Jean Proal, créateur d’humanité éd. par Fanny Dechanet-Platz (review)

Francophone writing in Canada: that of the country’s French colonial past, and that of Francophone communities across Canada whose distinct identities have been more recently articulated, often in response to Quebec’s self-assertion. She also notes the extent to which indigenous (and Anglophone Quebec) writing is included—if at all— in these materials. Progress is uneven. The 2007 edition of Michel Laurin’s school anthology was the first to include an aboriginal writer, but in the HLQ, published that same year, indigenous peoples appear only in the section devoted to New France. That same work, however, discusses“la littérature anglo-québécoise,”whereas the editors of the Dictionnaire des œuvres littéraires du Québec, a multi-volume work begun three decades earlier, took its limitation to French-language works for granted. New panCanadian history, on the other hand, is criticized for projecting a too cozy form of multiculturalism, in which no conflict arises because there is no mutual engagement or critique. Chapman’s research into the history of school curricula, already evident in her earlier book on Gabrielle Roy’s Manitoba, is particularly rich. I was intrigued to learn, for example, that French-language schools in other Canadian provinces read more authors from non-European Francophone countries than do those in a Quebec more determined to set its literature on a par with that of France. It would be interesting to know what the author, who teaches at Nottingham, would say about writing the literary history of a United Kingdom whose own unity, as I write, is also up for grabs. University of California, Los Angeles Patrick Coleman Dechanet-Platz, Fanny, éd. Jean Proal, créateur d’humanité.Arras: Artois PU, 2013. ISBN 978-2-84832-180-6. Pp. 200. 16 a. Born in 1904 “dans les Alpes-de Haute Provence, de parents instituteurs,” Proal always knew he wanted to be a writer (11). His literary career, albeit prolific, rested in the shadows of his contemporaries, in particular Jean Giono and Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz who won numerous literary prizes and who were both nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on more than one occasion. Proal, known as the“romancier de la montagne”received very little recognition for his writing during his lifetime (9); despite receiving Le Grand Prix de Provence de littérature in 1961 after more or less renouncing his career as a novelist, Proal remains today an author oublié, méconnu (10). In an effort to revive and celebrate Proal’s work, a conference was organized in the fall of 2011 at Université Grenoble Alpes, which resulted in this text, a collaborative effort of researchers and l’Association des Amis de Jean Proal to show the force and originality of his writings. The text is divided into three main parts: 1) “Études sur l’œuvre romanesque,” which consists of six articles that highlight Proal’s novels, in particular Tempête de printemps (1932), Les Arnaud (1941), Bagarres (1945), De sel et de cendre (1953), and Histoire de Lou (1956). The second part, “Correspondance 214 FRENCH REVIEW 89.2 Reviews 215 littéraire,” is an effort to highlight papers from archives, which contain over 3700 documents consisting of manuscripts, tapuscrits, and letters. Part 3,“Recueil de lettres,” is divided by correspondents (editors, authors, literary critics, and artists) rather than chronologically. Specific letters were selected to shed light on Proal’s personality and constant drive to earn recognition.What is most fascinating in this collection of letters is Proal’s correspondence with his editors because the reader is able to watch the writing process unfold and see how a novel transforms through these letters; one detects as well the disappointment, criticism, persistence, and enthusiasm that drove Proal to write what he wanted to write—“une dimension métaphysique de l’expérience humaine”rather than placing his writing within a contemporary literary setting—“la vie parisienne,” for which editors often criticized him (32, 22). Proal’s passion and energy to be recognized as a writer is paralleled by the authors in this collection and their efforts to bring Proal’s literary voices back to life, not only physically in the reedition of many of...