Quebec “difference” in the United States

“Identity is built on difference”, writes Anne LagareDuty, March 2, 2021). But is it enough to differentiate yourself that you are? If one thinks of a person who identifies with you, the limitations of such a concept of identity are clear: “I am not Mary, Felix, Nicholas, Stephen, and I have no brothers or sisters. My friends, this is me ”, or to a Frenchman who defines French identity in this way:“ A Frenchman is not like an Italian, or a German, or a Spanish, or an Englishman. Anne Lagare certainly does not believe this is enough, but since we are a unique case in the United States (are we the only ones?) To maintain it, we must spend most of our energy trying to differentiate ourselves further and avoid thinking about our own. To explore the similarities and relationships between Quebec and other American cultures, and the relationship with the continent. Such a vision frightens us into an intellectual and cultural stalemate.

To understand the Americanness that is so far removed from being exclusive to Gerrard Pachard, it seems to me at first that we should not caricature it: no one has ever said that we have so much to do with Brazil or Uruguay (!) Compared to United. In the states. American, especially since 1945, is a dynamic, creative concept claimed by Gaston Miron and many other writers and artists. This concept helped us define our own sensibilities and understand the new dimensions of what we have become as a nation. For example, without this reference it is impossible to think of the work of a great artist like Rene Derouin, which includes the concept of territory and the Northeast and has deep ties with Mexico. Today, I know very few writers and artists who see this reference to America as trivial or completely secondary. A note is, moreover, many and fruitful; For example, Rodney from Haiti founded a publishing house in Saint-Aloy, Montreal, Memoir Encore, which has become a major destination not only for black writers but also for Quebec writers like Josephine Bacon. And many others?

Americanism was a useful idea to think about the identity change that has taken place in Quebec since the mid-1990s since the 1980s. Novelist and author Monique Larrow succinctly described what was happening then: “The meaning of the words Quebecois has changed people.” ((The Lesson of Jerusalem, 2015.) Enrollment of Immigrant Children in French Schools, Immigration Agreements with the Federal Government and the Visit of Many and Most Visible “Migrant Writers” Danny LaFerrier, at the forefront, is no longer allowed to limit the status quo of Cubaco only to former French Canadians. This is what historian Paul-Andre Lindio and his team have already concluded: The word “Quebecos” now refers to all the people of Quebec. At the same time, our French-Canadian memory was more continental than ever: we cannot ignore today what has spread across North America.

According to Gerrard Bouchard, we need to re-read our collective description of victories and the political struggles we are aware of, including the neglected elements or those that need to be re-evaluated: our occupation of the territory, our relationship with the tribes, the homeland. , To immigrant groups from XIX onwards^e Century, etc. But very quickly, this expansion became a way for nationalist thinkers to “dilute” Quebec’s great national narratives, based on the unity of a people on the path to self-realization. This defensive stance finds itself echoed today in the provincial concept of Quebec identity proclaimed by the current government, which is embarrassing to the realities of Montreal, used in particular with the question of diversity and immigration. , Or many culturalists. One, but still? After all, what is the positive, vital, dynamic content of this “identity”? Is this defensive shrinkage we have to offer to young Quebecs? It is built on identity, dialogue, relationships, comparisons, relationships and analogies such as denials and the desire to stand out as unique. It is this construction that Quebec American has sought to describe and infer from the middle of the twentieth century.^e Century.