Amérindiens – figures identitaires de la littérature canadienne-française et québécoise
Aboriginal Identity Figures in French Canadian and Quebec Literature

Summary/Abstract: The “ensauvagement” – a term coined by Voldřichová Beránková (2021) – that characterizes the ongoingtransformation of Quebec literature due to both the intense interest of certain authors in Amerindiantopics and the gradual assertiveness of Amerindian authors themselves can be traced back as far theearliest writings of the Nouvelle-France period (Marc Lescarbot, Relations des jésuites, etc.). “Savage”characters were appropriated by 19th- and 20th-century literature as identity figures, authenticatingQuebec’s identity. Works by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (Le Jeune Latour, 1844), Louis-Honoré Fréchette(Papineau, 1880), Jacques Ferron (Les Grands Soleils, 1958; Le Ciel de Québec, 1969) and LeonardCohen (Beautiful Losers, 1967) follow this increasingly important thematic thread. The paper attemptsto link this progression of aboriginal resurgences to the activation of identity models (Bouchard, 2001)over the history of literature, and to the transformation of poetics that converts Amerindians from secondaryand minor figures into complex characters on the way to “ensauvagement” of Quebec literature.

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