love it or Maple Leave it 176 Nous sommes tous des immigrants 187 Conclusion 193 Chapter 9: A cosmopolitan vision of Quebec 195 Introduction 195 Hybridity and transculture 195 Deconstructing the Quebecois nous 200 Transculture and imaginary territories 206 Babelisme and dislocation 214 Conclusion 218 Conclusion 219 Bibliography 222 Acknowledgments 228 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Agnant, Marie-Celie: Alexis d ’Haiti. AH Alexis, le fils de Raphael AFR Le Livre d ’Emma. LE Blondeau, Dominique: Les Feux de I 'exil LFDE Bossus, Francis: La Tentation du destin. TD Etienne, Gerard: La Romance en do mineur de Maitre Clo. LRDMC Ghalem, Nadia: Les Jardins de cristal. JDC La Rose des sables. RDS Kattan, Naim: Farida. Fda La Fiancee promise. FP La Reprise. LaR Le Rivage. LeR Le Sable de File. LSI Le Silence des Adieux. LSA Laferriere, Dany: La Chair du maitre. LCDM Le Charme des apres-midi sans fin. CAMSF Eroshima. Ea Pays sans Chapeau. PSC Comment faire I 'amour avec un negre sans se fatiguer. CFA Le Cri des oiseaux fous. COF L ’Odeur du cafe. ODC Latif-Ghattas, Mona: Le Double Conte de I 'exil. DCDE Les Lunes de miel. LDM Marois, Andre: Accidents de Parcours AP Navarre, Yves: La Terrasse des audiences au moment de I 'adieu. TAMA Ce sont amis que vent emporte. CSA La Dame au fond de la cour. DAF 5 Ollivier, Emile: La Discorde aux cent voix. DACV Les Urnes Scellees. US Mere Solitude. MS Mille Eaux. ME Pean, Stanley: LEmprise de la nuit. EDN La Memoire ensanglantee. MEns Treize pas vers Vinconnu. TPVI L'Appel des loups. ADL Quand la bete est humaine. QBH Le Temps s'enfuit. LTE Zombi blues. ZB Petrowsky, Nathalie: II rester a toujours le Nebraska. IRTLN Maman last call. MLC Robin, Regine: La Quebecoite. LQ L Immense fatigue des pierres - Biofictions. IFDP Senechal, Xaviere: Le Pays d ’ailleurs. LPA 6 Introduction Migrant writing in Quebec is far from being a new phenomenon, as Quebec - and more generally Canada - is a country of immigration. The most famous example of it is probably Louis Hemon’s Maria Chap delaine, published in 1914, and contributing to the presentation of Quebec as a bastion of Francophone culture and values. The migrant contribution to national literature, however, has changed throughout the years. Clement Moisan and Renate Hildebrand, who have retraced the history of migrant writing since 1937 in Ces Etrangers du dedans,l show that its goals and aims have varied in conjunction with migratory flows. Up until the late 1950s, migrants were predominantly of European extraction. Their views about culture and society were fairly similar to those of the Quebecois, and therefore, the literature produced by those migrant authors was in harmony with that of francophone local authors. They praise the hard-working men, fighting a somewhat hostile nature, and the virtues of women who bring up children in the ancestral traditions and catholic faith of the early French settlers. But, from the 1960s, migrants from other parts of the world started to arrive in larger number in Quebec. Coming from Asia, Africa, the Middle East or even the Caribbean, this new wave of migrants did not share the same Eurocentric cultural background, and often was (or saw itself as) the victim of colonialism. If, in most cases, they were themselves Francophones, they had not migrated to Quebec with a view to perpetuate francophone values, but rather to break free from oppressive regimes and make a better material life for themselves.