Writing as a form of 'survival' in Franco-America Translingualism, memory and identity in Robert B. Perreault and Normand Beaupré

Abstract

An issue lying at the core of analyses of ethnic writing is the way that the question of identity often generates a dialogue between writing and being. American literature in languages other than English engages with this dialogue, though the nature of this engagement is rarely given appropriate recognition in American Studies. As a step towards redressing this neglect, this article focuses on two contemporary Franco-American writers, both third-generation immigrants, Normand Beaupré and Robert B. Perreault, who choose to write in the language of their ancestors, French. In doing so, they not only cope with a pride rooted in la survivance, the ideology that used to define their community, but also attempt to link their narrative to a Québec storytelling tradition. In choosing to express themselves in their native French, they try to demarginalize it and to bring their native voice back to the center. Their works also aim at tackling the issue of code-switching, of working with a mixed and impure language – an issue which has forced many Franco-American novelists to write in English rather than in French.