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Description
One of Canada’s greatest literary figures reflects on life at the centre of Quebec literary arts. Re-examining the influences of her early life in a large, rural Catholic family, Madeleine Gagnon not only explores her rejection of unexamined values as part of her intellectual development but also her refusal to be categorized by her gender.
Karl Marx replaced Paul Claudel in Gagnon’s intellectual pantheon. Psychoanalysis gave rise to the desire to write, and her first works poured out in a torrent. She describes the friendships that played such a large part in her life and the feminist battles of the time with all their hopes and disappointments. At the same time she casts a sharp eye on contemporary Quebec society, tracing the emergence of a distinct Canadian literature.
This is an account of a life well lived, told with candour, wisdom, and an inextinguishable sense of wonder.
Contributor Notes
Madeleine Gagnon has made a mark on Quebec literature as a poet, novelist, and non-fiction writer. Born in Amqui, a little village in the Matapedia Valley, she decided at the age of twelve to be a writer, and after her early education with the Ursuline nuns, went on to study literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis at the Université de Montréal, the Sorbonne, and the Université d’Aix-en-Provence, where she received her doctorate. Since 1969, she has published more than thirty books while at the same time teaching literature at several Quebec universities. Her work in all genres combines passion, lucidity, erudition, poetic vision, and political commitment, boldly transgressing the boundaries between poetry and prose. Among her many awards are the prestigious Athanase-David Prize (2002) for her lifetime body of work, the Governor General’s Award for Poetry (1990) for Chant pour un Québec lointain (translated by Howard Scott as Song for a Far Quebec), and the Journal de Montréal Prize (1986) for Les Fleurs du catalpa. Her work has also won international recognition, with many publications in France and some fifteen translations into English, Spanish, and Italian. Nancy Huston has described Madeleine Gagnon as someone in whom the boundary between inner and outer life is porous; her words are poetry and her ear for the words of others is poetry too. Everything she takes in from the world is filtered, processed, transformed by the insistent rhythms of the songs within her.
Madeleine Gagnon Awards and Distinctions
2007–2009 - Career Award of the Council of Arts and Letters of Quebec
2008 - Ronald-Gasparic International Poetry Prize, Romania 2002 - Athanase-David Prize for a lifetime of work
2001 - Marcel-Couture Prize at Salon du livre (Montréal) for Les femmes et la guerre
1991 - Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry for Chant pour un Québec lointain
1991 - Artquimedia Prize
1990 - Arthur-Buies Prize at Salon du livre (Rimouski) for a lifetime of work
1986 - Journal de Montréal literary prize for Les fleurs du Catalpa
Phyllis Aronoff lives in Montreal. She holds a master’s degree in English literature. The Wanderer, her translation of La Québécoite by Régine Robin, won the 1998 Jewish Book Award for fiction. She and Howard Scott were awarded the 2001 Quebec Writers’ Federation Translation Award for The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701. She is a past president of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada.
Howard Scott is a Montreal literary translator who specializes in the genres of fiction and non-fiction. He is a past president of the Literary Translators’ Association of Canada. His literary translations include works by Madeleine Gagnon and Quebec science-fiction writer Élisabeth Vonarburg. In 1997, Scott received the prestigious Governor General’s Translation Award for his work on Louky Bersianik’s The Euguelion. In 1999, his translation of “The Eighth Register,” a science-fiction story by Alain Bergeron, won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for best short-form.
Awards
- Short-listed, Cole Foundation Prize for Translation (Quebec Writers' Federation Awards
Editorial Reviews
“She always wanted to learn. She always wanted to write. She always wanted to fight injustice. The autobiography of Madeleine Gagnon, one of our greatest literary figures, takes us through the private life and the intellectual and artistic career of a passionately committed woman in a Quebec undergoing a major transformation … not to be missed.”
– Chantal Guy, La Presse
“It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything as beautiful and luminous as this book.”
– Manon Trépanier, Radio-Canada
“An engaging read that invites both admirers of Gagnon’s writing and a scholarly audience. To the credit of Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott, Gagnon’s voice is unmistakable – intelligent, passionate, and determined – in what appears to be an effortless English translation.”
– Montreal Review of Books
“A portrait of a changing Quebec. And an account of the life of a woman who, at nearly seventy-five, is examining who she has become in the light of who she has been... little girl, sister, lover, mother, intellectual, feminist, writer. They are all present in this book.”
– Danielle Laurin, Le Devoir
