Figures of the native in 20th‐century Quebec: The subaltern and the colonial subject at the intersection of colony and nation

Abstract

This article examines the representation of the Native in the Quebec essay on identity after the Quiet Revolution (1960–80). It analyzes the figure of the Native as a construction shaped by the forces of colonialism and nationalism; it further distinguishes between the two different types of colonialism historically present in Quebec and considers how they have influenced Quebec attitudes towards the Native. Three distinct figures emerge from this analysis. The first, the Native as absence, is explained in the light of Gayatri Spivak’s theory of the subaltern; the second, the Native as a threat to Quebec sovereignty, in the light of her theory of the colonial subject; the third, the Native as Quebec’s co‐colonized is a hybrid figure that does not correspond to either of these theoretical formulations. The author concludes that the use of Spivak’s notions of the subaltern and the colonial subject allows for a clear understanding of how Quebec’s dual colonial past as both settler colony of France and subsequently conquered colony of Great Britain have informed representations of the native, and furthermore that the figure of the co‐colonized is a unique discursive formation that can be linked to Quebec’s self‐identification as a decolonizing society.

Keywords:

• Native
• First Nations
• Quebec
• Quiet Revolution
• postcolonial
• subaltern
• colonial subject
• Spivak

Notes

1. The notable exception being Donald Smith’s 1974 study Le “Sauvage” pendant la période héroïque de la Nouvelle‐France (1534–1663) d’après les historiens canadiens des XIXe et XXe siècles (Montréal: Hurtubise HMH). As its title and date of publication indicate, however, it is both limited in scope (studying only the formal settler colony period of Quebec history) and dates back to the early 1970s. Examples of studies of the role of the Native in identity formation in other societies in the Americas include Nestór García Canclini’s Culturas híbridas (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1992) and José Martí’s widely anthologized 19th‐century essay “Our Mestíza América”.

2. Except where otherwise indicated, all translations from French‐language originals are my own.

3. This article was first published in 1985, then again in 1988, and was reprinted in a number of anthologies before Spivak revised it for A Critique of Postcolonial Reason.

4. See Les Habits neufs de la droite culturelle by Jacques Pelletier (Montréal: VLB, 1994) for a discussion of how the 1960s and 1970s nationalist discourse was generated by an essentially bourgeois class of intellectuals.

5. I borrow the term from Terrie Goldie’s 1989 work Fear and Temptation. The Image of the Indigene in Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand Literatures (Montréal and Kingston: McGill‐Queen’s UP).