Siting the Quebec Novel: The Representation of Space in Francophone Writing in Quebec

Notions of place and space offer a framework for a variety of readings of the novels of Quebec. Works from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century are used to offer the reader a series of detailed textual analyses, but also to illuminate aspects of the geography and history of Quebec. The corpus chosen concentrates on novels by Quebec-born authors such as Patrice Lacombe, Anne Hebert, Michel Tremblay, Jacques Poulin and Madeleine Ouellette-Michalska, but also includes writers born outside Quebec, who have lived in and written about Quebec, such as Louis Hemon in the early twentieth century, Gabrielle Roy in the mid-twentieth century and Regine Robin in the late twentieth century. The wide historical span of the corpus opens up a range of issues affecting the representation of space, including colonialism, gender, Quebec’s place in the wider world and the position and perspective of the ‘migrant’ writer.