The drama of identity in Canada's Francophone West
Year:
2004
Author :
Volume and number:
, 34
Collection:
, 1
Journal:
, The American Review of Canadian Studies
Pages :
, 81-97
Abstract
In their groundbreaking study, Du continent perdu à l'archipel retrouvé (1983), Laval University geographers Dean Louder and Eric Waddell argued that what remains of l'Amérique française, the lost continent, should be called Franco-Amérique: at the center is the mountain of Quebec with its 80 percent majority speakers of French; the surrounding foothills are New Brunswick, Eastern Ontario, and Northern New England with their large francophone minorities; beyond that lies a string of francophone islands. The fragmentation of French Canada has also been theorized by cultural geographers and sociologists ([Joseph Yvon Theriault], Louder, [Cecyle Trepanier], Waddell, Morisset, Stebbins, [Gilbert, Anne], Dumont) who began to substitute the notion of les espaces francophones for the older visions of l'Amérique française and le Canada français. The term espace is used to denote «un lieu d'action et de pouvoir,» a space occupied and controlled by speakers of French constituting a base for development. A francophone space is not a territorial space, it is a linguistic and institutional space where one can live in French because of francophone schools, radio stations, businesses, theatres, cultural centers, social and governmental services (Gilbert 1998, 16, citing Cardinal; [Hebert] 65-66). In 1991, the leaders of what had been la Fédération des Canadiens français hors Québec but which changed its name to la Fédération des communautés francophones et acadiennes du Canada, issued a document called Dessein 2000 calling for « 'un espace bien a elle'...qui ne soit pas 'uniquement relie au territoire, à la géographie'» (Dube 83): «Il peut s'agir d'une région, du quartier d'une ville, d'une paroisse, d'une école, d'une radio, d'un groupe d'alphabétisation, d'une troupe de théâtre, d'une entreprise électronique...Cet espace ne pourrait donc pas toujours se trouver identifie sur une carte géographique.» (Cited by Dube 83) Prescott first made a name for himself with Sex, lies et les Franco-Manitobains, his 1993 play staged at the College Universitaire de [Saint-Boniface]. A comic situation structures the play: on Christmas Eve a would-be burglar caught red-handed, knocked out with a frying pan, and tied up awaiting the police tries to talk his would-be victim into letting him free. He is [Jacques Godbout], a handsome and clever twenty-five year-old. She is [Nicole], a beautiful, shy, and intellectual twenty-three year-old. Since the playwright himself played the role of Jacques in the original production, it is reasonable to assume that this character speaks for Prescott when he makes his scathing critique of Saint-Boniface's francophone community. After Nicole complains about Jacques's swearing (and incidentally, he swears mostly in English), she reveals that she teaches French. When he sarcastically calls her a proud member of the Franco-Manitoban elite, she says «Oui. [Je] suis fière. Fière de ma langue. Je suis fière d'être francophone pis fière de ma culture» (45). From his perspective, this «elite non-elue de la francofolie franco-manitobaine» (46) is «une maudite gang d'hypocrites» (47) who see themselves on top of a social hierarchy. On the bottom are redneck anglophones, unilingual and opposed to government policies on bilingualism. Next come assimilated francophones and anglophones who have taken French immersion courses for job advancement. A little further up the ladder are French-speaking immigrants from Europe and Africa whom the Franco-Manitoban elite dislikes because they weren't born in Manitoba, they speak with funny accents, or they aren't white.
Theme :
Acculturation of minoritiesAnglophonesBilingualismCanadaCommunity developmentFrancophonesImmigrationIdentityPublic Policy
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