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Culture of Quebec. Cinema of Quebec, List of Quebec film directors, List of Quebec films, Quebec comic strips, Dance in Quebec, Michel Tremblay, Wajdi Mouawad, Quebec literature, List of Quebec writers, Music of Quebec, Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf, Same- sex marriage in Quebec, Cuisine of Quebec, List of festivals in Quebec, List of Quebec media, List of French- language Canadian television series, Aboriginal peoples in Quebec, Irish Quebeckers, List of Quebec comedians, Television in Quebec ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from American Review of Canadian Studies, published by Association for Canadian Studies in the United States on September 22, 2008. The length of the article is 1364 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Ailsa Henderson. Hierarchies of Belonging: National Identity and Political Culture in Scotland and Quebec.(Book review)
Author: Josee Bergeron
Publication: American Review of Canadian Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2008
Publisher: Association for Canadian Studies in the United States
Volume: 38Issue: 3Page: 381(4)

Article Type: Book review

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L'auteur utilise la Sociologie de la littrature et la critique littraire fministe pour analyse de la fonction des idologies dominantes dans la socit et la littrature. Cette approche permet de mieux comprendre la relation entre l'idologie et la formation des identits dans les critures de femmes au Qubec. Le livre comprend des tudes de prs de 14 crivaines. De ce fait, il offre l'tude la plus complte de la crativit littraire des femmes dans le Qubec contemporain et la plus complte pour la diversit de l'appareil critique utilis. Ce livre important est un outil de rfrence essentiel pour les chercheurs en tudes culturelles/critiques, en Francophonie et tudes sur les Femmes. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Historical Studies, published by The Canadian Catholic Historical Assn. on January 1, 2001. The length of the article is 5380 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Entre Revo1ution tranquille et aggiornamento conciliaire: evolution dans le gouvernement du diocese de Quebec au cours des annees 1960.
Author: Gilles Routhier
Publication: Historical Studies (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2001
Publisher: The Canadian Catholic Historical Assn.
Page: 47

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This digital document is an article from Wind Speaker, published by Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA) on June 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1680 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Naturally native in beautiful Quebec. (Guide to Indian Country 2002: All My Relations).(Brief Article)
Author: Cheryl Petten
Publication: Wind Speaker (Newsletter)
Date: June 1, 2002
Publisher: Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta (AMMSA)
Volume: 20Issue: 2Page: S4(1)

Article Type: Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, published by Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada on March 22, 1996. The length of the article is 2174 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Quebec's budget cuts will hurt all of the performing arts, but the separatist movement has put a great deal of pressure on English-speaking companies and performers. Many have to travel to achieve financial success. Anglo-Quebecer comedian Lorne Elliott points out the absurdities of Quebec politics.

Citation Details
Title: Hungry for survival?(performing arts in secession-minded Quebec)
Author: Alexander Craig
Publication: Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1996
Publisher: Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada
Volume: v30Issue: n2Page: p6(4)

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This digital document is an article from Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, published by Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada on September 22, 1994. The length of the article is 1125 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The defeat of the 1980 referendum on sovereignty for Quebec depressed the Quebec artists that had supported it. Quebec popular culture moved toward consumption of Anglophone products until a new generation of indigenous artists began to emerge.

Citation Details
Title: Quebec artists: from depression to conquest.
Author: Claude Couillard
Publication: Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1994
Publisher: Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada
Volume: v29Issue: n1Page: p8(2)

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Winner of the 2000 Quebec Writers' Federation First Book Award and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction

A hip, enlightening portrait of a place most Canadians find baffling: Quebec without the politics.

Why do three million Quebecers tune in the same absurd sitcom every week? How did they get the nickname "pepsis"? Why does Celine Dion put on a down-home accent when she returns to her home province?

For referendum-weary English Canadians, Quebec is an enigma wrapped in a yawn. Taras Grescoe treats the province as an exotic destination. He takes readers onto the shuffleboard courts of Florida, to a francophone country-and-western festival in rural Mauricie, to the café tables of expatriate Quebecers in Paris. He deconstructs a Montreal Canadiens hockey game, explores the stunning diversity of Quebec’s newspapers, and dismantles Bombardier snowmobiles. En route, he meets Mohawk Warriors, Yiddish-speaking French Canadians, and the UFO-obsessed followers of Raël.

Informed and incisive, Sacré Blues explores the heart of contemporary Quebec: its love-hate relationship with France and the United States; the dance, theatre, and literary productions celebrated in Europe but little known here; its fears about distinctness on an increasingly uniform continent. Along the way we meet such Quebec residents as the playwright Michel Tremblay and the novelist Neil Bissoondath, Teleglobe CEO Charles Sirois and the arctic explorer Bernard Voyer, the foul-mouthed columnist Pierre Foglia and the esteemed philosopher Charles Taylor.

Sacré Blues serves up a spicy, irreverent, inside view of this unique and little-known part of North America. With side orders of poutine, maple syrup, and Vachon snack cakes. And scarcely a mention of Lucien Bouchard. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

I really enjoyed reading this book!
I got this book before my first trip to Quebec, what a great read.My boyfriend is from Montreal and he joked that I probably learned more and now know more about Quebec than he does b/c I kept saying "did you know this or do you know that?"...I loved the sarcasm of the author, it was written in a way that doesn't make you feel like you're reading a boring history book... this book falls somewhere between a history book and a tour guide book.
I learned so many amazing things from this book -- even learned things that his family didn't even know about and they live there.I really felt like the things I read helped me appreciate the things I saw once I was there --it made things that much more special for me b/c I had a better understanding of the people and how things are the way they are.Thank you Taras Grescoe!!!!

Well written, funny, useful
The author has a nice turn of phrase, and a lovely sense of humor.But better yet, I found that it made my trip more enjoyable by putting a few things in context.I certainly wouldn't have recognized the poetry on my B&B door as coming from a beloved Quebecois poet without reading this book; or understood why TV sitcom writers enjoy enough prestige to have a little local shrine of newspaper articles dedicated to them.

Very Interesting Look at Quebec
I really enjoyed reading this book and I feel I've learned quite a bit about Quebec. It's a very fascinating province that I hope to visit one of these days. The author weaves a very complex subject into a layman's quilt about the various facets of Quebecois society. The chapters on language and the societal ills since the Quite Revolution in the 60's are most interesting.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book is the author's typical Canadian cheap shots at the United States. Why the author has to fall into this typical Canadian mindset is beyond me. I thought this book was about Quebec. But here the author implies throughout the book how Canada and Quebec are better than the United States just because THEY'RE NOT THE UNITED STATES. Talk about an inferiority complex. For example, the author is trying to defend Quebec zenophobiaby pointing out America's supposed faults, by saying things like " The Americans, noted for their facade of equal opportunity,were in fact the most inegalitarian of people."....."the country has a bizarre myopia over it's apparently permanant class of blacks and Hispanics."
Excuse me? But it's America's fault that the black and Hispanic underclass sit around collecting dole while simultaniously blaming the white man for everything? How about we send our underclasses up to Canada, Taras? Maybe you, since you're such a compassionate Canadian, can help them out and kiss their behind.
Another gem from the author,"The United States, in contrast, seems to be engaged in a narcissistic dialogue, gazing at itself in a mirror as an increasingly disgusted world looks on." Say what? Again, this book is supposed to be about the author's journey through Quebec, not a Canadian's jealous perspective about the United States. And another whopper is where the author compares the crime rate of the entire province of Quebec with the city of Baltimore to supposedly show how low Quebec's crime rate is. LOL! Yeah, compare a predominantly black ghetto city with a predominantly white province. Nice try Taras.
Overall I really enjoyed the book and I do recommend it for people curious to learn about Quebec. It's just unfortunate that the author had to stoop to typical America bashing in an attempt to make some points. Maybe Taras Grescoe should take a journey through the United States. He might learn something instead of rehashing the same old Canadian anti-American newsbites.

Even Better Than Being There
In my youth Quebec was a vast country of farms still plowed by horses.There were so many religious that priests and nuns did missionary duty in the States.Francophones were indifferent to British rule.Then, seemingly overnight, this quaint civilization collapsed.Pastures became golf courses.Couples bore their children out of wedlock.Francophones took charge of their culture and country.In 1995 their ballots came within a fraction of a percentage point of independence.The 60s and 70s saw this "quiet revolution" that knocked down doors already tottering in decrepitude.What an immense change in so short a time!

I have always been curious about francophone culture, but could never quite crack it.My travels to Canada were too infrequent and my schoolboy French worthless.Bilingual friends ignored contentious talk.Sacre Blues is the rare book that gets inside Quebecois culture and language.You will learn about the famous Bill 101, attitudes toward anglophones, allophones, Americans and French.Lots of tidbits about joual and Quebecois curses.All the significant artists, media people and industrialists get a few paragraphs.There are some interesting statistics about who learns French and who stays in the province long enough to perpetuate the language.It seems pretty evident that unless Quebecers boost their numbers, this distinct culture will only be studied by historians.Grescoe is an objective Canadian- bilingual and deft with prose.This book should be mandatory reading for any outsiders who venture north.

Outstanding Overview of Quebec
For those with more than a casual interest in what the province of Quebec is all about, this book by multilingual Canadian journalist Grescoe is an excellent, evenhanded place to start. The twelve chapters do an admirable job of untangling the complicated web of ethnic, linguistic, political, and religious identities that make up Quebec. Grescoe gets things off to a quick start in the first chapter, providing a grab bag of examples of how the province is different from its Canadian and American neighbors: attitudes toward cheese, margarine, gun control, gay rights, smoking, the legal system, pornography, and more quickly get the point across. The chapter also establishes the tone for the rest of the book, as it ranges freely over the subject matter, sometimes doubling back, sometimes repeating itself, often employing statistics, but always in the service of trying to understand Quebec.

Chapter two has a brief history of the province's settlement, and quickly debunks the myth of the prevalence of "pure" francophone founders. This segues into an overview of Quebec's Jews, which leads to a discussion of recent immigration, and the whole notion of how a modern multicultural province can exist with a mythology of racial purity lurking in the background. Chapter three deals exclusively with the influence of France as a "mother country" which naturally leads to the next chapter, which is a lengthy examination of Quebecois French. Here, the author has an embarrassment of riches in terms of examples, however they are perhaps best appreciated by readers with a solid understanding of French.

Grescoe is a journalist, so it's not surprising that he devotes the entirety of chapter five to an exploration of the robust Quebecois print media. It's an interesting way of looking at a place, and not a lens one commonly encounters -- ultimately he concludes that as in many places around the world: "in Quebec, we're not likely to see serious coverage of issues that would threaten political and corporate power." It's a short hop from print to television, which is covered in the next chapter. Obviously television provides an interesting window onto a society and how it views itself -- especially in Quebec, where people watch more TV than in any other province. Grescoe dives right in, examining some of the popular genres and shows, as well as touching upon Celine Dion. The pop culture focus continues in chapter seven, which is a series of 21 brief profiles of Quebecois singers, writers, filmmakers, events, and stuff, most of which will be completely unfamiliar to outsiders (except for Circle du Soleil) but are well known in the province. It's cutely a good chapter to quickly dip into to get a sense of some of the differences discussed throughout the book.

In contrast to the relative lightheartedness of the previous chapter, chapter eight is about Quebec's native population (currently around 75,000 from 11 different Indian nations) and their grievances. As in the rest of the continent, Quebec's native population has gotten the shaft ever since colonizers first arrived. Grescoe talks to various tribal representatives, and an ironically unpleasant picture emerges of a province clamoring for the right of self-determination in order to escape external cultural and economic domination -- only to deny these very same claims by the native population. The next chapter discusses both the actual Quebecois winter and the idea of winter in the province's mythology. This naturally also involves a trip to Florida, where a huge number of retired Quebecois spend the harsh winter months.

Chapter ten is a good overview about the province's economy and business climate, including a visit to multinational transportation giant Bombardier. This is followed by a chapter about religion and change, more specifically about the shocking decline in practicing Catholics in the last forty years. Again, with remarkable evenhandedness, Grescoe finds a lot of good and bad in this cultural development. In many ways, it's a reflection of the same kind of cultural tug-of-wars that have gone on in the U.S. since the '60s, with many of the same tensions. The final chapter attempts to sum up Grescoe's three years of observing Quebec and perhaps unsurprisingly, for better and for worse, he sees increasing globalization as a erosive force on the province's distinct identity.

Grescoe's done a wonderful job of cutting to the core of things while keeping his writing lively and accessible. Each chapter is about a topic that would take an entire book to completely cover, and yet with a mix of on the scenes reportage, statistics, interviews with politicians, businessmen, intellectuals, artists, experts, and people on the street, Grescoe manages to avoid superficiality and present the complex issues. Although occasionally repetitive and cursed with an awful cover, it's highly recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in Quebec, especially those intending to visit. ... Read more

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Chapters: English-Speaking Quebecker, Quebec English, Alliance Quebec, Quebec Writers' Federation Awards, Equality Party, Affiliationquebec, Unity Party, Centaur Theatre, My Fur Lady, Nicholas Hoare. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 61. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt:English-speaking Quebecers (also known as Anglo-Quebecers, English Quebecers, or Anglophone Quebecers; in French Anglo-Québécois, Québécois Anglophone, or simply Anglo) refers to the English-speaking (anglophone) minority of the primarily French-speaking (francophone) province of Quebec, Canada. The English-speaking community in Quebec constitutes an official linguistic minority population under Canadian law. Unlike other minorities, English-speaking Quebecers are not an ethnic group, with large emigration to other provinces, intermarriage with francophones, and waves of immigration renewing the face of the community every generation. This makes estimating the population difficult. According to the 2006 Canadian census, 575,555 (7.7% of population) in Quebec declare English as their only mother tongue, 744,430 (10%) use mostly English as their home language, and 918,955 (12.9%) comprise the Official Language Minority, having English as their First Official language spoken. A large proportion of Quebec's English-speaking population resides in or near Montreal. Most reside on the Island of Montreal, particularly in the West Island and in the western half of Montreal's urban core, where there is a network of English-language educational, social, cultural, economic, and medical institutions. The earliest English-speaking Quebecers arrived in Montreal at the beginning of the British regime in the second half of the 18th century. American merchants, United Empire Loyalists and Anglo-Scot Protestants founded Quebec's publ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=2206623 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Etc. Montreal, published by Revue d'Art Contemporain Etc. Inc. on June 1, 2003. The length of the article is 2379 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Etre depossede. (Quebec).(Depossession, organise par Folie/Culture)
Author: Christine Martel
Publication: Etc. Montreal (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2003
Publisher: Revue d'Art Contemporain Etc. Inc.
Issue: 62Page: 65(6)

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This digital document is an article from American Review of Canadian Studies, published by Association for Canadian Studies in the United States on March 1, 2009. The length of the article is 1235 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Violence and the female imagination: Quebec's women writers re-frame gender in North American cultures.(Book review)
Author: Milena Santoro
Publication: American Review of Canadian Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2009
Publisher: Association for Canadian Studies in the United States
Volume: 39Issue: 1Page: 61(3)

Article Type: Book review

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In "Quebec National Cinema" Bill Marshall tackles the question of the role cinema plays in Quebec's view of itself as a nation. Surveying mostly fictional feature films, Marshall demonstrates how Quebec cinema has evolved from the innovative direct cinema of the early 1960s into the diverse canvas of popular comedies, glossy co-productions, and reworked auteur cinema of the postmodern 1990s. He explores the faultlines of Quebec identity - its problematic and contradictory relationship with France, the question of Native peoples, the influence of the cosmopolitan and pluralist city of Montreal, and the encounters between sexuality, gender, and nation traced and critiqued in women's and queer cinemas.In the first comprehensive, theoretically informed work in English on Quebec cinema, Marshall views his subject as neither the assertion of some unproblematic national wholeness nor a random collection of disparate voices that drown out or invalidate the question of nation.Instead, he shows that while the allegory of nation marks Quebec film production it also leads to a tension between textual and contextual forces, between homogeneity and heterogeneity, and between major and minor modes of being and identity. Drawing on a broad framework of theory and particularly indebted to the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, "Quebec National Cinema" makes a valuable contribution to debates in film studies on national cinemas and to the burgeoning interest in French studies in the culture and politics of la francophonie. Bill Marshall is professor of Modern French Studies at the University of Glasgow. He has written several books and numerous articles on film and Francophone culture. ... Read more

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Chapters: Mondial Des Cultures, Gatineau Hot Air Balloon Festival, Quebec Winter Carnival, Mondial Choral, Domaine Forget, Quebec City Summer Festival, North American International Demoparty, Quebec City International Festival of Military Bands, List of Festivals in Quebec, Les Rendez-Vous Du Cinéma Québécois, Brome Fair, Festival Western de Saint-Tite, International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Festi Jazz International de Rimouski, Carrousel International Du Film de Rimouski, Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 49. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Mondial des Cultures (formerly called the Festival Mondial de Folklore (World Folklore Festival) is a folk dance festival which is held every summer in early July at the Woodyatt Park, in Drummondville, a city located in the Centre-du-Québec region. The event was founded in 1982, after members of the folk ensemble Mackinaw had attended a similar festival in Dijon, France. The festival is in its 28th edition, and ran from July 919, 2009. During the eleven days of celebration, dozens of renowned artists and folk ensembles from around the world participate in this event which has attracted in recent years an average of over 300,000 visits per year. The annual budget is 2.2 million Canadian dollars and the economic benefits are estimated at 16.7 million Canadian dollars, according to a study conducted by the survey firm CROP in 2007. Such statistics make the Mondial des Cultures one of the four largest folk festivals in the world. It is also one of the figureheads of the Canadian Section of the CIOFF (International Organization of Folklore Festival and Traditional Arts), an organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO. The Mondial des Cultures aims ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=23156471 ... Read more

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Chapters: Inuit, Inuit Culture. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 67. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Inuit languagevarious national languages The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. The Inuit language is grouped under Eskimo-Aleut languages. An Inuk is an Inuit man or person. The Inuit live throughout most of the Canadian Arctic and subarctic: in the territory of Nunavut ("our land"); the northern third of Quebec, in an area called Nunavik ("place to live"); the coastal region of Labrador, in an area called Nunatsiavut ("our beautiful land"); in various parts of the Northwest Territories, mainly on the coast of the Arctic Ocean and formerly in the Yukon. Collectively these areas are known as Inuit Nunangat. In the US, Alaskan Inupiat live on the North Slope of Alaska and Siberian Coast, Little Diomede Island and Big Diomede Island. Greenland's Kalaallit are citizens of Denmark. In Alaska, the term Eskimo is commonly used, because it includes both Yupik and Inupiat, while Inuit is not accepted as a collective term or even specifically used for Inupiat. No universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people, is accepted across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples. In Canada and Greenland, the term Eskimo has fallen out of favour, as the Natives consider it pejorative and prefer the term Inuit. In Canada, the Constitution Act of 1982, sections 25 and 35 recognised the Inuit as a distinctive group of Canadian aboriginals, who are neither First Nations nor Métis. For pre-history, see: Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods (Canada) The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=15704166 ... Read more