«Molière go home»: “Le Bourgeois gentleman” d’Antonine Maillet sur la scène littéraire québécoise et acadienne (1978)

Abstract

While adaptations of English and French classics multiply in Québec, «Molière go home», the student manifesto published in 1970 at the University of Sudbury, hints at a dramaturgy perceived as foreign, as opposed to the new French-Canadian creations. The Acadian author Antonine Maillet offers an original interpretation of such linguistic and cultural renewal in her Molière-inspired comedy Le Bourgeois gentleman, where she uncovers the linguistic uncertainty afflicting the minorities living in an evolving diglossic context. The satire of Anglomania becomes the subject of a scenic performance between imitation and parody; besides, it also suggests a reflection on the linguistic and cultural preservation exercised by Québec over the other Canadian francophone regions.