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Tag Archives: Trente arpents

L’Exode told: Trente arpents …

10 Monday May 2021

Posted by michelinewalker in French songs, French-Canadian Literature, Quebec history, Régionalisme

≈ Comments Off on L’Exode told: Trente arpents …

Tags

Bilingualism, John Neilson, L'Exode, Philippe Panneton, Régionalisme, Ringuet, Seigneurial System, Thirty Acres, Tocqueville, Trente arpents

La Rivière Magog par Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, 1913 (Ontario Art Collection)

—ooo—

Trente Arpents (Thirty Acres)

I am forwarding links leading to a discussion of a novel entitled Trente arpents (Thirty Acres). Ringuet’s Trente arpents was published in 1938, at the very end of the period of French-Canadian literary history labelled “régionaliste.” (See Philippe Panneton, Wikipedia). Unlike earlier régionaliste literature, Trente arpents is characterized by its realism. A farmer, prosperous in his youth, “gives himself” (his land) to one of his sons. Everything goes wrong. This novel reflects the difficulties habitants faced when they had to divide the ancestral thirty acres among sons. It is also an excellent depiction of an habitant’s family

One presumes Euchariste Moisan, an habitant, owns his thirty acres. When the Seigneurial system was abolished, in 1854, “habitants” who could purchase the thirty acres they had farmed since the beginning of the 17th century. Those who couldn’t buy had to pay a rente for the rest of their life, as though they still had a seigneur. As noted in an earlier post, the rente was a form of debt bondage which ended in 1935, when Alexandre Taschereau was Premier of Quebec. Whenever the priest arrived at their door, these “habitants” no longer wanted to pay thite (la dîme). Trente arpents was published in 1938. At that time, the United States and the world were nearing the end of the Great Depression and migration was less frequent. It should be noted that the exodus started at the time of the Rebellions of 1837-1838. It endured. Trente arpents was discussed in two parts.

  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Part One) (1938) (27 July 2012)
  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Part Two) (1938) (29 July 2012)

Forthcoming: John Neilson on Canadiens, and the potatoe famine

Alexis de Tocqueville’s inverviewed John Neilson, a bilingual polititian in Lower Canada. I have translated this interview. In 1831, John Neilson, Scottish, praised Canadiens and looked upon French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians as compatible. The interview took place six years before the Rebellions of 1837-1838. The French had friends. Among them were the Irish who had fled their country because of the potatoe famine. When they arrived in Quebec, they were very sick, which caused a cholera epidemic. Canadiens had survived various blows and survived again. In fact, Canadiens bonded with the Irish, many of whom went to work in factories but were never promoted. So, we know why the music of Ireland and Scotland exerted a great deal of influence on Québécois music. We also know why my grandfather, on my father’s side, had an Irish mother.

Confederation

To a very large extent, Quebec entered Confederation because Confederation pleased Quebec’s bourgeoisie, French and English, as well as the Clergy. The Clergy feared dissention. My source is Denis Monière‘s Développement des idéologies au Québec[1] and the sources he quotes. For a very long time, the bourgeoisie, including Quebec’s bourgeoisie and the Château Clique, attempted to minoritize and assimilate French-speaking Canadians. The Clergy sided with the British. The Clergy was in favour of confederation. Moreover, several Englishmen and United Empire Loyalists, who were given the Eastern Townships, les Cantons de l’Est, now l’Estrie, wished to absorb French-speaking Canadiens. The Townships were home to Abenaki Amerindians. I have Amerindian ancestry.

French-Canadian literature is a subject I taught for several years. In 2001, I gave a lecture on La Patrie littéraire at the University of Stuttgart. As you know, I had huge workloads, so many subject-matters. A mission impossible is the only accurate description of the tasks expected of me when I taught at McMaster University. Yet I was elected to the presidency of the Canadian Association of University and College Teachers of French, l’Apfucc and to the Fédération des Études humaines, and to its Executive. But let us call these years an epiphany.

The image above shows la Rivière Magog. It crosses la rivière Saint-François in Sherbrooke.

The Magog River and the Saint-François River

We may have seen the video I have embedded. It tells a story.

RELATED ARTICLES

  • About the Seigneurial System, cont’d (23 August 2020)
  • About the Seigneurial System (21 August 2020)
  • Upper Canada and Lower Canada (12 April 2012)
  • Canadiana.1 (page)
  • Canadiana.2 (page)

_________________________
[1] (Montréal: Québec/Amérique, 1977)

—ooo—

Love to everyone 💕

Music video of “A la claire fontaine” (By the clear fountain/spring) performed by Vancouver choir musica intima, arrangement by Stephen Smith. My own urban re-interpretation of the traditional French folk song.

Director/producer: Nigel Hunt. DOP: Terry Zazulak, Editor: Brian Nemett. Actors: Jerry Prager, Sigrid Johnson. Funding: Bravo!FACT. Video copyright: Garrison Creek Productons, 2000.
Allégorie de l’automne par Suzor-Coté (paperblog.fr)

© Micheline Walker
10 May 2021
WordPress)

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Posts on Quebec Regionalism, Roman de la terre, Roman du terroir…

15 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, French-Canadian Literature, Regionalism

≈ Comments Off on Posts on Quebec Regionalism, Roman de la terre, Roman du terroir…

Tags

Claude-Henri Grignon, Félix-Antoine Savard, Germaine Guèvremont, Le Survenant, Maria Chapdelaine, Patrice Lacombe, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Regionalism, Ringuet's Thirty Acres, Trente arpents

Boy with Bread, by Ozias Leduc
— Boy with Bread, by Ozias Leduc (8 October 1864 – 16 June 1955)
 
 
I believe this is the complete list of posts on regionalism, “roman de la terre,” “roman du terroir” I have written so far. They are at times repetitive because I do not know whether or not someone has read earlier posts. Maria Chapdelaine was written by Louis Hémon, a Frenchman, or an outsider. However, it is the one novel interested persons should read. Menaud, maître-draveur (a draveur is a river driver taking lumber logs to their destination) is a very poetical novel. 
 
Louis Hémon, the author of Maria Chapdelaine, sees Quebec as eternal. Such hope is not expressed by Félix-Antoine Savard whose 1937 novel, Menaud, maître-draveur, is embedded in Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine. Foreigners have come… 
 
As you will notice, I did try to give more descriptive titles to older posts, but failed miserably. Fortunately, my cat said: enough!  He’s in charge, so what could I do. Lists were my solution. 
  

General

  • Colonization & the Revenge of the Cradles
  • Alexis de Tocqueville on Lower Canada
  • The End of Regionalism in Quebec Fiction & Marc-Aurèle Fortin (list of all Canadiana posts)
  • The Regionalist Novel in Quebec: Survival
  • The Canadien’s Terroir
  • Claude-Henri Grignon: Notre culture sera paysanne, ou ne sera pas (1941, letter to André Laurendeau)
  • New France: “Once upon a time…”

Fiction

  • Germaine Guèvremont’s Le Survenant (1945)
  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Part Two) (1938)
  • Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Part One) (1938)
  • Félix-Antoine Savard: Menaud Maître-Draveur: a Metaphysical Land (1937)
  • Claude-Henri Grignon: Séraphin, Un Homme et son péché, or Heart of Stone (1933)
  • Louis Hémon: Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Maria Chapdelaine (1914; 1916)
  • Louis Hémon: Maria Chapdelaine (1914; 1916) (Louis Hémon)
  • Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau‘s Charles Guérin (1846) DCB/DBC
  • The Honorable Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau (Biography) Dictionary of Canadian Biography
  • Patrice Lacombe‘s La Terre paternelle (1846) Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Resources

  • Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCE/DBC)
  • The Canadian Encyclopedia
  • Encyclopædia Britannica
 
Armand Bastien
Frescoes/Fresques by Ozias Leduc

Young Student, by Ozias Leduc

Young Student, by Ozias Leduc

© Micheline Walker
15 January 2014
WordPress

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Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Second Part)

12 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canadian History, French-Canadian Literature, Quebec, Regionalism

≈ Comments Off on Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Second Part)

Tags

Dr Philippe Panneton, Euchariste Moisan, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor Coté, Regionalism, Ringuet, the Great Depression, Thirty Acres, Trente arpents, United States

 

Hauling Logs, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (National Gallery of Canada)

Hauling Logs, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, 1924
(National Gallery of Canada)

Hauling Logs
Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (1869 – 1937)
 

Thirty Acres (Trente Arpents)

by Ringuet (pseudonym of Philippe Panneton), 1938
translated by Felix and Dorothea Walter 
 

Fall

The fall chapters of Trente Arpents start with he a praise of life on one’s thirty acres.  It is a “un chemin paisible et long,” (a lengthy and peaceful road) despite various difficulties: storms, winter.

[l]à-dessous, toujours, la terre constante, éternellement virginale et chaque année maternelle. (p. 149)

(And underneath, the soil forever faithful, eternally new and each year maternal.)
 

The land has a persistent face:  “un visage (a face) persistant,” (p. 149) but as he praises the land’s persistence and fertility, Euchariste is confronted with a series of unfortunate events, some of which he has helped create…

Oguinase

Oguinase becomes a priest, but he does not live in a lovely parish and he works too hard.  When Euchariste visits him, he is coughing and weak.  He will soon die of tuberculosis.  During Oguinase’s last visit home, he tells his sister Lucinda that she should not be sleeveless in the presence of an ordained priest.  She feels offended and is not seen again.

The Conscription Crisis of 1917

Then comes conscription: World War I.  Suddenly, these farmers remember pre-Revolutionary France:  Christ and the King:  “la France du Christ et du Roi.” (p. 158)  They remember a somewhat revisionist Rebellion of 1837, called ’37.  Would that they had a leader and were their own masters!  The past is mythified.

Éphrem

Euchariste had hoped his son Éphrem would settle of his own thirty acres.  There is money at the notary to buy “la terre des Picard,” the Picard’s farm, and Euchariste has even thought of a possible bride.  There is no room for him on Euchariste’s thirty acres.  The land cannot accommodate several sons.  Yet Éphrem is not ready to become a farmer.

C’est vrai que not’ terre elle est bonne, mais elle n’est pas ben grande! (p.163)

(It’s true, our land is good, but it isn’t very large.)
 

Éphrem eventually decides to leave for the United States.  His uncle, Alphée Larivière (Walter Rivers), who visited during the summer, has found work for him in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Later, Éphrem marries an Irish woman and moves to White Falls.

Phydime Raymond vs Euchariste Moisan

Oguinase dies, which saddens Euchariste immensely, and he then gets embroiled in an expensive legal battle with his neighbour Phydime Raymond.  Decades ago, Euchariste sold a small piece of his thirty acres to Phydime, but Phydime is now taking more land that he bought.

Étienne: “le seul maître” 

Matters do not improve.  Having been burdened with legal fees Eucharist never thought would be astronomical, misfortune does not relent.  One night Eucharist’s barn burns to the ground and he suspects that Phydime set fire to it.  There are losses but the farm animals are safe.  They had been removed immediately and a new barn is built but not according to Euchariste’s wishes.  It is built according to Étienne’s standards.  Étienne loves the land.  Each year, it grows more and more into “a spouse and a lover:”

épouse et maîtresse, sa suzeraine [like a feudal lord] et sa servante, à lui Étienne Moisan. (p. 165)

Napoléon or Pitou: the arrangement

An arrangement is made.  Étienne will run the farm with Napoléon, called Pitou.  A new house will be built for Pitou and his family.  All is arranged, except that Euchariste is in the way.  It would now be convenient for him to live elsewhere. However, the notary leaves town taking with him Euchariste’s savings.  He is dispossessed.

Winter

When the winter of his life begins, an impoverished Euchariste gives his land and his possessions to Étienne.  In exchange, he will receive an allowance, a rente (a pension).  But he is nevertheless again dispossessed, “land and beasts, gains and debts.”  He is blinded by tradition: from father to son.

Il se ‘donna’, terre et bestiaux, avoir et dettes. (p. 219-20)

(He ‘gave’ himself, land, beasts, assets and debts.)

Euchariste has therefore lost his home.  Étienne is now the only master: “seul maître.”  (p. 220)  He has already moved into the large house, which he hopes his father will soon leave.  After all, Étienne is the new owner.

The Holiday in the United States: The “Exode”

Euchariste is therefore sent on a “holiday” to the United States to visit Éphrem who works in a factory and lives in White Falls.  Euchariste is completely disoriented.  Moreover, his daughter-in-law does not speak French, nor do his two grandchildren.  Not once does his daughter-in-law express pleasure at his being in their household.  In fact, Sunday mass becomes Euchariste’s only respite.

Sundays: the only day

Sunday is the only day Euchariste meets a few persons who do not feel at home in the United States.  It has been a long and disappointing holiday, all the more since Étienne has not been sending the monthly allowance, la rente (the pension), he had promised he would give his father in return for ownership of Euchariste’s lost thirty acres.

Going home has therefore become difficult.  In fact, Euchariste has no home and, suddenly, the market crashes and he is “needed” in the United States.  The factory where Éphrem has been working for six years is letting people go or making them work on a part-time basis.

The Great Depression: Euchariste returns to work

Therefore, an older and sadder Euchariste wants to work again, possibly for a farmer.  Éphrem finds a job for his father, that of night watch in a garage.  But, Euchariste hesitates to accept this position, not because he will not work on a farm, but for fear of falling asleep for a moment and being remiss in his duties.  Times have changed!

Ce qui le terrifiait au début, c’était la crainte de s’endormir, de manquer un instant à son devoir de surveillance. (p. 268)

(What terrified him at first, was fear that he would fall asleep and fail for a moment to be vigilant, which was his duty [devoir]).   
 

He earns fifteen dollars a week, but Éphrem takes ten of the fifteen dollars.  Moreover, Étienne also wants money.  It is as though there had been no arrangement between Étienne and Pitou.  Euchariste is therefore needed not only in the US but also in Canada.  His daughter Marie-Louise is sick.  She is dying of tuberculosis and needs medical care, which is expensive.  She soon dies.

* * *

At the end of the novel, Euchariste is depicted as a very frail old man huddling near a little stove in the garage where he works.

Yet, although it is sad, the end is also poetical.  Ringuet takes us away from the plight of one man to the plight and joy of mankind, or from the particular to the general.  He writes that every year spring returns and that, every year, the land is generous.  The land is always the same, toujours la même, not to the same men, men pass, but to different men:

…à des hommes différents…
…une terre toujours la même.
 
Suggested reading:
 
The Canadian Encyclopedia
Ringuet (Athabaska University)
 

—ooo—

 
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893)
Andante Cantabile
Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
 
 

After the Breakup, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (National Gallery of Canada)

After the Breakup, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, 1914 (National Gallery of Canada)

© Micheline Walker
July 28, 2012
WordPress 
 
revised
January 12, 2014
 
After the Breakup
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Regionalism in Quebec’s Literature: Thirty Acres

12 Sunday Jan 2014

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, French-Canadian Literature, Régionalisme

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Clarence Gagnon, cultivateur, habitant, Regionalism, roman du terroir, Trente arpents

 

Oxen Ploughing, by Clarence Gagnon, 1902 (National Gallery of Canada)

Oxen Ploughing by Clarence Gagnon, 1902 (National Gallery of Canada)

Clarence Gagnon (1881 – 1942)

“It was not the over-sensitivity of the misunderstood that made me move to Paris… Over there, I paint only Canadian subjects, I dream only of Canada. The motif remains fixed in my mind, and I don’t allow myself to be captivated by the charms of a new landscape. In Switzerland, Scandinavia-everywhere, I recall my French Canada.”  (Clarence Gagnon)

I am republishing two posts that describe regionalism and the period when Quebeckers were leaving for the United States looking for employment.

Ringuet, or Dr Philippe Panneton, is the writer I am featuring.  He is the author of Trente arpents (Thirty Acres).  The novel was published in 1938, when the habitant had become a “cultivateur.”  Colonisation had ennobled his work.

You will note a considerable degree of acceptance.  The protagonist’s wife, Alphonsine, gives birth year after year, but her husband, Euchariste Moisan, sees the birth of children as Alphonsine’s inescapable fate.  She has to have “son nombre,” her number. Therefore, Euchariste is somewhat indifferent.  Yearly pregnancies and the death of children do not seem to affect him.  Life goes by as inexorably as the seasons.  Euchariste does not welcome changes: machines.

Euchariste also accepts the curé‘s, or parish priest, request.  He will contribute a son to the Church.  This was normal.  Whenever a child showed intellectual promise, he was chosen by the parish priest and eventually entered the Grand Séminaire.  Oguinase’s destiny is to become a priest.

Another son, Éphrem, is somewhat rebellious and is influenced by a relative who has left Canada for a more comfortable life in the United States.  This relative has even changed his name.

I have chosen this particular post as it documents the rise and fall of the habitant turned cultivateur.

So good morning to all or you.

The Lake, Séminaire Saint-Sulpice, Montreal Clarence Gagnon 1917

The Lake, Séminaire Saint-Sulpice, Montréal by Clarence Gagnon, 1917 (National Gallery of Canada)

© Micheline Walker
12 January 2014 
WordPress
 
Séminaire Saint-Sulpice

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Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente arpents (Part Two)

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Canada, Literature

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

Christ, France, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor Coté, Sunday, Trente arpents, United States

 
Hauling Logs, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (National Gallery of Canada)
Hauling Logs by Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté
(National Gallery of Canada)

The Fall

The fall chapters of Trente Arpents start with he a praise of life on one’s thirty acres.  It is a “un chemin paisible et long,” (a lengthy and peaceful road) despite various difficulties:  storms, winter.

 là-dessous, toujours, la terre constante, éternellement virginale et chaque année maternelle. (p. 149)

(And underneath, the soil forever faithful, eternally new and each year maternal.)
 

The land has a persistent face:  “un visage (a face) persistant,” (p. 149), but as he praises the land’s persistence and fertility, Euchariste is confronted with a series of unfortunate events, some of which he has helped create…

Oguinase

Oguinase becomes a priest, but he does not live in a lovely parish and he works too hard.  When Euchariste visits him, he is coughing and weak.  He will soon die of tuberculosis.  During Oguinase’s last visit home, he tells his sister Lucinda that she should not be sleeveless in the presence of an ordained priest.  She feels offended and is not seen again.

The Conscription Crisis of 1917

Then comes conscription: World War I.  Suddenly, these farmers remember pre-Revolutionary France:  Christ and the King:  “la France du Christ et du Roi.” (p. 158)  They remember a somewhat revisionist Rebellion of 1837, called ’37.  Would that they had a leader and were their own masters!  The past is mythified.

Éphrem

Euchariste had hoped his son Éphrem would settle of his own thirty acres.  There is money at the notary to buy “la terre des Picard,” the Picard’s farm. Euchariste has even thought of a possible bride.  There is no room for him on Euchariste’s thirty acres.  The land cannot accommodate several sons.  Yet Éphrem is not ready to become a farmer.

C’est vrai que not’ terre elle est bonne, mais elle n’est pas ben grande! (p. 163)

Éphrem eventually decides to leave for the United States.  His uncle, Alphée Larivière (Walter Rivers), who visited during the summer, has found work for him in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Later, Éphrem marries an Irish woman and moves to White Falls.

Phydime Raymond vs Euchariste Moisan

Oguinase dies, which saddens Euchariste immensely, and he then gets embroiled in an expensive legal battle with his neighbour Phydime Raymond.  Decades ago, Euchariste sold a small piece of his thirty acres to Phydime, but Phydime is now taking more land that he bought.

Étienne: “le seul maître” 

Matters do not improve.  Having been burdened with legal fees Eucharist never thought would be astronomical, misfortune does not relent.  One night Eucharist’s barn burns to the ground and he suspects that Phydime set fire to it. There are losses but the farm animals are safe.  They had been removed immediately and a new barn is built. However, it is not built  according to Euchariste’s wishes;  it is built according to Étienne’s standards.  Étienne loves the land.  Each year, it grows more and more into “a spouse and a lover:”

épouse et maîtresse, sa suzeraine [like a feudal lord] et sa servante, à lui Étienne Moisan. p. 165

Napoléon or Pitou: the arrangement

An arrangement is made.  Étienne will run the farm with Napoléon, called Pitou.  A new house will be built for Pitou and his family.  All is arranged, except that Euchariste is in the way.  Given his sons’s plans, it would now be convenient for him to live elsewhere. However, the notary leaves town taking with him Euchariste’s savings.  He is dispossessed.

Winter

When the winter of his life begins, an impoverished Euchariste gives his land and his possessions to Étienne.  In exchange, he will receive an allowance, a rente.  But he is nevertheless again dispossessed, “land and beasts, gains and debts.”  He is blinded by tradition: from father to son.

Il se ‘donna’, terre et bestiaux, avoir et dettes. (p. 219-20)

Euchariste has therefore lost his home.  Étienne is now the only master: “seul maître.” (p. 220)  He has already moved into the large house, which he hopes his father will soon leave.  After all, Étienne is the new owner.

The Holiday in the United States: The “Exode”

Euchariste is therefore sent on a “holiday” to the United States to visit Éphrem who works in a factory and lives in White Falls.  Euchariste is completely disoriented.  Moreover, his daughter-in-law does not speak French, nor do his two grandchildren.  Not once does his daughter-in-law express pleasure at his being in their household.  In fact, Sunday mass becomes Euchariste’s only respite.

Sundays: the only day

Sunday is the only day Euchariste meets a few persons who do not feel at home in the United States.  It has been a long and disappointing holiday, all the more since Étienne has not been sending the monthly allowance, la rente, he had promised he would give his father in return for ownership of Euchariste’s lost thirty acres.

The Great Depression: Euchariste returns to work

Going home has therefore become difficult.  In fact, Euchariste has no home and, suddenly, the market crashes and he is “needed” in the United States.  The factory where Éphrem has been working for six years is letting people go or making them work on a part-time basis.

Euchariste returns to work. He is a night watchman in a garage. He fears falling asleep and lacking vigilance. He doesn’t want to be remiss in his duties.

At the end of the novel; Euchariste is depicted as a very frail old man huddling near a little stove in the garage where he works.

Yet, although it is sad, the end is also poetical.  Ringuet takes us away from the plight of one man to the plight and joy of mankind, or from the particular to the general.  He writes that every year spring returns and that, every year, the land is generous.  The land is always the same, toujours la même, not to the same men, men pass, but to different men.

Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs / La Lurette en colère

After the Breakup
Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté
National Gallery of Canada

© Micheline Walker
28 July 2012
WordPress
 
45.408358 -71.934658

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The End of Regionalism in Quebec Fiction & Marc-Aurèle Fortin

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, French-Canadian Literature, Literature, Quebec, Regionalism

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Claude-Henri Grignon, Germaine Guèvremont, LIST OF POSTS, Menaud maître draveur, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau, Regionalism, roman de la terre, Séraphin: un homme et son péché, terroir, Trente arpents

 

Sainte-Rose Village, by Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1930

Sainte-Rose Village by Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1930

Marc-Aurèle Fortin  (14 March 1888 – 2 March 1970)
 
Artwork: with permission from La Galerie Walter Klinkhoff
Le Devoir: Marc-Aurèle Fortin (article on current exhibition) 
 
Gabrielle Roy’s Tin Flute (city novel)*
Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau: Happiness Unattainable (poetry)
 
REGIONALISM IN QUEBEC FICTION
Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente Arpents (2)*
Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Ringuet’s Trente Arpents (1)*
Menaud, maître-draveur: a Metaphysical Land, Félix-Antoine Savard*
Germaine Guèvremont’s Le Survenant*
Claude-Henri Grignon: Notre culture sera paysanne, ou ne sera pas (article)
Séraphin, Un Homme et son péché, or Heart of Stone, Claude Henri Grignon*
Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Maria Chapdelaine, Louis Hémon*
Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: The Honorable Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau
Regionalism in Quebec Fiction: Patrice Lacombe’s La Terre paternelle
The Canadien’s Terroir
The Regionalistic Novel In Quebec: Survival 
New France: Once upon a time… (roots of regionalism) ←
* Fiction
 

List of Posts

This is an updated list of my posts on Quebec. I am now preparing a post on Trente Arpents (Thirty Acres), a novel published in 1938 by Ringuet.  The literature that follows Trente Arpents is about life in cities or small towns.  Trente Arpents reminds me of a typical Balzac novel:  the rise and fall of…  Euchariste Moisan inherits thirty acres, marries, raises a family, but there is a sudden dégringolade.  Everything goes wrong…

Village in Quebec, by Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1926

Village in Quebec by Marc-Aurèle Fortin, 1926

A Rainy Road Marc-Aurèle Fortin c. 1925-1928

A Rainy Road by Marc-Aurèle Fortin,
c. 1925-1928 (National Gallery of Canada)

A Rainy Road
Marc-Aurèle Fortin (biographical notes)
 
Three Conferences, Confederation and Now: Civil Unrest
From Coast to Coast: The Iron Horse, Part 2
From Coast to Coast: The Iron Horse, Part 1
From Coast to Coast: Louis Riel as Father of the Confederation
From Coast to Coast: the Fenian Raids
From Coast to Coast: the Oregon Country
Nouvelle-France’s Seigneurial System (listed twice)
La Capricieuse & Crémazie’s Old Soldier*
Parliament to the Rescue: the Hidden Solution
The Rebellion in Upper Canada: Wikipedia’s Gallery
The Act of Union: the Aftermath
The Act of Union 1840-41
Upper & Lower Canada
The Aftermath: Krieghoff’s Quintessential Quebec 
Évangéline & the Literary Homeland (cont’d)*
Évangéline & the Literary Homeland*
La Corriveau: A Legend*
The Aftermath cont’d: Aubert de Gaspé’s Anciens Canadiens*
Nouvelle-France’s Seigneurial System
Jacques Cartier, the Mariner
Pierre du Gua: a mostly Forgotten Founder of Canada
Richelieu & Nouvelle-France ←
Une Éminence grise: Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fonsac
 
THE VOYAGEURS
 
In these Fairylike Boats…
The Singing Voyageurs
The Voyageur Mythified 
The Voyageur from Sea to Sea           
The Voyageur & his Canoe
The Voyageurs & their Employers
The Voyageurs: hommes engagés (hired men)
 
THE BATTLES
Nouvelle-France’s Last and Lost Battle: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham Battle of Fort William Henry & Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans
Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran

Saint-Siméon, by Marc-Aurèle Fortin

Saint-Siméon, by Marc-Aurèle Fortin (Photo credit: Google images)

© Micheline Walker
15 July 2012
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