The Returns of the Roman de la terre: Défricheurs and Other Migrants in the Canadien Colonial Imaginary

Abstract

Popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Québec farm novels, or romans de la terre, have been studied by critics across the humanities and social sciences as discursive spaces through which notions of Franco-Canadien identity and territoriality have been, and continue to be, negotiated. Building on these critiques, my study suggests that these rural works that narrativize colonization and celebrate agriculturalist ideology may also be read as migration narratives—a roman de la terre can also be a roman de la migration. Analyzing three distinct migrant types in Louis Hémon’s 1913 novel Maria Chapdelaine, I demonstrate how notions of migrancy in this emblematic work bear commitments to settler-colonialist attitudes towards land and identity—a relationship that has persisted from the days of the fin-de-siècle rural exodus to contemporary Québec with its colonialistic economic initiatives.

Keywords:

• Québec Literature
• roman de la terre
• farm novel
• migration
• settler colonialism
• Louis Hémon

Notes

1 Oft-cited romans de la terre include: Patrice Lacombe’s La terre paternelle (1846), Antoine Gérin-Lajoie’s Jean Rivard duology (1862, 1864), Claude-Henri Grignon’s Un homme et son péché (1933), Ringuet’s Trente arpents (1938), in addition to Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine (1913), the focus of this article.

2 During this colonial era, Hémon remarked in his novel that the descendants of French settlers in Canada referred to themselves simply as “Canadiens” (60). Noting that now Canadien no longer carries the same connotation, and that Canadien français can be considered pejorative—with francophones in Québec in particular now preferring the demonym “Québécois”—this article respects the historical usage of these terms as they appear in the primary sources, considering notions of “Canadien” identity and territoriality, though not without opening questions of their legacy in contemporary Québec.

3 Rangarajan notes that Hémon read Rudyard Kipling and R.K. Stevenson. Sudarsan Rangarajan, “The Roman d’Aventures as a Subgenre in Maria Chapdelaine,” The French Review, vol. 83, no. 4, American Association of Teachers of French, 2010, pp. 767–783, JSTOR.

4 Desbiens also examines Maria Chapdelaine, among others.

5 Poet-Critic Pierre Nepveu prefers the qualifier “migrant” to characterize writing by immigrants, as the term, “a l’avantage de pointer… vers une pratique esthétique,” while underlining the multiplicity of movements that exceed immigration. His idea seems to point to a general study of the aesthetics of migrancy that omits consideration of a particular artist’s migrant status, which I attempt to undertake here.

6 Rosemary Chapman’s study of these types is concerned with their spatial relationships.

7 Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Edwige Légaré s'attaquant à une souche. Illustration pour « Maria Chapdelaine » de Louis Hémon, 1916. Charcoal on Paper, 31.2 x 48.6 cm. Collection du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Purchased in 1927 (1934.86). Photographer: MNBAQ, Idra Labrie. Public Domain.

8 Memmi’s Portrait du colonisateur describes “un homme de grande taille… appuyé sur une pelle—car il ne dédaigne pas de mettre la main à l’ouvrage, fixant son regard au loin sur l’horizon de ses terres ; entre deux actions contre la nature, il se prodigue aux hommes… et répand la culture, un noble aventurier” (29). Note here the polysemy of culture, able to signify both social behaviors as well as agriculture. Albert Memmi, Portrait du colonisé, précédé de portrait du colonisateur et d’une préface de Jean Paul Sartre, Paris, Gallimard, 1985.

9 This diction is inspired by critic Christopher Miller who reflects on the polysemy of “retour(s)” with regard to the Atlantic Slave Trade. The significations of “return(s)” in romans de la terre evoke different senses, yet is similarly multifold, describing dynamics of movement, the political-economic “benefits” extracted from colonization, and perhaps the remobilization of its tropes in the twenty-first century (see conclusion).

10 Sylvain Archambault, Les Pays d’en haut, ICI Radio-Canada Télé, 2016.

11 Isabelle Porter, “L’Immigration en région en attente d’une direction,” Le Devoir, 31 Mar. 2018, https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/524206/l-immigration-en-region-en-attente-d-une-direction.

12 The PN aims to attract a skilled workforce to the targeted northern regions. Girard’s blogpost on Journal Métro suggests this recruitment is scaffolded by an imaginary in which Quebecers, “ont une psyché de défricheurs,” innately responding to “l’appel du Nord.”

13 Many Innus oppose the PN. Lévesque, Kathleen. “Plan Nord–La résistance innue s'organise.” Le Devoir, 2 June 2011, https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/324594/plan-nord-la-resistance-innue-s-organise. Relevantly, former Innu chief An Antane Kapesh (1926–2004) wrote vehemently against colonial-economic initiatives in the Québec North preluding the PN; see her 1976 manifesto, Je suis une maudite sauvagesse (edited by Naomi Fontaine, translated by José Mailhot, Mémoires d'encrier, 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alvin Y. Chuan

Alvin Y. CHUAN is a Ph.D. candidate in the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture program at the University of Southern California. His dissertation—tentatively titled, Colonial Ventures: The Poetics of Migration and Colonization in Francophone North America—examines tropes of colonization in contemporary migration narratives from Québec and the Francophone United States.