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Le jeu illocutoire: Forme et contestation dans le nouveau roman québécois by Agnès Whitfield (review)
- University of Toronto Quarterly
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 58, Number 1, Fall 1988
- pp. 193-196
- Review
- Additional Information
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HUMANITIES 193 This most recent volume consists of three parts, roughly equal in size but rather disparate in content. In the first section, 'L'Eglise,' the author analyses the diocesan structure of the church in Ontario and relations with the Vatican through its apostolic delegates, continuing the story of the language controversy as it was played out in terms of church politics. The second section, 'L'Ecole,' deals in two chapters with the issues that arose over bilingual and francophone education, and a third chapter, as long as the preceding two, is devoted to the language controversy at the University- of Ottawa which led anglophone Catholics to propose a Catholic university for Canada but to settle for creating St Patrick's College instead. The last section of the book, entitled 'La Cause franco-ontarienne,' seems to be two extended appendices, the first consisting of several brief biographies of 'les chefs de lila cause,'" and the second a chapter-length study of the Ordre de Jacques Cartier, a secret society which existed from 1926 until 1965. The Ordre's aim was to promote the rights of French Canadians by creating public interest groups, such as the Ligue d'action civique, and by influencing the decision-making process in the Saint-Jean Baptiste societies and similar organizations. At its height in the 1950S the Ordre de Jacques Cartier had more than eleven thousand members, but its espousal of Quebec independence doomed it as a 'national' organization . In his Sense ofPower Carl Berger has written about 'Canadian nationalisms '; at the heart of the language issue in this country are two of those nationalisms, two opposing visions of what Canada may yet be. This presentation of 'la cause' offers only one of those visions, the francophone version. The anglophone vision is not examined here, and the quotations from primary documentation of 'la cause' show how little understanding the 'chefs' had for that other vision, and how little tolerance for those who believed in it. In the historical process of defining these visions of Canada, language has proved to be a more cohesive element than religion. Despite any irenic efforts by chtlrch leaders, anglophone Catholics in Canada shared the national vision of anglophone Protestants, not that of their francophone co-religionists. Choquette 's latestbook is therefore not likely to get a very sympathetic reception in some anglophone quarters where 'la cause' is still interpreted as linguistic imperialism. (JOHN s. MOIR) Agnes Whitfield. Le jeu illocutoire: Forme et contestation dans Ie nouveau roman quebecois Les Presses de l'Universite Laval. 342 L'ouvrage d'Agnes Whitfield, qui s'interroge sur la production romanes- 194 LETTERS IN CANADA 1987 que en 'je' au Quebec depuis 1960, s'inscrit dans l'aire critique de la modemite. Partant de l'observation que la plupart des ecrits consacres a l'etude du nouveau roman essaient, ou de trouver une correlation thematique entre sa transformation et les bouleversements politiques et autres subis par la societe quebecoise, ou de lier ses audaces formelles a une nouvelle vision individuelle ou collective du reel, l'auteure constate la necessite de degager les lois de ce nouveau genre et d'en etudier la logique formelle. Sans pour autant nier l'importance des determinations issues des univers psychologiques individuels ou socio-culturels de reference qui informent et qui travaillent les pratiques de production et de lecture, elle vise Ie constitution d'un modele d'analyse qui, pour paraphraserFoucault, identifieraitala fois les signes et mettrait au jourles lois de leur agencement. Mais quels signes et quelles lois? D'abord, Agnes Whitfield opere un premier decoupage du corpus romanesque a partir du changement radical qui s'est produit chez la plupart des romanciers quebecois depuis 1960, asavoir Ie delaissement du roman au passe et a la troisieme personne au proftt de nouvelles formes romanesques en 'je.' Ensuite, elle choisit d'examiner cinq romans appartenant acette meme serie culturelle auxquels Ie canon litteraire a accorde une importance particuliere, mais qui representent les principales formes du roman autobiographique traditionnel: journal intime, confession (L'Avalee des avales et Kamouraska), monologue interieur (l'Incubation et Serge d'entre les morts) et 'roman du romancier' (Prochain episode). L'enjeu theorique me paraU double...