For national history (Boréal, 2023, 396 pages), Gérard Bouchard’s most recent essay, is solid. The almost octogenarian historian, in great intellectual shape, gives his full measure by expressing his fundamental convictions.
At the opening of this great work, Bouchard engages in a civilizational observation. “Our century, he writes, has lost the sense of history”, thus depriving us of a clear vision not only of the past, but of the future. We can speak of a “symbolic void”, of a “loss of soul”, and perhaps even go so far as to say, as Fernand Dumont did in 1976, that this crisis hits Quebec more strongly than other nations.
For the majority, religion no longer provides meaning and the political institution has lost its credibility. The national framework, although also shaken, nevertheless survives as a space of law, democracy and belonging, but cultural transmission, necessary for sharing “the values essential to the smooth running of all collective life”, writes Bouchard, is in trouble.
Under these conditions, the school appears as one of the only institutions able to turn the tide and national history, as the material par excellence in this mission. It is not a question, specifies the historian, of returning to the time when the greatness of the nation was sung uncritically, but of rediscovering the “capacity to move and educate thanks to the double power of analysis and narrative, reason and emotion”, by integrating “in the discourse on the past a pluralistic and critical vision”, while respecting the symbolic foundations of Quebec society.
Bouchard rejects the theses of those who accuse national history of being the bearer of a toxic nationalism. In its liberal version, he explains, the nation is based “on freedom, democracy, human rights, pluralism, non-violence, the pursuit of social equality and the rejection of the abusive magisterium churches “.
Any population, moreover, to become a society, must give itself “a cultural fabric which is the condition of belonging, solidarity and mutual trust, which make possible the management of the State, the institution of true citizenship and the exercise of democracy”. To become engaged citizens in their society, students need to maintain an emotional bond with it. In this mission, national history stands out as the discipline par excellence.
For this, it must know how to make a fair place for minorities as well as the majority, and therefore integrate diversity into the national narrative. To achieve this, Bouchard proposes the model of the integral story. It is a matter of starting from the values celebrated in today’s society and tracing their genealogy. These values are those which are recorded in our laws and our charters, which notably include the French language and secularism, as well as values with an informal status, such as mutual aid, solidarity, a harmonious relationship with the environment, respect for elders, etc. On this basis, majority and minorities can come together. By making the Quebec history of these values and ideals, cherished, but sometimes flouted, we give them “more substance, a more concrete life”, notes Bouchard.
Doing so allows us to explore the symbolic foundations of our society. The process is two-way. This story shows, first, how Quebec has appropriated universal values such as freedom, equality and democracy. It then shows how experiences specific to Quebec—the rebellions of 1837 and 1838, for example—are part of a universal framework, that, here, of decolonization movements. This national history therefore takes on universal unifying accents, while remaining typically Quebecois.
Bouchard begins his work by speaking of a symbolic vacuum that affects Quebec society. He notes, in conclusion, that national history, obsessed with neutrality since the Quiet Revolution, has not been able to fill this void.
In joyful pages, Bouchard therefore pleads for a story which, although rigorous, would make room for “the emotional dimension which is at the heart of both social life and collective memory”, would not be afraid to promote heroes of ‘yesterday and would reintroduce the narrative in the presentation of the past to restore its humanity to a discipline that is impoverished by being content with cold and factual analyses.
The real heroes of our history, he says at the end of the program, are the common people who, since the founding of New France, have been able to resist the ambitions of the colonial elites. And people love stories, especially when they’re true.
Columnist (Presence Info, Game)essayist and poet, Louis Cornellier teaches literature in college.