Le Québec à l’aube du nouveau millénaire: Entre tradition et modernité

Quebec Children’s Literature

Quebec Children’s Literature A Cultural Trump Card Lynn Penrod University of Alberta Abstract An overview of the history of Quebec children’s literature during the twentieth century demonstrates the importance of this medium to the province’s cultural transformation and its emergence into the forefront of francophone texts produced for young readers. Quebec children’s literature did not only react to social change; it fully participated in it, and remains today one of Quebec’s cultural trump cards. 232 Le Québec à l’aube du nouveau millénaire Like other societies and cultures, Quebec has always had a special interest in producing texts for children. After all, cultural heritage – both linguistic and social – is disseminated in part through the stories and texts we read as children. And when that heritage is in any way threatened, the territory of children’s literature becomes even more important. It is remarkable that just during the period since 1987 when the Canada Council for the Arts first initiated a separate Governor General’s Award for children’s literature (one each for French text and English text, one each for English illustration and French illustration), eleven different publishing houses have been honoured. Children’s literature has long been a subject of serious academic research and receives serious attention in both educational circles and the popular press. For example, Lurelu, the Quebec periodical devoted to children’s literature, is commonly available at news agents across Canada, besides having a very healthy subscription base. Indeed the world of Quebec children’s literature is definitely one of Quebec’s cultural trump cards. Many academic researchers in the field mark the beginnings of what we call today “Quebec children’s literature” in the 1920s and tend to divide the remainder of the twentieth century into three (sometimes four) major periods. It is important to remember that before the 1920s, French children’s literature was most often imported to Quebec from Europe. However, with the beginning numbers of the children’s periodical L’Oiseau bleu and the first books for young readers actually produced in Quebec itself, we begin to see a children’s literature in French that is adapted to Quebec’s distinctive social and cultural context within North America. Children’s literature authors working between the years 1920 to 1945 in Quebec seemed primarily interested in transmitting their values and their convictions to a younger generation, an approach often exemplified by narratives containing both religious and patriotic values that characterized Quebec society during those years. Moral edification rather than leisure entertainment seemed to be the primary objective. Adults and adult values served as role models for children and young people. Over the course of the century, however, this focus would eventually shift. Publications characterizing this period include Marie-Claire Daveluy’s series featuring Perrine and Charlot, as well as the previously mentioned L’Oiseau bleu, a publication created and distributed by the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal. Many of these texts were written for children of all ages with the aim of ensuring the transmission of basic values to children. Nationalists such as Luc Lacoursière and Marius Barbeau, whose mission was to collect and preserve the heritage of popular tales and songs, were true pioneers. Collective and social values were always dominant. And of course Roman Catholic values were often found in religious biographies produced during this time period, many dedicated to the lives of the saints. The Quebec government played an important role as well during this beginning period of Quebec children’s literature, passing a provincial law in 1925 requiring that all school boards use at least half the budget allocated for end-of-year book prizes to purchase Canadian books. Even though the quantity and quality of Canadian books at the outset were not always the best, this particular piece of legislation was seen as absolutely essential in the promotion of the production of a children’s literature “made Le Québec à l’aube du nouveau millénaire 233 in Canada”. As time passed, publishing houses promoted both authors and illustrators of children’s literature, seeing their annual lists grow steadily until the tradition of academic book prizes was phased out. The years from 1946 to 1970, the second major period in the development of Quebec children’s literature, is mostly characterized by an opening within Quebec to a more modern world. Mass-media children’s programs (first...