French-Canadian Letters

LETTERS IN CANADA: 1938 Edited by A. S. P. WOODHOUSE PART II: FRENCH-CANADIAN AND NEW-CANADIAN LETTERS V. FRENCH-CANADIAN LETTERS FELIX WALTER Though in quantity the output of French-Canadian published works has been imposing, it would be misleading to pretend that 1938 was a year of great distinction in respect of quality. To be qQite honest-and perhaps a trifle cold-blooded-if the mass of books and pamphlets listed in the bibliography could be boiled down and the dross poured off there would remain a sem'i-precious deposit of two good novels, as many collections of essays on contemporary topics, a work on French-Canadian history) several readable biographies, and an amusing account of life among the Indians. That may sound very little, but every year callnot be a banner year, and English Canadians, who are twice as numerous as their French-speaking compatriots, can hardly claim that they themselves have done much better. Certain general features of the year's production may be worth mentioning. In the first place, the spate of violent rhetoric which poured from the extreme separatists has now dwindled to a trickle. This diminution seems to be linked, and not wholly by accident, to a very distinct cooling of the former enthusiasm of many FrenchCanadian publicists for the economic and political doctrines of Messrs Hide'r and Mussolini. Less has been written on Laurentia the Corporate State. And though French-Canadian nationalism, in the autonomist rather than the separatist sense of the term, is as vocal as ever) there is a marked tendency to consider EnglishCanadian opinion and to quote extensively and fairly from the articles and speeches of public men living west of the Ottawa and east of the Baie de Chaleurs. Secondly, an unusuaUy large number of the better FrenchCanadian books were last year published in France, and French critics at the same time devoted more attention to French-Canadian literature than in any prevIOUS year. This must prove a vital 478 LETTERS IN CANADA: 1938 479 factor in the evolution of French-Canadian letters. In an interesting survey, published in the Nouvelles litteraires of Paris (December 31, 1938), Ringuet, alias Dr Philippe Panneton, the author of the best and most successful French-Canadian novel of the year, points out that whereas a popular work in Norway may sell a hundred thousand copies, a French-Canadian best-seller does not exceed five thousand, though Norway and French Canada are approximately equal in population. Obviously if French Canadians are to make a living as writers, outside the field of journalism, they must have access to the literary market of France. To conquer this market means arduous competition, an emergence from the comfortable shadow of the village-steeple and the village-pump, and rigorous self-criticism. The younger French-Canadian writers seem to be waking up to this situation. In "La France pent-elle s'interesser a notre littbrature?" (Le Mauricien, January, 1938), Clement Marchand writes: "Pourvu qu'on n'ait pas trop les poussieres du .chauvinisme dans Ie nez et qu'on veuille s'ouvrir les yeux, on finit par comprendre que Ie Quebec doit son etonnante sterilite litteraire aune certaine mentalite de douce suffisance...." French-Canadian poetry showed a distinct falling-off in 1938, and that is the third general observation that must be made. For some time past the critics couJd count on reading at least one important volume of French-Canadian poetry every twelve months, . but today some of the best French-Canadian poets seem to be tied up with broadcasting contracts, and the Muse can only fight a losing battle with Radio-Canada. Of the two volumes of verse which did appear both are promising without being in any sense significant. Jean Dollens, the author of Nostalgies, is a young Sherbrooke poet, whose collection appears with a foreword by that distinguished poet of the Eastern Townships , Alfred DesRochers. One poem, "VIle des remords," is a fair sample of M. Dollens' pleasing competence and of the derivative nature of his verse; in this case the spiritual ancestors seem to be Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and the Nelligan of Le Vaisseau d'or: Man coeur est un esquif sans...