French Canadian Literature By Julie Rodgers, National University of Ireland, Maynooth 1. General Reference Texts Danielle Constantin, *Masques et Mirages, NY, Lang, 192 pp., is a study of works by three different authors, one of whom falls within the domain of French Canadian Literature. The three texts examined from the point of view of narrative methods and textual strategies are Julio Cortázar, Rayuela (1963), Georges Perec, La Vie mode d’emploi (1978), and Yolande Villemaire, La Vie en prose (1980). Lise Gauvin, Écrire pour qui? L’Écrivain Francophone et ses publics, Karthala, 2007, 180 pp., looks at the status of Francophone authors, the relationship between author and public, the conditions from which Francophone writers emerge, in particular, that of cultural hybridity, and how these unique conditions might influence the development of new literary techniques. *Les Voix du temps et de l’espace, ed. Jeanette den Toonder, Quebec, Nota Bene, 374 pp., pays homage to Jaap Lintvelt, founder of the Centre d’Études Canadiennes de l’Université de Groningen, who has recently taken retirement. The contributors to this collection worked in close collaboration with Lintvelt to produce a text which covers the key areas of his research in the field of Quebec literature, most notably the representation of space in the Quebec novel and its relationship to the theme of travel. Elena Brandusa Steicuic, La Francophonie au féminin, Iasi, Universitas XXI, 142 pp., is a collection of articles and interviews focusing on the work of 11 Francophone women writers from Canada to the Maghreb to Western and Eastern Europe. La Francophonie au féminin forms a critical itinerary of the shared preoccupations of Francophone women writers, looking at common themes in Francophone literature, such as memory, space, language, identity, origins, and exile, but from a specifically female point of view. Chantal Théry, De plume et d’audace: femmes de la Nouvelle France, Montreal, Triptyque, 2006, 264 pp., is another text adopting a female perspective that argues that New France was both constructed and written about thanks to women missionaries. Théry pays homage to such women who were brave enough to leave their home country behind and set off for a new land and whose writings, for the most part unknown, provide key insights into the French Canadian Literature 231 founding of New France as well as displaying sophisticated narrative style (for example, Marie Tranchepin, Marie-Madeleine Hachard, Marie Guyart, Marie Morin, Jeanne-Françoise Juchereau, Elisabeth Bégon). A la carte: le Roman québécois (2000–2005), ed. Gilles Dupuis and Klaus Dieter Ertler, Oxford, Lang, 2007, 493 pp., is a close and panoramic examination of the Quebec novel in a bid to locate its pulse, its core. Questions are asked concerning privileged forms of style and expression in the Quebec novel, the challenges that Quebec literature poses to the domain of literary criticism and academic research and the direction of future approaches. Micheline Blanchette, Nous, nos symboles, nos mythes, Sherbrook, GGC, 186 pp., is a multidisciplinary approach to Quebec identity, drawing from philosophy, sociology, and literature and illustrating the current trend, in today’s world of cultural uncertainty, of returning to the past in a bid to understand what it means to be Québécois. Rennie Yotova, Écrire le viol, Éditions non lieu, 2007, 164 pp., is a study of rape as a legitimate artistic subject that covers the work of a number of international authors. However, of particular interest to scholars of French Canadian literature is Yotova’s analysis of the representation of rape in the texts of Anne Hébert. Le Québec à l’aube du nouveau millénaire: entre traditions et modernité, ed. Marie-Christine Weidman Koop et al, Quebec U.P., 418 pp, brings together the reflections of around 60 researchers from varying disciplines (literature, cinema, politics, philosophy, education, linguistics, sociology, feminism, and history, among others) on cultural production and change in Quebec society since the 1960s and is a good general reference text. Anthology of Quebec Women’s Plays in English Translation, Volume 2, 1987–2003, ed. Louise Forsyth, Toronto, Playwrights Canada Press, provides English translations, in some cases for the first time, of seven integral plays by Hélène Pedneault, Michèle Magny, Pol Pelletier, Abla Farhoud, Geneviève Billette, Emmanuelle Roy, and Emma Haché. The anthology includes a useful introduction to each play and playwright. Dictionnaire des artistes du théâtre québécois, ed. Miche Vaïs, Quebec, Québec Améri­que, 424 pp., is a detailed reference text with 450 distinct entries on important figures (from actors and directors to set designers and make-up artists) within the domain of Quebec theatre (another 400 are mentioned but do not have their own separate entry); this is a key text for anyone interested in the history of theatre in Quebec. Mots de neige, de sable et d’océan, ed. Maurizio Gatti, Quebec, CDFM, is an anthology of work by native Francophone authors (from Quebec, North Africa, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia) and is useful for the bibliography that it provides. Yves Lever, Anastasie ou la censure du cinéma au Québec, .