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- Volume 9, Issue 3, 2006
International Journal of Francophone Studies - Volume 9, Issue 3, 2006
Volume 9, Issue 3, 2006
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The challenges of linguistic duality for francophone Canada: contact, conflict and continuity
More LessThis article analyses the principle and practice of linguistic duality in Canada, a country where official bilingualism has been rooted in federal policy on language issues since Confederation (1867). A recent example of a major federal initiative is the Action Plan for Official Languages (2003), which has set as one of its objectives the doubling of bilingual high-school graduates. Historically, conflict has characterized the relationship between the federal government and the provincial government of Quebec, which has pursued a diametrically opposed policy of official monolingualism, culminating in the enactment of the Charte de la langue franaise (Bill 101) in 1977. Several of the provisions of Bill 101 have been challenged in the Supreme Court, in the context of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982), notably in the area of minority education rights (e.g. Casimir case, 2005). Analysis of the 2001 census data is used to discuss the demolinguistic reality of French, leading to the conclusion that it is under threat in all provinces and territories except Quebec. The issues of language contact are also challenging for Quebec; though it is the only province with a francophone majority, it is also the province with the highest rate of bilingualism. Important research projects on the long-term continuity and vitality of francophone minority communities are ongoing.
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Translating difference: Gabrielle Roy's Inuit stories in French and English
More LessThis article will consider the ways in which translation both in its broadest and in its more literal sense can be seen as the site of contact, conflict, transparency and opacity between languages and cultures. The particular instance of Roy's writing of the North in La Rivire sans repos can be seen as an engagement with questions of translatability and of the transparency and non-transparency of language. The first part of the article examines Roy's complex relationship to language and the relevance of work in the field of Translation Studies (Berman, Mezei, Godard) to questions of linguistic and cultural difference in the Canadian context. The article then turns to discuss two of the shorter stories as examples of writing as translation. Finally the English translation of the longest story, La Rivire sans repos, will be analysed to assess the extent to which specificities of linguistic and cultural difference are lost in the process of translating this text in French into English.
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La reprsentation ambivalente de l'Autochtone dans le roman qubcois: vers une perspective postcoloniale
By Sandra HobbsThis article will begin with a survey of the relatively small number of studies of the figure of the Native in the literature of Quebec and will then continue by considering critical studies of the Native in other former settler colonies such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Criticism from both Quebec and other former settler colonies links the representation of the Native to the need for the white settler to identify with his or her new territory, to criticize white society and to distinguish this society from its European ancestor. Next, by using the postcolonial theory of Homi Bhahba, this article relates the ambivalent nature of the Qubcois writer's representation of the Native to a lack present in the colonizer's psyche that leads to a partial identification with, yet at the same time fear of, the colonized other. This theoretical perspective leads to a different interpretation of the function of the Native in Quebec literature than in previous studies, which underlined the settler colony status of Quebec. By using Bhahba's theory, the representation of the Native can be more closely compared with paradigms of representation used in non-settler colonial contexts. The article concludes by noting that in spite of its contribution to our understanding of ambivalence in the representation of the Native, Bhabha's theory does not account for the metaphorical function played by the Native in Quebec literature of the Quiet Revolution.
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Transculturalism, postcolonial identities, religiosity in Lalonde's Sept lacs plus au Nord and Tostevin's Frog Moon
More LessThe identitary concerns of contemporary transcultured fiction from Englishspeaking Canada and French-speaking Qubec are often thematized through a reworking of religious iconography and language. Pierre Nepveu has argued that la transculture is essential to post-nationalist preoccupations in contemporary Qubcois culture. Work on la transculture in Qubcois theory finds an echo in the contemporary interest in postcolonial side-by-sidedness. In Postcolonizing the Commonwealth, Rowland Smith argues that current research in postcolonialism has moved beyond an oppositional stance (i.e. in a term like writing back) to investigate new kinds of side-by-sidedness that lead to the possibility of sharing cultural experience rather than resisting the imposition of alien forms of culture. It is proposed that the postcolonial acceptance of the continual becoming of identity (l'identitaire) is sometimes explored through contemporary fictions' use of the trope of religiosity, as seen through the dynamic praxis of transculturalisms. In closing, a necessarily brief reference will be made to two contemporary novels: Robert Lalonde's Sept lacs plus au Nord (1993) and Lola Lemire Tostevin's Frog Moon (1994).
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The bridge of reversals: translation and cosmopolitanism in Montreal
By Sherry SimonEmile Ollivier's short story, Une nuit, un taxi, offers a vision of the city as Babelian confusion, as excessive difference. As a rewrite of Jacques Ferron's Le Pont, Ollivier proposes a new and alarming vision of the cosmopolitan city. Contesting the figure of the bridge as a clichd image of translation, this article examines Ollivier's story within the context of immigrant writing in Montreal including such writers as Marco Micone, Abla Farhoud and Rgine Robin and its capacity to translate a diversity of experiences and memories into the fabric of the city.
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Staging the/an Other: The Dragons' Trilogy Take II
By Jane KoustasRecent studies on the work of Robert Lepage underline the centrality of confrontation with the Other in the theatre of this internationally known and acclaimed Quebec dramaturge, cineaste, actor and producer. Characterized by the contact, collision and mixing of languages, Lepage's theatre challenges audiences around the world forcing them to experience the between zone, that liminal space between, or outside, comfortable linguistic, cultural and geographical boundaries in which the Other is frequently no longer easily identifiable. From early productions such as Circulations in the 1980s to his most recent production, The Andersen Project, staging the Other has been a central preoccupation of the Lepage project. However, as the recent remake of The Dragons' Trilogy suggests, perceptions of the Other may change over time as the Other's place in society evolves. This article provides an overview of Lepage's theatre with emphasis on the importance of language in the representation of the Other and focuses particularly on The Dragons' Trilogy. It suggests that what was intended, and indeed perceived, to be a sympathetic, albeit stereotyped, portrayal of the immigrant in Canada and Quebec in the 1980s appears as a misstep in a new millennium and in a new Quebec in which immigrants, including immigrant writers, have found their own voice.
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Book Reviews
Francophone Writing in Transition: Algeria 19001945, Peter Dunwoodie (2005) Bern and Oxford: Peter Lang AG, 339 pp., ISBN 3-03910-294-X (pbk), 59.60, 39.00, US$ 66.95
Empire and Culture: The French Experience, 18301940, Martin Evans (ed.) (2004) Houndsmill: Macmillan, 212 pp., ISBN 0-333-79181-9 (hbk), 47.50
Le franais en Amrique du Nord, tat prsent, Albert Valdman, Julie Auger et Deborah Piston-Hatlen (2005) Qubec: Les Presses de l'Universit Laval, 583 pp., ISBN 2-7637-8242-6 (pbk), $45
Franais, franglais, qub-quoi? Les jeunes Qubcois et la langue franaise : enqute socioliguistique, Elatiana Razafimandimbimanana (2005) Paris : L'Harmattan, 238 pp., ISBN 2-7475-9590-0 (pbk), 21
Histoire de la guerre d'indpendance algrienne, Sylvie Thnault (2005) Paris: Editions Flammarion, 300 pp., ISBN 2-08-210344-7 (pbk), 21
France and the Americas, Bill Marshall (ed.) (2005) Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: ABC Clio (3 vols.), 1295 pp., ISBN 1-85109-411-3, 197
La Vie littraire au Qubec: vol. 5 18951918, Denis Saint-Jacques and Maurice Lemire (eds.) (2005) Quebec City: Les Presses de l'Universit Laval, 680 pp., ISBN 2-7637-8124-1 (pbk), $45
Journal de Vaugine de Nuisement, Steve Canac-Marquis and Pierre Rzeau (eds.) (2005) Quebec: Les Presses de l'Universit Laval, 191 pp., ISBN 2-7637-8182-9 (pbk), C$25
De l'crit l'cran: Les rcritures filmiques du roman africain francophone, Alexie Tcheuyap (2005) Ottawa: Les Presses de l'Universit d'Ottawa, 230 pp., ISBN 2-7603-0580-5 (pbk), C$29.95
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 26 (2023)
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Volume 25 (2022)
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Volume 24 (2021)
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Volume 23 (2020)
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Volume 22 (2019)
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Volume 21 (2018)
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Volume 20 (2017)
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Volume 19 (2016)
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Volume 18 (2015)
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Volume 17 (2014)
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Volume 16 (2013)
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Volume 15 (2012 - 2013)
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Volume 14 (2011)
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Volume 13 (2010 - 2011)
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Volume 12 (2009)
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Volume 11 (2008)
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Volume 10 (2007)
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Volume 9 (2006)
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Volume 8 (2005)
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Volume 7 (2004)
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Volume 6 (2003)
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Volume 5 (2003)
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Volume 4 (2001 - 2002)