Annotated Bibliography

Abrate, Jayne. “Teaching the Literature of Quebec: Culture et langue de base” The French Review. 67. 6. (1994) p. 954-965.

Abrate states the difficulties and obstacles that educators in Quebecois literature face. These problems consist of the lack of framework provided in the programs and shortage of time. Because of this, educators rarely have the time to teach a course on the history and culture of Quebec, and the focus is mainly placed upon understanding and analyzing francophone literary works. The problem with this is that students lack the understanding of background information and context causing the course to be too difficult for students as they encounter new linguistic and sociocultural environments. Students tend to end up struggling to decipher basic literary French. From the problems listed it is easy to realize and note that the implementation of Quebecois literature programs must be part of a long-term project that begins early in a student’s learning process.

With Abrate’s paper, she outlines and suggests the structure of a program which effectively teaches Quebecois literature, at the same time, eliminating all of the problems previously stated. After reading and reviewing her program, I’d like to propose this as an idea as part of intervention strategy. Abrate’s Quebecois literature program begins with course that provides through examination of the Quebecois culture, prior to studying the literature. This intent allows students to understand the background context of Quebecois literature, gaining sufficient familiarity with the physical and historical environment in which Quebecois writers may allude to in their literary works. This course will be accompanied by assigned readings and supporting material such as lectures and class discussions. Following this, Quebecois literature written in much more standard French will be introduced, and as students familiarize themselves with the language, works with Quebecois expressions may be incorporated. Once students have gained awareness of the lexical and linguistic variations and differences, more authentic Quebecois literary work may be introduced and studied.

Abrate’s more detailed descriptions of the implementation of the program can be found here. The structure and outline of the program that she develops is useful in the construction of our plan for developing a French-Canadian future.

 

Gordon, Alan. “Teaching Québec: Why Québec’s History Matters To English Canada.” Canadian Issues/Thèmes Canadiens (2013): 47-50.

Professor Gordon writes an exceptional article on the importance of reinvigorating the teaching of Quebec and French Canada to students. Gordon argues that courses that cover French Canadian history are usually taught in a certain pattern. Furthermore, Gordon says that the decline of Quebec history at universities reflects a shift away from an older approach to explaining Canadian history. The negative effect of this is that history is no longer taught in regional components, but instead focuses on particular social or cultural themes such as the consumption of poutine. Gordon further states that there has been an implicit “separatism” in the teaching of Canadian history; diverging traditions of inquiry between English and French speaking academic communities have generated different approaches to scholarship. As a result, Gordon emphasizes that English and French language historiographies simply do not speak to one another.

Gordon suggests that the symbiotic connection between the histories of English and French-speaking Canada demands that Canada’s history must recognize its own “Quebec-icity” (50). Gordon expands on Quebec-icity, it describes “the rise of modern values, such as multiculturalism, which emerged from volume four of the Report of Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism” (50).  Ultimately, Gordon stresses the importance of teaching today’s students about Canada’s Quebec-icity, suggesting that Canada’s history may become more distinct and rich because of it.

This article connects to our topic on comparative Canadian and Quebecois literature because it addresses the issue of neglecting Quebec’s history. Gordon states in his article that there has been a sharp decline in the teaching of Quebecois history. His argument that the teaching of English- and French-speaking academic communities need to hold a closer relationship in order to strengthen the history of Canada. Incorporating these approaches into the teaching of Canadian identity can illuminate the future of Canadian literature, bridging a gap that is separating the English department from the French.

 

Lazaruk, Wally. “Linguistic, academic, and cognitive benefits of French immersion.” Canadian Modern Language Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes 63.5 (2007): 605-627.

Lazaruk discovers that French immersion students enjoy numerous linguistic, academic and cognitive benefits to learning a second language. Research from the article suggests that French immersion programs in Canada foster additive bilingualism. Further, Lazaruk argues that students are not impeded in their learning of subject material taught in another language. In regards to academic performance, Lazaruk finds that “students who are taught subject material in French typically perform as well or better than their peers in regular English programs on English-language mathematics, science, and history tests” (615). Lazaruk contends that bilingualism and divergent thinking suggests that bilinguals are more fluent and flexible, more original and elaborate in their answers to open-ended questions.

Lazaruk claims that there are sociocultural and economic opportunities that are linked to learning French as a second language. Specifically, learning French enables students to communicate with a wide range of people within Canada and internationally. Lazaruk findings assert that two-thirds of respondents associates two official languages among the elements that defines what it means to be Canadian. The bilingualism factor evidently plays a role in defining Canadian identity. Thus not only does bilingualism benefit cognitive and academic learning for students in Canada, but the French language can also draw students closer to confronting the Canadian identity. These questions of identity and language can be further investigated for the future of Canadian literature.

 

Semujanga, Josias. & Call, Michael. “The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Teaching Francophone Literatures in Canada.” Yale French Studies. 103. (2003) p. 72-80.

Josias and Call identify in their article that French Canadian or Québécois literature has long remained as a marginalized discipline in the teaching programs of literary studies in Canada in general, as well as Quebec in particular. In the 1950s, French Canadian literature was officially introduced as a course in French Literature departments, however, those who taught the courses had a lack of understanding of the political and sociocultural context of the works, and did not have sufficient knowledge of the Canadian aspect of the French literature and therefore was not able to teach effectively. As a result of this, those who carried out the course decided that it was important to restrict these French-Canadian programs to texts that were strictly of Quebecois origin. This restriction excluded and prevented French speaking authors from different provinces of the country as well as different countries. The focus and the time put into solidifying the program as purely French Canadian drew growing importance of Quebecois literature and led to the reconfiguration of its placement in universities as a guarantor of the French language in Canada. Because of its claims and goals to be of pure Quebecois literature, it strives to rise to the status of national literature, and distinguishes itself away from Canadian literature, therefore, setting itself up as a rival of French literature. Granting Quebecois literature the title of national literature poses it as a rival to French literature, limiting the intellectual horizon that students can reach.

As part of the strategy to initiate interest and development Quebecois literature courses in post-secondary institutions, I believe it is important to incorporate work from not only Quebecois writers, but also other French language speaking literature. The misfortune of Quebecois work as neither pure Canadian nor French makes it hard for it to be less marginalized, however, it is possible for it to be developed as a department of its own if it is ultimately granted the title as national literature and regarded as an important aspect to learn the history of Canada.

 

Spodark, Edwina. “Weaving the World Wide Web into teaching the culture of Québec.” The French Review (2004): 756-767.

Spodark explores how The Web introduces students to the culture of the French-speaking world. Spodark investigates an important question concerning the use of the interweb, “do the French language instruction that are the focus of the majority of the current pedagogical literature produce the kind of cultural understanding and worldview empathy that is the ultimate goal of cross-cultural instruction?” (756). Spodark mentions that The Web allows students to engage in meaningful practice in the target language, which also allows them to acquire cultural knowledge on their topics. More specifically, Spodark argues that The Web persuades students to move beyond a basic cultural knowledge of Quebec to guide them towards a more complex understanding of the worldview of Québécois culture (758).

Spodark made her students do presentations that allowed them to learn the cultural studies of Quebec as well as hands on practice in gathering credible sources on The Web. Another activity that Spodark’s students participated in is the translation exercise. Using the website Le Glossaire Quebecois, students use a text and glossary to select words in provided by “the instructor to complete a matrix that listed their French and English equivalents” (Spodark, 762). This activity allowed students to get a feel of distinguishing features and characteristics.

Students were then asked to discuss why the French language was so important to the Quebecois to the point where individuals were willing to separate from Canada in order to protect and preserve their language. This question is significant to our intervention strategies because it exhibits the importance of language and identity of French to the Quebecois. This type of question will allow students to recognize that the French language is bound to the very identity of the Quebecois, and their language marks “who they are, setting them apart as individuals, and how influences how others view them” (Spodark, 763). Ultimately, this article assists teaching literature in translation by helping students recognize the notion of identity in the French language.

 

Weiss, Allan. “Separations and Unities: Approaches to Québec Separatism in English- and French Canadian Fantastic Literature” Science Fiction Studies. 25.1. (1998) p. 53-60.

Weiss’s article on the separation and unity of English and French Canadian Fantastic Literature helps us further explore and understand the history and motivation for French Canadian Literature. Weiss explains that the motivation behind the writing of works based on the separation is due to the fear of Quebec separating from the rest of Canada. Writers believed that because the threat was so real and prominent, it was important for them to write about it in order to explore the possible results and consequences. Further, the increasing numbers of immigrants into the English Canadian culture seemed to pose a threat to the survival of French Canada. Writers believed that writing about the separation was a way in which they could preserve the culture and religion of French Canada, ie. Quebec.

As a result of the fear of separation, not only did writers focus more on developing and writing French Canadian Literature, people viewed them ultimately as a different sector or part of Canadian Literature, seeing it as the “other”. Does this mean that in order to stimulate the development of comparative Canadian and Québécois literature courses in post-secondary institutions we must induce fear of loss of the French Canadian culture in society? Certainly not. But from developing blogs and calling attention to certain problems we are able to identify and stimulate discussion and create dialogue to figure out methods in which we can improve and develop these programs.