Montréal 375: Who Speaks When We Speak

The question of "Who speaks when we speak" is looked at from different angles by the author, in particular through an analysis of contemporary English-Quebec literature and Quebec's changing understanding of the notion of diversity. On the one hand, the author offers a reading of Robert Majzel's City of Forgetting (1997) in dialogue with Gail Scott's The Obituary (2010). The author notes that both narratives dig into the past layers of Montreal's topography, deconstructing the settler-colonist division of the city in an Anglophone West and a Francophone East; both novelists come to terms with what is underneath that split - the forgotten and haunting stories beyond the founding myth of the city. On the other hand, the author examines milestones in public discourse on who has the right to speak in the city, notably referring to Michèle Lalonde's 1968 manifesto "Speak White" and Marco Micone's "Speak What" (1989), the latter which critically challenges Quebec's politics of diversity and inclusion.

150 Years of Canada: Grappling with Diversity since 1867

Münster, Germany

Waxmann

2020

37-56

en

978-3-8309-4124-8