Paradigmes identitaires de l’écrivain migrant dans la littérature franco-canadienne contemporaine

Abstract

Our research focuses on the identity paradigms of the migrant writer in contemporary French-Canadian literature. The migrant phenomenon of the early nineteenth century gave rise to a new theme in the literature mentioned and enriched literary expression with deep identity reflections. Our literary corpus represents a true medium to highlight the identity configurations of the character-narrators, the forms of exile and the metamorphoses undergone in their processes of acculturation and reconciliation with both the traumatic past and the challenging present. Dany Laferrière, Kim Thúy, Wajdi Mouawad and Ying Chen all have in common the experience of exile, the choice of the same host country, French as the language of writing and the discovery of writing as a means of salvation. Our objective was to analyze the relationships of filiation and alliance woven by the heroes of these narratives that privilege the workings of memory, the descriptions of the drifts in identity, of wandering and of human frailty. The aim was also to identify the artistic modalities of giving voice to the Evil, to the intimate, and to the availability of charitable Quebecers, in a poetics of communication resembling a postmodern one.