De résistances en rapatriements critiques : la situation québécoise au prisme des postcolonialismes

The objective of this dissertation is to trace the reception of postcolonial theories and thoughts by scholars of Quebec Studies in North America. Developed mainly in English academic contexts in the 1980s, postcolonial studies are generally referred to the approaches to the analyses of cultural objects issued in former colonies from a strictly contemporary, transnational and often comparative perspective. This work undertakes a metacritical examination of instances and places where the link between postcolonialisms and Québec literature are problematized to consequently outline a map of its uses and readings. If the first occurrences of these thoughts are observed in the beginning of 1990s (notably in the works of Sherry Simon and Jean-Marc Larrue), it is in the odd years of the twenty-first century that the majority of studies and events take an interest in postcolonial theories. Parallel to the development of this problematic in Canadian literature, critical studies focusing on Quebec and on Francophone literature are rooted in the critical traditions and literary history of the majority culture in Quebec. The core of these discussions touches upon subjects such as decolonization, the Francophone presence in America, the heritage of British, Canadian, French or Catholic imperialisms, the presences of different streams of feminisms and the First Nations. Postcolonialisms provide thus a prism through which we can perceive Quebec’s situation in a new light. Here we task ourselves with tracing the affiliations of postcolonialism with other notions which have marked Quebec’s literary institutions (transculture, migrant writings, etc.) and to outline its boundaries.   While Quebec literary historians generally hold the position that a “decentralisation of collective voice and traditional critical referents—language, nation and homogenous culture—” (Martine-Emmanuelle Lapointe) can be observed since 1980, my research shows that, on the contrary, the interest scholars of Quebec Studies show for postcolonialisms put new emphasis on linguistic, national and cultural criteria in literary and cultural studies in Quebec. My observations confirm that what these references to postcolonial theories—at times as appropriation, other times as resistance—have in common is the inscription of the Quebecois subject and the field of Quebec literary studies in a demarcated geographic territory, that of North America or the New World (Pierre Nepveu) and its “new collectivities” (Gérard Bouchard). Using a mainly “alternative” historiography, that is to say a non-European one, these critics (Vincent Desroches, Sandra Hobbs, Marie Vautier) convene certain dates and events to inscribe the said territory within a movement that seeks to appropriate the history marked by different colonial episodes which, in turn, may or may not call for a recourse to postcolonial theories. The critical success of postcolonial theories in English academic milieus has caused a certain resistance among certain scholars of Québec Studies (Réjean Beaudoin ; Lise Gauvin ; André Lamontagne). In the face of this distrust, other “models” have been used to name historical and cultural situation in Québec (Pierre L’Hérault ; Robert Schwartzwald; Sherry Simon); most remarkable among these models are “pericolonialism” (Lise Gauvin) and “consensus postcolonialism” (Vautier).

Keyphrases: histoire culturelle, postcolonialism, post-colonialism, Québec literature, Québec culture, decolonization, historiography, Québec studies, discourse analysis, reception studies, cultural history