The Treatment of Women in Two Novels of Quebec's Quiet Revolution: Gérard Bessette's La Bagarre and Jacques Godbout's Salut Galarneau

The Quiet Revolution, which redefined the values of Quebec society as a whole, aimed to create modern institutions and implement more advanced, secular social programs. In building a strong, autonomous nation many writers from working- and middle-class backgrounds felt an intense need to become writers and contribute to a new national text. Women's contributions to national identity, however, lack recognition and it is evident that the collectivity crucial to this movement does not include women. This trend is exemplified in Gérard Bessette's La Bagarre and Jacques Godbout's Salut Galarneau, in which women are depicted as frivolous, consumer oriented and lacking interest in intellectual or political goals, while the male protagonists struggle with their linguistic and psychological deficiencies to create a lasting cultural narrative.