Suivre le lilas et l’engoulevent d’Amérique – vers une identité transmigrante dans La Route du lilas par Éric Dupont

Abstract

Éric Dupont’s latest novel has been acclaimed as a “feminist road-trip” and a “true feminist and horticultural fresco.” This article studies the concept of transmigrant identity as embodied by one of three main female characters: Maria Pia, a Brazilian on the run, tries to reach the Gaspé Peninsula in Québec, with the help of two Americans, Shelly and Laura, who, every year, follow the journey of the blossoming lilac in North America. The concept of transmigrant identity belongs to Gilles Dupuis who, after examining literary connections between the Quebec literary canon, the so-called “de souche,” and the migrant one, argues the existence of an identity which permeates the writing style. Maria Pia’s journey which links the north and south parts of the American continent fits the trans-American aesthetic project that I have defined as “the new Quebecois meta-narrative.”