Le Théâtre franco-ontarien: Dramatic Spectacles of Linguistic Otherness

Abstract

While the Quiet Revolution in Quebec was channelling the political energy of ethnolinguistic nationalism into a movement for sovereignty and its creative energy into a growing corpus of distinctly Québécois literature, francophones outside the province suddenly found themselves cut off from the traditional centre of French Canada. ‘Hors du Québec, point de salut!’ was the message from separatist leader René Lévesque, who told them they were ‘dead ducks’ unless they returned to la belle province (cited by Beauregard, 35). Bewildered by this new rejection two centuries after France abandoned them, French-speaking Canadians faced an identity crisis aggravated by a weakening of their claims for linguistic rights. Quebec’s rejection of ‘French-Canadian’ identity forced francophones outside of Quebec to redefine themselves in terms of their own historical experiences, socio-cultural traditions, and linguistic characteristics. The result has been that since Quebec turned its back on its diaspora in the late 1960s, Franco-Ontarians, Franco-Manitobans, Franco-Albertans, and Franco-Saskatchewans have joined Acadians (and Cajuns) in establishing what could be called separate subnational ethnolinguistic identities. One aspect of this identitary quest has been a renaming process along the lines of the change from ‘Canadien français to Québécois: a small number of Franco-Ontarians now prefer the term Ontarois and some Franco-Saskatchewans call themselves Saskatois.