Writing the hinterland (back) into the heartland: the Franco-CanadianFarouestin two novels by Nicolas Dickner and D. Y. Béchard

Abstract

Since Quebec's Quiet Revolution, questions regarding Canada's francophonie are generally limited to Quebec, while forgetting the francophone communities located in what is known as 'English Canada'. This means that an entire component of Canada's cultural landscape tends to be ignored. This article aims to rectify that situation through the use of the heartland–hinterland concept to refer to the relationship between Quebec, considered as the heart or core of the country's francophonie, and its margins or backwoods, located in the 'rest of Canada'. A brief account of the evolution of the relationship between Quebec and Canada's other French communities will be followed by a reading of the ways two contemporary Canadian novels, Vandal Love, written in English and published in 2006, and Nikolski, written in French and published in 2007, re-imagine not only francophone Canada but also the Franco-Americas.