Rewriting Interculturalism in Québec. Some literary examples

The theme of language in Québec embraces two levels: on the one hand, it testifies to the often conflicting passage from one language to another, as the need to find an appropriate language; on the other, it symbolizes the interior and multidirectional readaptation that the immigrant must go through when he moves from one culture to another. The question of language, almost always associated with the difficulties of integration and acceptance, is found throughout migrant writing. In any case, in spite of the recurrence of the conflictual dimension of the meeting of languages, some writers also explore the issue of integration, a creator of hybridity and the unprecedented. Language then becomes a symbol of enrichment and transculturalism. As countries of immigration, Canada and the United States have established and recognized traditions of immigrant and minority literature. But for Canada this tradition has been mainly if not exclusively expressed in English. The historical context of Quebec literature, reflecting the close association between the French language and a single cultural community, made the inclusion of minority voices within the framework of the Quebec literary institution impossible until recently. As Québec literature begins to look forward by undertaking exploratory journeys to "foreign" lands, difference at home has become the province of minority writers. Marco Micone, Jean Jonassaint, Régine Robin, and Dany Laferrière, all write from a space which is at the same time both within, and peripheral to, Quebec society. Their marginality is expressed both explicitly in the thematic material of their writing and textually through choices of language and form. The provocative blend of continuity and difference, affiliation and dissidence expressed in the work of these writers, as well as the importance they give to language, mark this writing as a significant development in Quebec literature