Pierre Nepveu, transculturalism and neo-québécois texts

Abstract

Probably no Quebec critic argues more passionately and convincingly for the transcultural aspects of postmodernism than Pierre Nepveu in L'Écologie du réel: mort et naissance de la littérature québécoise contemporaine (1988). This work relates Nepveu's theories of postmodernism and transculturalism in Québécois literature to Ying Chen's L'Ingratitude and Les Lettres chinoises , and Dany Laferrière's Éroshima and L'Odeur du café , stressing the similarities between néo-québécois (or immigrant) and nouveau québécois (spawned by the Quiet Revolution) works. The four primary texts are explored with respect to (1) the postmodern concepts of the death of history, distinct genres, fixed ideologies, and master narratives, and the themes of catastrophe, alterity, parody and pluralism; (2) the transcultural realities of deculturalization and reculturalization, or of mutual contamination; (3) the themes of exile and la passion de retour ; (4) the New World experience as a voyage into inner space; and (5) Nepveu's three major themes found in néo-québécois texts, i.e.: alienation and loss of identity, nostalgia, and continual rebirth."--Résumé abrégé par UMI