The author of these lines has hardly set foot in the vast residence of Antonine Maillet, in Montreal, that she is stopped in her tracks. “Did you enter with your left foot? Uncertain, we cross the threshold again. “In Acadie, when you enter someone’s house for the first time, you make a wish and enter with your left foot. »
Done, we begin the tour of the owner. On the walls, nods to La Sagouine — the Acadian author’s cult character —, to her play of the same name and to her country abound. On the shelves and in the built-in bookcases, next to books by Shakespeare, Cervantes and Euripides, are accumulating the writer’s countless medals, honorary doctorates and literary prizes, including a Goncourt prize – the first of the story offered to a French-speaking woman outside Europe.
Everything in this house recalls the important legacy of Antonine Maillet and her more than sixty years of giving voice to, defending and making Acadian culture shine throughout the Francophonie.
From the height of her 93 years, the novelist and playwright has lost none of the imagination and wonder that are generally reserved for children. Yet, aware of the frantic race of time, she can’t help but begin to think about what will happen to her literary legacy when the end comes.
“I didn’t have any children and, at the same time, I have so many children. I have all of Acadie, says the one who also loves 99 great-grandnephews and nieces. There’s even a great-great-grandchild under construction. Then, thinking about my heirs, I heard them. My characters, who whispered in my ear: what about us? »
It was enough for the pencil to activate – “The pencil is stronger than the imagination.” It’s like a flute for a flautist, or a brush for a painter. Nothing exists except in my head. ” In my willwhich will be published on July 15 by Leméac, Antonine Maillet begins a delightful dialogue with twelve of her most important characters and bequeaths to them a part of her work, of her imagination or of Acadia of which she is still today the strongest symbol.
Inspiration
To La Sagouine, she bequeathed the Pays de la Sagouine – taken from paper to come to life in reality, and which for thirty years has delighted thousands of tourists confounded by the extraordinary imagination of its creator. To Pélagie, who brought her people home after the deportation of 1755, she offers this new Acadia that has survived her. To mother Jeanne de Valois, who allowed the creation of the first college for girls and a French university in the region, she gave her pen. And so on for Madame Perfecta, Tit-Rien, Pierre Bleu, Don l’Orignal and all the others.
The reader is not left out in this demonstration of generosity. Antonine Maillet offers an invaluable gift to anyone interested in the inner life of artists and the origin of their work. She opens the doors of her studio, of her imagination, revealing an unprecedented interpretation of her work and revealing her greatest source of inspiration: a certain Rabelais.
“The Acadian language is a cousin of that of Rabelais. We had to fight to keep the French language, literature, thought and treasure. Result: we have preserved the poetry, the abundance of words used in the Middle Ages. Like him, I say “backbone rake” rather than “backbone”. Like him, I don’t just talk about the throat, but about the throat, the gorgoton, the gargamelle and the gargotière,” she says, sliding her finger down her trachea.
kitchen epic
By revisiting through this testament the universe of Antonine Maillet, we understand that the latter is situated somewhere between the fairy tale and the epic: the first, a reminder of the eternal children’s eyes with which the writer must look at the world; the second, inherent in the history of Acadia. “An epic recounts the origin, the birth of a people. The birth of the French-Canadian people belongs to the Acadians. We are therefore an epic people. I brought this great journey down to my own level, by creating, with Pélagie, what I call a kitchen epic. »
This grandiose backstory is only a pretext to bring humanity back to what is most precious: dreams, love, doubt. The magical aspect of her stories also allows her to explore questions that are as timeless as they are contemporary, such as the struggle between good and evil, the place of women and indifference. “With La Sagouine, I told the life of invisible women, floor washers who were wiser than many scholars. »
She cites, for the record, one of her inspirations, Sarah, who had one day thrown at her these words transcribed in the play: how are you? » « She had understood and repeated without knowing it, seven centuries later, the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the quest for happiness. That’s the kind of stuff I like to repeat. »
Although she has written her will, the great writer is far from having said her last word. His next novel, a tale, will feature three children who will have to challenge a cruel giant. Her name ? King Ovid XIX, of course!