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UMJ Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 CONCEIVING THE NATION; LITERATURE AND NATION BUILDING IN RENAISSANCE FRANCE AND POST-QUIET REVOLUTION QUEBEC DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Douglas L Boudreau, M.A. The Ohio State University 1999 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Danielle Marx-Scouras, Co-Adviser Q , Professor Robert Cottrell, Co-Adviser Co-Adviser Professor Eugene Holland /c ^ Co-Adviser Department of French and Italian UMI Number: 9941289 Copyright 1999 by Boudreau, Douglas Leonard All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9941289 Copyright 1999, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Douglas Leonard Boudreau 1999 ABSTRACT Previous studies, especially in the field of French-Canadian literature, have indicated the presence of certain traits within French-Canadian literature that recall the literature of Renaissance France. What has been left largely unexplored is why these two cultures, widely separated in time and space, should demonstrate these traits in common. The present study proposes to examine this question, positing the socio-cultural context of nation-building in Renaissance France and post-Quiet Revolution Quebec as a possible basis for these resonances. Six authors have been selected, three from each period, and this study demonstrates first, the presence of what may be loosely referred to as the “national question" in their works and second, the comparability of these texts by examining their treatment of themes allied to nation-building and nationalism. The works of Michel de Montaigne and Jacques Godbout are examined for their exploration of the national identity as a marginal identity. Noting the prominence of women’s writing in both Renaissance France and post-Quiet Revolution Quebec and the affinity between women’s identity politics and national identity politics, we have selected four women authors to show how nation-building affects the work of the woman writer and interacts with her treatment of women’s identity. Marguerite de Navarre and Anne Hébert are studied for their treatment of the social roles of women, especially family roles, and also for their treatment of personal history. An assessment is made of the role played by these forces in identity. Louise Labé and Nicole Brossard demonstrate In their work the strong presence of desire as a factor in both national and gender identity. During the course of the examination of these texts, we observe the prominence of images of movement and the presence of biological and especially sexual imagery in the treatment of nation, identity and writing. The study concludes by noting that these six authors are taking advantage of the instability produced in and by their cultural contexts. The destabilization of the old order is exploited as a window of opportunity for social and personal exploration and expansion. ill ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my advisers, Robert Cottrell and Danielle Marx-Scouras, whose advice and encouragement were invaluable in both the conception and execution of this dissertation and for their patience in reading some very rough drafts of my text I am grateful to Eugene Holland for his feedback in my explorations of nationalism. I would also like to thank my parents, Robert and Cecile Boudreau, for their encouragement of my academic career, and last but not least I wish to thank my husband, Hayes Biggs, for his understanding and support throughout my pursuit of the degree. IV VITA February 22, 1969 ...................................Bom- Glens Falls. New York, USA 1991..........................................................B.A., DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana 1993..........................................................M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1991-1993................................................ Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University 1993-199 4.................................................Assistant d’anglais. Lycée Malherbe, Caen, France 1994-presen t Graduate Teaching and Research Associate, The Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Douglas L Boudreau-Tiegezh, “Death in the Quart Livre" Romance Notes. 37.2 (Winter 1997). 183-191. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field; French and Italian TABLE OF CONTENTS E âqsl Abstract ................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................. iv Vita......................................................................................................................... V Chapters; 1. Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 2. Michel de Montaigne and Jacques Godbout: Spotlight on the Grotesque ....................................................................... 33 3. Marguerite de Navarre, Anne Hébert and the Heritage of Eve. 92 4. Louise Labé and Nicole Brossard: Je désire donc je suis .................... 157 5. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 208 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 219 VI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In 1973, the poet Michèle Lalonde published La Deffence & Illustration de la Langue Quebecauovse. This work presented itself as a response to those who believed the French language of Quebec to be a degraded, corrupted or inferior dialect. Perhaps the most notorious expression of this viewpoint was the 1960 collection of essays Les insolences du Frère Untel. by the teaching brother Jean-Paul Desbiens. In her defense of Québécois French, Michèle Lalonde justifies her stance by making a comparison between her twentieth- century compatriots and their sixteenth-century French ancestors. Her text is a transparent allusion to DuBellay’s Deffense et illustration de la langue françQvse. and the two texts serve a very similar purpose. DuBellay sought to defend the stature of the French language against that of Italian, but also against Latin and Greek. Lalonde defends Québécois French against the above-mentioned charges of inferiority (vis à vis so-called "Standard French") and corruption due to the influence of English. Lalonde's adoption of an irregular orthography (not only in the title, but also in the body of her text) establishes an ingenious parallel between the French literature of the sixteenth century and that produced by Québécois authors whose writing reflected the national dialect and not the standard of France. This would be especially true 1 of authors such as Michel Tremblay and Jacques Renaud whose littérature ioualisante' of the late 60 s and early 70 s also featured non-standardlzed spelling. The Défenses of Lalonde and DuBellay figure among the expressions of a new national pride and a sense of national purpose. They do so by celebrating what Is perhaps a nation's most obvious distinctive trait, the national language. In using DuBellay as a precedent for her defense of Québécois French, Lalonde Is evoking a feeling commonly held by observers of the recent dramatic cultural changes that had taken place In La Belle Province. As Pierre ValHères described It In his separatist manifesto. Les nègres blancs d'Amérique. Quebec had "leaped from the Middle Ages Into the twentieth century (11).'* In other words, like DuBellay's France, Lalonde's Quebec was experiencing Its Renaissance. The French Renaissance and Quebec’s Quiet Revolution left the people of the two societies with the Impression that they were living In a new world, unlike the one known to their grandparents. There was a break with the medieval sense of eternal continuity. They appreciated that their society was undergoing a profound change and that they were living this time of change.