Detailed Syllabus and outline for a 7-week course in the history of the language and culture of Quebec

Lee Skallerup Bessette

Humanities Commons

Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec The Language and Culture of Quebec Course Learning Outcomes: To the point where critical cultural inquiry can be engaged, students will:  1. apply cultural knowledge through interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication that cross linguistic and national boundaries. 2. analyze the contexts and ​manifestations of ​cultural expression.  Course-level Student Learning Outcomes  Students will be able to: 1. Define specific political, socio-economic, historical, cultural, and linguistic features of French-speaking Quebec 2. Analyze how the people, events, and products of this era have been differently understood / used for political and cultural purposes 3. Produce original research (in French, if appropriate)  Textbook: ​The French Language in Quebec: 400 Years of History and Life Week 1:  Introduction  Canada started as New France, as a logging and hunting and missionary settlement, under French and Catholic rule. The original Canadians spoke French, moving increasingly into agricultural economies before France handed over New France to British rule. Montreal was and still is the economic capital of Quebec, while Quebec City is the provincial capital. The province, is still majority French-speaking, despite being surrounded on all sides by English-speaking populations. The version of French that is spoken in Quebec, québécois, is unique, like any other dialect of a language spoken far from the place of origin. Quebec has also long seen itself as a unique political entity within North America, with many believing that it should be its own country. While perhaps well-known today as the birthplace of Celine Dion and poutine, it is (of course) more than that, culturally rich, diverse, and complex.   This week, I want you to reflect on how place and identity are shaped and help shape the language we speak. While here in the United States, we speak English, we also know that the different dialects of English, certain expressions, sayings, and even linguistic norms, are shaped by the geography, the history, and the peoples who populate the place you are from or call Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec home. Quebec is probably (and rightfully) foreign to you, but what we learn about place and history and language can help us reflect on our own sense of place and history and language.   Week 1 Learning Objectives: Identify elements that make Quebec and Quebec French unique Connect the importance of language in the development of one’s identity and culture  Pure Laine essay by me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae913QSPsAk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XT7_Njauh0 Week 1 Assignment: In a video or audio recording, introduce yourself, why you are taking the course, what you hope to learn, and one story about how history, geography, and local (or even hyper-local) culture shapes the way you speak. Really think about the expressions you use, the ways you talk or interact (gestures, eye contact, physical proximity) are shaped by these forces. You are encouraged to also include your own personal history in this short narrative. The video or audio should be between 3-5 minutes long.   Week 2 Introduction: This week, I want you to take a macro view of Quebec history, and then start to build your own resource to help navigate the course and Quebec history. The purpose of this week to start to find reliable and useful multimedia (audio, video, images) resources to help us better understand Quebec. One of the challenges you will quickly run into is the relative lack of good English-language resources, as compared to resources in French. I want you to reflect in your week-end journal entry as to the experience of confronting a foreign language and being unable to access the same level of knowledge and expertise because of that language gap.  Week 2 Learning Objectives: Identify important moments in Quebec history Identify sources of information in English on Quebec history Analyze the quality of resources available on Quebec in English Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec Week 2 Assignment: We will be working on a collaborative timeline. Look at this ​extensive timeline from our course textbook​. Use this link to a Google Spreadsheet, where you will choose 5 important events to create an entry for. Don’t worry about having it in proper chronological order in the spreadsheet; the timeline creator takes care of that. Each entry should have a title, a brief textual description of the event and why it is relevant, a piece of multimedia, and proper credit for both the image and where you found the information. Each person should pick 5 ​unique​ entries, so if someone has already done yours, choose another one - there are plenty. (I will make a video demonstrating how to do the timeline spreadsheet).  Week 3 - The Beginning (corresponding chapters from book - Part 1) Introduction: This week, we will be exploring the early settlement of New France. It was a clash of various civilizations: the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land, the Catholic Jesuit missionaries who were sent to convert them, and the rough explorers and hunters who were brave (or broke) enough to venture to make a living in New France. The impact of The Jesuit Relations on the culture in France is not to be understated; this is where you get Russeau’s myth of the Noble Savage. It was important that the Jesuits make these stories compelling to continue to receive financial and political support for their work. While I included a number of the more graphic entries for this week, it is because these stories continued to be told and re-told in Quebec history and literature. Orality is an important component in both the Indigenous cultures (which was one of the factors that led the Jesuits to believe they were less-than the Europeans) and (ironically) the early settlers and explorers. These “contes” - part folk-take, part legend - were an important part of early culture in New France. In your weekly reflection, I want you to think about telling and retelling stories, as well as the idea of narrator and audience.  Week 3 Learning Outcomes:  Connect the idea of orality with the development of language and culture Analyze the telling and retelling of stories Create a video telling a story from Quebec’s history  https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc2.ark:/13960/t8pc30w8n;view=1up;seq=23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR2-Id8Msiw  http://moses.creighton.edu/kripke/jesuitrelations/relations_10.html Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec http://moses.creighton.edu/kripke/jesuitrelations/relations_34.html Week 3 Assignment: Last week, you researched 5 important moments in Quebec history. This week, I want you to tell a story about one of the events. Think about audience, voice, narrative, and purpose, which can be whatever you want it to be. This is a multimodal assignment, so I expect you to use images, video, and audio (as well as your voice) to tell the story. Think of the video of La Chasse-Galerie we watched, although I don’t expect a full short of hand-drawn animation. The video should be between 3-5 minutes and contain credits at the end letting me know where you got your resources from.   Week 4 - Post-Conquest (Part 2 from Book) Introduction New France is no more; welcome to Lower Canada, under British rule. Feeling abandoned and betrayed by France and under siege by the British, ​les canadiens​ begin to form their national identity around three pillars: the French language, the Catholic church, and an agrarian way of life. Those who spoke English were still considered British. There was civil unrest, with ​les canadiens​ asserting their right to receive justice and important civil documentation in French. The American Revolution was not lost on ​les canadiens​ and the influx of Loyalists north once the war was over added to tensions. Infamously, Lord Durham, who was sent by the British Crown to deal with the increasingly troublesome ​canadiens​, concluded that ​les canadiens​ were a people with no culture, no history, and no future, and thus ought to be assimilated for their own good into the British systems (English, Protestant, more urban). In your weekly reflection, I want you to focus on the pressures to assimilate, to sacrifice parts of your heritage and identity, to be treated as second-class because of language or religion. You can also tie it back to the Jesuits and how they treated the Indigenous populations.  Week 4: Learning Outcomes Connect the English rule of Lower Canada with the development of Quebec identity Relate various forms of colonization taking place in North America during this period Identify a uniquely Quebecois expression/practice/tradition/cultural marker  http://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP7CH5PA1LE.html https://archive.org/details/lorddurhamsrepor03durhiala  https://english.republiquelibre.org/Notes_of_Alexis_de_Tocqueville_in_Lower_Canada Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-466/Alexis_de_Tocqueville%E2%80%99s_visit_to_Lower_Canada_in_1831.html Week 4: Assignment This week, we will begin working on your final assignment. You are to choose a uniquely Québécois expression, saying, custom, or practice to research and explain to an English audience. This will include a history of what you have selected, why it evolved the way it did in Quebec, and how it is (or isn’t) used today. This is a multimodal assignment, so again, you will be expected to merge sound, images, video, and text in telling this history and explaining its significance. Here is the timeline for the assignment:  At the end of Week 4: I want you to have selected your topic and submitted it to me for approval. At the end of Week 5: I want you to have submitted an outline for feedback and peer-review. At the end of Week 6: I want the final product to be submitted and share with your classmates.  Introduce Final Project: http://www.cehd.umn.edu/Readium/cloud-reader-lite/index.html?epub=epub_content/the-changing-story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae913QSPsAk Week 5 - La Grande Noirceur (Part 3 from Book) Week 5 Introduction: I the face of assimilation and humiliation, ​les canadiens​ become ​les canadien-français ​(or French-Canadians in English). We see the creation of more and more institutions within Lower Canada formed in order to preserve and support the French language, including the Université Laval and Université de Montréal and the French-Language daily, ​La Presse​ (still in circulation today). But French-Canadians are fleeing to the USA, and the other provinces are beginning to outlaw French in schools. Upper-Canada is now more populous than Lower Canada. Even though the British North-American Act (BNAA) requires bilingualism (and creates the province of Quebec), nonetheless, French-Canadians are increasingly in the minority. This period in Quebec history is punctuated by what is called “La grande noirceur” - a time that coincided with the Depression, and an increasingly oppressive Catholic Church in conjunction with the corrupt provincial government. In order to ensure the survival of the French-Canadian population, the Church introduces “le revanche des berceaux” or the revenge of the cradle. French-Canadians have more and more children in order to try and grow the population. The plan backfires in a lot of ways, because there wasn’t enough land to pass on to all of the kin, and thus many leave the countryside to come into the city, or leave the province all together. In your reflection this week, Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec I want you to think about the issue of migration, about what circumstances would lead you to leave your home, your family, you kin, your way of life. Has that been something your family has experienced, either in the immediate or distant past? How have larger social and political forces shaped where your family has lived? Week 5: Learning Outcomes  Connect the ideas of oppression and migration Analyze how language can be used to both oppress and liberate Understand how sports can be important cultural markers  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4383/4383-h/4383-h.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_du_terroir  http://www.conseildesarts.org/documents/Manisfeste/manifeste_refus-english.htm http://www.cbc.ca/archives/topic/le-refus-global-revolution-in-the-arts  Week 6 - Revolution (Part 4 from Book - Chapters 33-45) Week 6 Introduction: The 1960s were a time of great social change around the world, but especially into Quebec. The ways that hockey and the French-Canadian population were intimately connected came to head in what is known as the Richard Riot, with many historians claiming that this event kicked off what is called The Quiet Revolution and the shift from French-Canadian to Québécois. Poetry, literature, art all begin to assert a more confident and even radical position in response to English colonialism. The idea of Quebec sovereignty gains popularity, and a provincial political party, le Parti Québécois, is formed. In 1967, the President of France addressed a crowd in Montreal, and declare: “Vive le Québéc libre!” Montreal also hosts Expo ‘67, and the city is awarded the 1976 Summer Olympics. But there is also the October Crisis, in 1970, the culmination of years of terrorist bombings that took place in Montreal by the Front de Libération du Québec, or FLQ. In 1980, Quebec has their first referendum on sovereignty, and although the population voted to remain in Canada, many Anglophones left, as well as many major corporations’ head-offices. This was both a time of great civil unrest but also creativity and cultural growth, particularly around language. In your reflection this week, focus on this confluence of civil unrest and creativity, particularly as it applies (or doesn’t) to our historical moment.  Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec Week 6: Learning Outcomes Understand the connection between language, culture, and creativity Analyze the confluence of violence and liberation  http://montrealgazette.com/sports/stu-on-sports/richard-riot-was-also-red-fishers-first-night-covering-the-canadiens http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/worshipping-les-canadiens-1.711672 https://www.si.com/vault/1999/11/29/270671/loud-start-to-the-quiet-revolution-march-17-1955-the-riot-over-rocket-richard  The Richard Riot: Going down swinging A violent end of an era for the NHL and Quebec Malcolm Kelly – for CBC Sports – March 17, 2017 http://www.cbc.ca/sports/canada-150/richard-riot-1.4025966  Fire and Ice: The Rocket Richard Riot – Feature, Documentary Encore November 6, 2017; 47:50 minutes https://youtu.be/LadXzh4jgHg  The Rocket Richard Riot John Rosengren SB Nation/ Longform https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2015/3/11/8180065/maurice-richard-montreal-canadiens-riot  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZyDsF-Gp3o  https://english.republiquelibre.org/Translations_of_poems_and_lyrics#Mich.C3.A8le_Lalonde https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCBCy8OXp7I  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhbzCRLVVo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxeQpGasEME  Week 7 - Today (Chapters 46-51, Conclusion, Addendum chapters 59-endnotes) Week 7: Introduction Lee Skallerup Bessette, The Language and Culture of Quebec When the population of Quebec narrowly voted once again to stay in Canada in the 1995 Referendum, the then-premiere of Quebec declared that it was the fault of “money and immigrants.” This statement belied the long-time racism and antisemitism that has been present in Quebec. This week, we’re going to be focusing on what is known as the “néo-québécois” or the various immigrant populations that have been coming to Quebec, as well as the Indigenous populations that were there first. How have they influenced and been influenced by the French language? Also, Quebec during the 1960s pushed out the influence of the Catholic Church and embraced secularism. This is continuing to create tensions between the québécois and néo-québécois, particularly those who are from Muslim countries. Quebec is the only province in Canada that has control over their immigration, and thus prioritizes people from countries that are a part of la francophonie, or other countries that had also once been colonized by the French. After Bill 101 was passed in 1977, all new arrivals to Quebec had to go to school in French. This week is your final reflection. I want you to focus on what you have learned this entire course and how it has shaped your view of language, place, and history, tying it into the lessons of this final week about losing language and traditions.    ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yP3srFvhKs  https://www.npr.org/2014/03/09/288298648/keeping-the-french-language-alive-in-quebec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tGovX4ua38  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVcUxPnLk2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGYDsNKULCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSuik8tELDI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5WDgKkJJVs  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2my8ikBQMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHKhoe0EBNQ Week 7: Learning Outcomes: Understand others in terms of language and oppression Identify the similarities between Quebec’s treatment of various non-québécois populations and their own historic mistreatment     

The Language and Culture of Quebec

https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:20318/CONTENT/quebec-course-outline-master-doc1.pdf/

The Language and Culture of Quebec

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Humanities Commons