Canadian literature in French
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The French language in Canada
The valley of the St. Lawrence River, first explored by Jacques Cartier during his second voyage to North America in 1535, was colonized by France during the 17th and 18th centuries. The first French settlement was established in 1605 at Port-Royal, near present-day Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. In 1713 France permanently ceded to Britain most of the territory known as Acadia but maintained its hold over New France. As the territorial struggle continued, the British were increasingly frustrated by the reluctance of the Acadians, also referred to as the “neutral French,” to pledge allegiance to the British regime, and between 1755 and 1762 approximately 10,000 Acadians were forcibly deported. With the fall of the city of Quebec in 1759, the British gained control of New France. When the Treaty of Paris in 1763 officially confirmed British rule over New France, the predominantly Roman Catholic population of more than 60,000 persons spoke a language that was already a blend of several French dialects, although French was then not yet standardized in France itself.
After 1763 immigration from France virtually ceased, but the number of French-speaking inhabitants continued to increase. Today about five-sixths of Canada’s Francophones live in the province of Quebec. The remainder form a linguistic minority among predominantly English-speaking communities in other provinces. In many cases they have established vibrant, culturally active subcommunities, most notably in the Maritime Provinces, particularly New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual; in northern Ontario; and, to a lesser extent, in the western provinces. As Quebec nationalism led the province’s inhabitants to adopt the term Québécois to describe themselves from the 1960s, the term French Canadian was increasingly applied primarily to the Francophone minorities outside Quebec. (Today, however, many Canadians outside Quebec use the term French Canadian to refer to all French-speaking Canadians.) Although French Canadian literature is often considered separately from Quebec literature, this article examines both.
The French regime, 1535–1763
During the two centuries of French rule, not a page of French was printed in New France; there was no printing press in the colony until after the establishment of British control. The substantial colonial literature written in and about New France was published in France for a European audience. It included accounts of discovery and exploration, official reports and correspondence, travelers’ narratives, annals of missions and religious communities, and histories of the colony. Credit for the first theatre production written in New France belongs to Marc Lescarbot, whose pageant Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle-France (The Theatre of Neptune in New France) was presented at Port-Royal in 1606. On his return to France, he published in 1609 Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (History of New France) and Les Muses de la Nouvelle France (“The Muses of New France”), the latter containing his poetry and drama. The most important of the missionary annals is Les Relations des Jésuites (1632–1673; The Jesuit Relations), which gives a fascinating glimpse into the life of the missionaries and their relationship with Canada’s native peoples. Also of interest are the writings, particularly the correspondence, of Marie de l’Incarnation, the first mother superior of the Ursuline nuns of New France. The colony also possessed an abundant oral literature composed of folk songs, folktales, and legends. Considerable scholarly effort has been expended on the recovery and study of the rich heritage of oral traditions and literary works surviving from the French period.
After the British conquest, 1763–1830
After the devastation of the Seven Years’ War, intellectual life was for a time inconceivable. During the first 70 years of British rule, journalism was vitally important to the French-speaking majority. The bilingual Quebec Gazette (1764) and, later, French-language newspapers such as Le Canadien (1806) and La Minerve (1826) offered the only medium of mass communication, of contact with Europe and the United States, and of political expression at home. The first scattered indications of literature (anecdotes, poems, essays, and sermons) appeared in their pages, as did the verses and songs of two French immigrants, Joseph Quesnel and Joseph Mermet. Quesnel, French Canada’s first significant writer, also composed dramatic texts for amateur actors; his comedy Colas et Colinette (1808; Eng. trans. Colas et Colinette), first acted on stage in 1790, was revived as a radio play in 1968.
The literature
Early literature, 1830–60
Publication of French Canadian literature in Canada began in the 1830s. The first collection of verse—Epîtres, satires, chansons, épigrammes, et autres pièces de vers (“Epistles, Satires, Songs, Epigrams, and Other Pieces of Verse”) by Michel Bibaud—appeared in 1830; the first novel—L’Influence d’un livre (Influence of a Book) by Philippe-Ignace-François Aubert de Gaspé—was published in 1837. In drama two works of note were the comedy Griphon; ou, la vengeance d’un valet (1837; “Gryphon; or, The Vengeance of a Valet”) by Pierre Petitclair, the first play published by a native-born French Canadian, and Le Jeune Latour (1844; “The Young Latour”) by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie, Canadian theatre’s first tragedy. This literary development reflected in part the gradual organization of primary and secondary education and the increasing availability of French books and periodicals even before the resumption of commercial relations with France in 1855. More important was a growing sense of national identity, apparent in the campaigns for responsible government that preceded and followed the ill-fated rebellions against British rule in 1837 and 1838. The principal publication of the time, François-Xavier Garneau’s Histoire du Canada depuis sa découverte jusqu’à nos jours (1845–48; History of Canada from the Time of Its Discovery Till the Union Year [1840–41]), embodied the new spirit of nationalism.
