Quebec literature owes its success in recent years largely to women, who wrote about two-thirds of the best-selling books on August 12, when the J’achete un livre québécois initiative was taking place for the ninth year.
Of the 110 books that were the most popular on the LesLibraires.ca site last Friday, barely 35 are the work of men; five were signed by a male and female tandem. In the top 20, there are twelve women, one non-binary person and seven men. A man-woman relationship that is repeated year after year in this ranking since August 12 has become one of the most lucrative days of the year for the Quebec literary community.
Consumers of culture
“It doesn’t surprise me that much. All studies have shown that women consume much more culture than men. They go to the theater more, but also buy more books,” says novelist Lori Saint-Martin, a professor at UQAM, who has focused a lot on the place of women in the literary world in recent years.
It doesn’t surprise me that much. All studies have shown that women consume much more culture than men. They go to the theater more, but also buy more books.
Lori Saint-Martin does not fail to point out that women tend to read books that are written by both men and women, whereas male readers are generally only interested in novels and essays published by men. That so many women authors are in the list of August 12, however, makes him say that mentalities are perhaps in the process of evolving, that more and more men are beginning to consider women writers on an equal footing. with their colleagues.
“The men were missing something. It’s extremely positive that they’re realizing that women have interesting things to say that aren’t just for good women. I feel that there is perhaps a movement at the moment and I am delighted about it, ”she continues, before specifying that women still have to fight within the literary world to aspire to treatment. fair.
“It’s like in politics. Yes, we can achieve parity, but that does not mean not being vigilant, ”summarizes Lori Saint-Martin.
In search of respectability
Last summer, The duty identified major disparities in the list of winners of the four most prestigious literary prizes in Quebec over the past ten years. Some committees clearly favored women, while the reverse was true for other distinctions.
“The sales charts, like that of August 12, are ephemeral. We probably don’t remember bestsellers which were top sellers ten years ago. What ensures consecration is something else, prices in particular. And we know that the more prestigious a prize, the more women tend to be under-represented,” recalls Lori St-Martin, who deplores the lack of women writers who manage to make a name for themselves, to be taught and even to be translated.
According to figures published in 2019 by the Union of Quebec Writers and Writers (UNEQ), women are especially less likely to be published. Just under 20% of manuscripts written by women end up in bookstores, compared to 29% of those sent by men.
The same study also suggested that female authors have a harder time attracting media attention when their books come out. It is therefore with astonishment that the president of the UNEQ, Suzanne Aubry, learned that approximately two-thirds of the most ordered books on LesLibraires.ca during the day of August 12 had been written by women.
“I’m surprised, but I’m happy about it. It shows that maybe things are changing. Perhaps we would arrive at different results if we redid the study today, ”she enthuses.
Mme Aubry is also not moved by the few male authors in the ranking. According to her, it should not be seen as a sign that men are abandoning reading, or worrying that popular literature is struggling to represent the reality of Quebec men.
“There is the same discourse for school and television. It is said that there are not enough male figures, that there are too many female teachers. It makes me giggle every time. Young people should be interested in reading. Period. Harry Potter was written by a woman, and that hasn’t stopped a lot of little boys from discovering reading this way,” persists the president of UNEQ.