Das ländliche Québec als exotische Idylle und ihre postmoderne Dekonstruktion in der frankokanadischen Erzählliteratur und Ikonographie

Abstract

This article examines the representations of rural Quebec that were central to Quebec's identity consciousness in the 19th and 20th centuries, drawing on a variety of literary texts and iconographic representations in the popular genre of almanacs. The article pays particular attention to Louis Hémon's novel Maria Chapdelaine (1913) which achieved unprecedented success and embodies fundamental constituents of the roman du terroir, such as the idealization of rural life, the defence of the French language and culture, and the rejection of Americanization and Anglicization. In addition to dissenting views, as addressed in Albert Laberge's novel La Scouine (1916), the concluding section of the essay analyzes postmodern deconstructions of the myth of idyllic rural life, using the example of Gabrielle Gourdeau's novel Maria Chapdelaine ou le Paradis retrouvé (1992).