Montreal in Historical Perspectives: “North” and No

The Battle of Quebec 1756-1763

"I don't like this city [Montreal]. You can't throw a stone without breaking a church window" (Mark Twain qut in 57)

Outline

History: Major Dates the Quebec separatist movement Features: Two solitudes and St. Laurence Blvd .

1950’s -- Clark Blaise A Child’s View of Language/Culture Issues in “North”

1970’s ( 1980) –Robert Lepage; No: Introduction and FLQ No: Analysis

History: Dates

一六○八年：法國人在魁北克建立北美洲第一個永久社區。 一七六三年：英國依據巴黎條約接管新法蘭西。” orphan mentality” 一八四○年：境內百分之六十為法語人口，但加拿大聯邦以英語為唯一官方語言。 一九一八年：法語居民反對被英軍徵兵，魁北克發生數起流血暴動。 一九四八年：魁北克制定省旗。

the Quebec separatist movement

一九六○年：魁北克省政府進行「無聲革命」 (Quiet Revolution) ，接管許多教育及社會政策，結束天主教會掌控局面。 一九六七年：法國總統戴高樂在蒙特婁演說，高呼「魁北克自由萬歲」 (vivre le Quebec libre) ，成為魁省獨派人士的精神口號。 一九六八年：魁北克黨成立，以爭取魁北克脫離加拿大而獨立為職志。 一九七○年：爆發「十月危機」 (October Crisis) ，「魁北克解放陣線」 (FLQ) 策動 一連串恐怖事件，出身魁北克的杜魯道(Trudeau) 總理派軍鎮壓，數百名同情民族主義人士被捕。

•一八四○年：境內百分之六十為法語人口，但加拿大聯邦以英語為唯一官方語言。• 1969 --Two official languages

Language Policy and Referendum

一九七四年：魁北克通過法文為官方語言。 一九七六年：魁北克黨在選舉中大勝，首度執政，由勒維克出任魁省省長。 一九七七年︰ 178 Act 強制境內商業招牌一律使用法文。 一九八○年： first referendum ，反對者以百分之五十九得票率獲勝。 一九九○年：承認魁北克為「明顯不同的社會」(Distinct Society) 的米奇湖協定 (Meech Lake Accord) 失敗，二英語省份未批准這項協定。 1995 年– 2nd referendum （反對：贊成＝ 50.58 ： 49.42 ）

Three major

buildings:

Churches, skyscrapers and triplexes or duplexes with steep stairways.

Montreal’s City map and cityscapes

Two solitudes and St. Laurence Blvd.

Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan 1945 (e.g. Views from the Typewriter) The French live in the east, the English, in

the west, and the Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, Chinese, and Blacks in between.

Between the solitudes: clip 12:46 Catholic church: major influence in politics until Quiet Revolution in 1960’s.

Montreal: Distinct CulturesOutgoing and friendly: summer of festivals(fêtes), outdoor café.

“Montreal is a city that loves the summertime, yet also makes the most of winter. It is a city whose people enjoy participating in community events, are not afraid to try something new, and have a deep attachment to their Quebecois cultural heritage” (Sobol 85)

Really open?

Montreal: Distinct Cultures

film and theatre tradition:1. long theatrical tradition and experi

mentation (at least 10 major theatres now); e.g. cirque du soleil, Robert Lepage

2. documentary (direct cinema or cinéma verité) or docudrama.

3. Eat, party and talk a lot. “le gang”

Montreal some features

A lot of tenantsFete (festivals) – clip 4:45 parties and language problem Act 187 in Between the Solitudes

Clark Blaise the migrant writerBorn to Canadian parents in North Dakoda, 1940.French-Canadian father: handsome, extroverted, charming, and untrustworthy English-Canadian mother: upright, resolute and intelligent. Went to Canada for refuge

-- at 5, following an assault charge against his father in Pittsburgh

-- at 10, after one of his father's frequent business failures

Clark Blaise the migrant writer

Started moving at the age of 6 month: He moved 30 times before the 8th grade and attended 25 different schools. He spent his childhood in Alabama, Georgia, and central Florida, later in the American midwest, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh, but always returned to his mother's family in Winnipeg whenever his father "ran out of work, or was run out of work, or town" (RA 167).Montreal 1966 – 1978: 13 years, the longest of his stay in one place (with his wife Bharati Mukherjee).

Clark Blaise’s “self”-creation in his fiction

His work is usually half-autobiographical and half fictional. “Anyone who led a life as tenuous as I did, fraught with almost daily evidence of evanescence, is obviously going to be concerned with establishing a place and a name and an identity for himself that he could not have established in life. I did not ever have a sense of place, or belonging, in my life. So I had to create it, fabricate it, in my art.” e.g. "I was born in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1940.” from the autobiographical fragment "Memories ofUnhousement" in Resident Alien.

Source: http://www.ucalgary.ca/library/SpecColl/blaisbioc.htm

“North” & Resident Alien

"This book is a journey into my obsessions with self and place; not just the whoness and whatness of identity, but the whereness of who and what I am." (RA 2). Two "autobiographical fragments“+ four short stories about the character Carrier/Porter.

North: Autobiographical Elements

Blaise Went to Canada for refuge at 5, following an assault charge against his father in Pittsburgha French-Canadian father who is handsome, extroverted, charming, and untrustworthy and English-Canadian mother: upright, resolute and intelligent. Blaise moved around, unlike Porter.

“North”: Starting Questions

How are different races or different nations set against each other? What is Phil’s position regarding these conflicts? What makes him change? What does the ending mean?

“North”: Races or Places Phil in between different conflicting forces and opinions the U.S. vs. Canada English vs. French – Mick Fortin’s looking for comrades p. 210; Phil’s father and mother’s argument over Phil’s schooling p. 212; 213-14;

Pittsburgh vs. Papineau pp. 214; Therèse vs. American teenagers p. 215

“North”: Catholic school Phil’s experience of Catholic education: punishment pp. 213 –14 shame

The society’s conformity and dullness p. 218 Change: Therèse as tutor: Apologetics( 基督教辯證 ): searching for

nuns and monks as if they were wildlife animals

Phil and Therèse

Therèse interested in English names; American cultures pp. 216-17 Find common interest with Therèse

Image Source

Mother against French education

Eaton Center, scones and lemon curd, speaking English; McGill University Meeting with Ella, which means a separation between the mother and the son. Ending: insecurities, constraints vs. youthful love + learning

Robert Lepage born in Quebec City, Quebec, December 12, 1957. An actor, director of plays and films. Characteristics: Style: auteur but not “author” -- his biling

ualism, his explorations into multimedia, use of theatrical space and impromptu acting,

Issues: interculturalism and the nature of language (No), memory, guilt, father-son relationship, brotherhood, double identity, the act of creation itself. (source).

e.g. The Seven Faces of Robert Lepage: 1. acting; writing 10:00; Vinci 12:50

Robert Lepage: Works

Possible Worlds (2000) No (1998) Polygraphe, Le (1996) Confessionnal, Le (1995)

Starring in Stardom (2000) Montreal vu par... (1991) Jesus de Montreal (1989)

Plays –

Vinci, Hamlet, the Dragon Trilogy, and The Seven Streams of River Ota.

Robert Lepage: existential concerns

Le Confessional --the question "Where do I come from?"; Le Polygraphe -- to examine "What is truth?"; No -- to contemplate "Where am I going?";Possible Worlds -- to discover "What is my real world?" (Dundjerovic source)

Robert Lepage on Independence Issue

Sympathetic and critical: e.g. FLQ – idealist but comical (the insistence on correcting the language. “To set off a bomb or to advance a cause”) more discussion of Michel later * Unlike most Quebecois artists, Lepage looks at Quebecois issues from a broader—cross-cultural-- perspective. e.g. The Confessional and No. E.g. Pierre and the translators – the ones to link the East and the West.

Examples of Interculturalism and Multiple Language in NoDouble-plot (French play with the film) Sound track crosses over to the next scene (e.g. end of the invitation scene 30:00-) and the other scenes (restaurant); images overlapping (beginning and 5:00) multiple language – the translators’ scene; “translator traitor”

Coexistence, (mis)understanding Solution of conflicts?

No– Background: FLQ: Front de Liberation du Québéc

Formed in the wake of Quiet Revolution in 1960’s. While the majority of nationalists chose the democratic path of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois, at the fringes more militant groups like the FLQ emerged. The FLQ’s campaign of bombings and robberies culminated in the kidnappings in 1970. . . Influence on literature: In 1963, shortly after the first wave of FLQ bombings, a group of francophone writers in their twenties founded . . .Parti pris, advocating a sovereign and socialist Quebec.

October Crisis in 1970

• Oct. 5, 1970 -- kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner

•Oct 10 – kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and killed him on the 17th.

October Crisis in 1970

•Trudeau invoked War Measure Act.

• By noon of Oct 16, police officers arrested more than 450 people suspected of being FLQ members, even friends of FLQ members. [e.g.Sophie]

•Cross stayed alive, in return his kidnappers got safe passage to Cuba.

No’s Background (2)The Seven Streams of River Ota and No

No -- the characters taken from Act 5, in which Sophie has an affair with Walter.Seven Streams has the second World War (concentration camps and Hiroshima) Madame Butterfly, and 1970 Osaka Expo. as its historical contexts, while No just used FLQ terrorism and Expo.

No: Major Issues

Personal Conflicts and Survival: Characters with (or without) Emotional ProblemsNational Conflicts: FLQ movement Cultural Issues the Use of Symbols

No: the Characters in Osaka

The Canadian characters in Osaka1. What is Sophie’s problem and how is she lo

oked at by Walter and Patricia?2. How do Sophie and Patricia express their ant

agonism to each other? (39:00-) 3. How about François-Xavier? 4. How are Hanako and her translator friend

Harold set as a contrast to her Canadian friends? (Hanako as an “ibakusha”)

5. How do the Canadian expatriates in Osaka view themselves and Quebecois separatism? (1:06)

No: the Characters in Osaka and Mirror/PhotoObsession, fantasy, peeping, harmony

No: the Characters in Osaka and Mirror/Photo

Fantasy orientalism

Hanako and Harold1. Hanako: blind and perceptive;

helpful to Sophie, understanding and sensitive 2. Harold: does not worry about inherited disease

No: the Characters in Montreal

In Montreal – the officers and FLQ members

1. How is Michel different from his comrades? Why does he insist on revising the communiqué?

2. And the investigators? Central symbols and themes -- 3. Why are the clocks and phone booths

important? 4. The plays within the play?

No on Quebecois SeparatismNo – puts FLQ’s faulty idealism in the context of the problems in human communication and the issue of survival. both critical of and sympathetic with Quebecois nationalism. The terrorist: trivial concern (routes), betrayal of his friend, mis-calculation self-destruction.

Michel – a writer

hasn’t written anything for three years; idealistic and unrealistic Reasons: “phrases not well-formulated,” confusing, not French. Gaps in his communication with Sophie.

failure to understand Bad timing

Government Officers: Trivial, Comic and Incompetent

Symbols miscommunication caused by wrong estimation and bad-timing

the plays within the film No play Feydeau’s domestic farce

No and Farce

Farce: superficial patriotism, lack of blood lineage, an example of colonialism and superficial culture (Sophie 44:00)The Japanese play// Hanako: about a woman who finds her way back to life thanks to her hero lover. (vs. Sophie gets no help one of the innocent victims)

The Endings

Endings

Immediate consequence: miscarriage and possible sexual harrassment10 years later: older, richer, calmer and probably more indifferent “Common project” -- birthing