post-colonial_translation

Border writing in Quebec 59
figure prominently in contemporary literature. Whether used as an
implicit mode of literary creation in post-colonial writing or as an
explicit source of inspiration in various modes of ‘border writing’,
translation and plurilingualism inhabit many contemporary texts. As
a consequence, the place of the translator is no longer an exclusive site.
It overlaps with that of the writer and, in fact, of the contemporary
Western citizen.
WHEN DID QUEBEC BECOME
POST-COLONIAL
The situation of Quebec is difficult to map onto the post-colonial grid. 1
Politically, Quebec became post-colonial, along with the rest of Canada,
in 1867 at the time of Confederation. In cultural terms, however, Quebec
long considered itself to be a territory colonized by the power of English.
During the 1960s, the work of the theorists of decolonization (including
Albert Memmi and Jacques Berque) provided a strong framework for
understanding Quebec as a cultural colony, impoverished and alienated
(Schwartzwald 1985). The spectacular changes which have transformed
this situation and given Quebec a new economic, political and cultural
confidence gradually put an end to the usefulness of this paradigm,
however. As a French-speaking political community, implicated in the
cultural dynamics of North America and receiving immigrants from
across the globe, Quebec can be said to participate fully in the
contradictions and tensions of contemporary post-coloniality.
The culture of Quebec has always been that of a borderland, a site
marked by continuous linguistic contact. From the initial encounter of
the French colonists with the Native peoples and the creation of the
mixed languages of the coureurs de bois, who lived among the native
peoples and travelled North and West across America, to the British
conquest – which, making accommodation with the Catholic church
in New France, allowed for the perpetuation of the French language –
and through the various constitutional arrangements which until now
have allowed for the maintenance of a French-speaking society in North
America within the political framework of the Canadian federation,
the culture of Quebec has been in constant interaction with other
languages, but most persistently with English.
This contact has historically been considered threatening to the
survival of the French language: daily battle is waged against the
nagging encroachment of English forms and expressions, and
language laws make French obligatory in the workplace and in