Playing l’avocate du diable : The Case against Worlding “French Canadian” Literature from Québec

• Published in: Journal of Canadian studies 2019-09, Vol.53 (3), p.659-673
• Main Author: Vautier, Marie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Contextualism; French Canadian literature; Literary criticism; World literature
• ISSN: 0021-9495; 1911-0251
• DOI: 10.3138/jcs.2018-0035

As a professor of comparative literature in French from Quebec and in English from English-speaking Canada, I am not at all convinced by the project of worlding contemporary Québécois literature. Discussions of this matter are usually found under the umbrella expression “littérature- monde” in France. Taking into account the manifesto published in the newspaper Le Monde in Paris in 2007—and reprinted in Montreal’s daily for intellectuals, Le Devoir, a few days later—I will argue that the case made for “littérature-monde” in the French-speaking world is conceived of in terms that are not applicable to Québécois literature in French. The usual symbolic structures that underlie this discourse ( centre/ périphérie; Nord/ Sud; littérature des Blancs contre celle des Noirs) are not appropriate to Québécois literature in French, given, among other elements, the very strong “institution littéraire” that has existed in the territory for at least the last 60 years and actually for a longer period of time. I will base my arguments in part on the manifesto and on contributions found in the book Pour une littérature-monde (2007) , published some months after the manifesto, and then contextualize them in the light of more recent contributions to the discussion. This article contains five parts: the professor, the context, the manifesto, reactions to the manifesto, and “Le cas du Québec,” in which I suggest an alternative model.