Les Amériques incertaines du Québec littéraire : Entre le continent et l’empire

“Americanity” is distinct from “Americanization” (the American way of life), which has been associated with a different language, a culture of capitalism, and imperialist ambitions—and which has evoked ambivalence among Quebec intellectuals. Today, some view “Americanity” as a hermeneutic framework, while others see it as a historical connection between Quebec and the United States. But “Americanity” is founded above all on the relationship to the continent, the idealized vision of New France, and on territorial modalities of space that unearth the European subject, give it a new twist, while setting aside the colonial logic that underpinned this continental project. In this article, we will explore, through very recent novels (including Les crépuscules de Yellowstone by Louis Hamelin, L’avenir by Catherine Leroux and Niagara by Catherine Mavrikakis), the fragile and contradictory contours of these Americas that oscillate between taking charge of the continent and the prohibitive excesses of empire.