Literary Collections

Le mythe de l’infanticide Médée a toujours connu une fortune littéraire et la littérature féminine contemporaine ne fait pas exception. L’analyse comparée de huit textes de femmes de divers horizons tente de cerner les enjeux de cette figure irréductible pour une pensée féministe actuelle sur la maternité, le sujet et l’écriture mythique. En s’interrogeant sur la pertinence particulière de la tragédie d’Euripide aux reprises médéennes, explicites ou sous-entendues, des femmes, cette étude comparée se penche sur des textes du théâtre de Marie Cardinal, Deborah Porter, Franca Rame et Cherríe Moraga, et des romans de Monique Bosco, Christa Wolf, Bessora et Marie-Célie Agnant. À travers ses incarnations transculturelles, le mythe de Médée éclaire les affres de l’exil et de l’exclusion, ainsi que certaines visions du maternel qui préféreraient peut-être rester dans l’ombre de nos présuppositions et de nos règles sociales. Bien qu’il n’y ait pas plus monstrueux ou fou que l’acte infanticide, Médée, elle, n’est pas monstre, pas folle, mais lucide, humaine à part entière, comme la voulait Euripide, alors qu’elle s’en prend à ses enfants, à la culture défectueuse, à l’histoire des hommes.

La réécriture au féminin de Médée force aussi une conception du sujet qui ne revêt pas facilement sa cohérence. Mais la poétique même de cette Médée retranscrite au féminin fait preuve de sa flexibilité, son indétermination, son pouvoir de transcender la simple répétition de son mythe, vu ici autrement et différemment.

Publié en français

Dans la vie des collectivités comme dans celle des individus, les lieux de rencontre sont toujours porteurs de renouvellement. C’est pourquoi les déplacements, les aires de contacts interculturels, les approches comparatistes et traductives du savoir et les récits migratoires provoquent aujourd’hui un tel intérêt chez les chercheurs. Aux confins de l’étude des sociétés modernes et de leurs processus de sédimentation se poserait donc une anthropologie de la rencontre. Confrontées à la différence, forcées de se penser comme cette différence même, les sociétés modernes savent que les itinéraires croisés qui les travaillent de l’intérieur entraînent des transformations décisives. La vie des individus et plus largement celle des collectivités sont structurées par une poétique de l’étonnement que de nombreux écrits tentent aujourd’hui d’élucider. Ce numéro de Francophonies d’Amérique rassemble diverses études dans une variété de disciplines sur les lieux de rencontre : espaces touristiques, théâtres, intégration des immigrants en milieu scolaire, débats parlementaires, zones de contact et de friction dans le récit et le film. Dans chacun des cas, une problématique de l’ouverture est aussitôt posée. C’est alors que l’étonnement survient et s’impose comme une méthodologie.

Ce numéro de Francophonies d’Amérique rassemble diverses études dans une variété de disciplines sur les lieux de rencontre : espaces touristiques, théâtres, intégration des immigrants en milieu scolaire, débats parlementaires, zones de contact et de friction dans le récit et le film.

Publié en français

Claude was eminently skilled in conversation. Because he listened. He listened attentively and intently. He measured the words he heard and thought long before risking an answer. So long, in fact, that in the beginning it confused the narrator. This man was clearly not one of those people who, in the words of La Bruyère, “speak one moment before they think.”

And so here we have a paradox: a book of conversations with someone who hardly spoke! Yet, despite everything, bonds have been forged: encounters between people who, at least initially, posed a dilemma for one another—a nearly illiterate but wise man on the one hand, and an academic, a literary man to boot, made verbose through professional deformation on the other…

As a genre, the dialogue has a long and venerable history in literature. It was especially popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, but the history of this literary form can be traced back to the Platonic dialogues with Socrates and various other interlocutors.

To be sure, this small book makes no claim to join in the august ranks of the dialogues of Plato, Seneca, Diderot, Fontenelle, David Hume, Marguerite de Navarre, or even Voltaire and his satirical approach.

It simply tells of an encounter.

Published in French.

Diplomacy. Suspicion. Surveillance. Espionage. Doubt.

Undeniably attractive, Paul has had his share of success with women, with no regrets. Recently promoted to the prestigious position of Director of Foreign Affairs, he is perfectly adapted to the world of political and other intrigues of the diplomatic corps.

Until, that is, the day he happens to notice a woman who obviously works in the same stifling office building. Who is this beautiful stranger? Where is she from? What is she thinking, as she strolls by, taking no notice of him? Why does she fascinate him so?

With each interminable day that goes by, Paul becomes increasingly obsessed. How far will he go to meet this woman, to conquer the feminine ideal that seems forever out of reach?

Published in French.

Maurice Henrie’s new collection of essays is one that transgresses conventions in order to assert a freedom of thought, expression, and criticism. Henrie provokes opinion and ventures to wherever his lines of argument lead.
From existential contemplation to challenging diatribes, Henrie reveals his thoughts in a journey of revelation, exploring and finessing those topics he feels great affinity for – philosophy, politics, and history.
His wry and detached perspective on America sits next to his impatience with a perceived weakness of government and its ability to get things done. He takes a clear view of the damaging migrations of francophone populations, particularly the catastrophic deportation of the Acadians and the exodus from Quebec to the United States from 1840 to the 1930s.
These essays are a tribute to the written word and a testament to their changing role in contemporary society.
This book attempts to contain a whirlwind of thoughts by a writer who is fearless yet conscious of his legacy.

Philippe, a young neurology prodigy, is desperate to unravel the mystery of Alzheimer’s disease. His sole motivation—which he keeps closely guarded—is to prove his father’s innocence at all costs. His father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, has been accused of hatching a terrorist plot, and this cost his mother her life.

His relentlessness leads him to cross ethical and moral lines, to the great disappointment of his older sister, Camille, who has a secret of her own.
The young researcher’s slow and difficult progress takes an unexpected turn when he crosses paths with William, a man at the head of a private neuroscience company, but who is somehow shrouded in mystery. William offers Philippe financial support, enabling him to make the breakthrough he’s been working towards for years: he is finally able to access his father’s memory.

By peering into the dark reaches of his father’s brain, will he indeed find proof he needs to prove his father’s innocence? And will he be able to identify the actual terrorist?

Published in French.

Writing, for Henrie, rhymes with musing, and with existing. Short, succinct and intense, these twenty-five philosophical essays intertwine contemplation, opinion, and memory, splendidly crowned with epigraphs foraged from world literature. They reflect an existential urgency to immortalize thought in black and white, a restlessness barely concealed by the hand that holds the pen, defying the passage of time.

From one essay to the next, Henrie explores the subjects dearest to him: the ageing of the mind, acceptance of those laws of nature that determine our destinies, theories of opacity, hardness and acoustics, and the struggle against the scattering of the being.

The author also voices his opinion on more contemporary topics, such as the hall-of-fame phenomenon, robotics and society, and the mystery that is art appreciation. He is particularly clear-sighted in his observations regarding meritocracy and plight of artists in society, particularly that of writers.

Donc je suis is a remarkable work, where imagination and philosophical contemplation meet in a dream-like state. Best enjoyed by the light of a flickering candle…

Discover this unabridged audio book in French, read by Étienne Panet-Raymond.

In this collection of short, sometimes incisive, essays, the author allows his mind to wander from one subject, or one approach, to the next, much in the esteemed tradition of the French essayists: Montaigne’s essays, Pascal’s thoughts and Paul Valéry’s reflections.

These are Henrie’s musings on key issues, most notably on politics—because for years, Maurice Henrie worked in the shadow of federal parliamentarians, but also on literature and on topics of a socioeconomic nature. Here, the pen is as free and uncensored as the thought that drives it. It broaches any number of subjects, and the presentation of these unbridled short texts is thematic. In terms of politics, for instance, Henrie explores the affinity between an elected official and his constituents, the traditional regime of checks and balances in House of Commons debates, and the vicissitudes that characterize all ruling parties. Turning to literature, Henrie contemplates the mysteries of literary success, the misunderstandings that dominate literature, and the woes of writing in an electronic world.

Discover this unabridged audio book in French, read by Étienne Panet-Raymond.

Published in French.