It’s a very small, unexpected book, a little comical, sometimes runny, but still tender, for those who knew the time when European literature was sworn only to in Quebec universities. In fact, Impromptu is an order from the editions La Contre allée in France, which has just been republished by Héliotrope, the parent company of the writer Catherine Mavrikakis.
Posted at 7:15 a.m.
He had been asked for a short text on the theme of Europe, which Catherine Mavrikakis believes she does not know that well. It is true that his romantic work, which includes titles like The Last Days of Smokey Nelson, The Ballad of Ali Baba Where Oscar de Profundis, leans much more towards Americanness. Besides, I reached Catherine by Zoom in Nevada, while she is in full road trip in the United States with her husband and daughter, to take advantage of a sabbatical year to write.
But never mind, she accepted the commission, choosing the offbeat point of view of the literary people of her generation for whom European culture was the only respectable one. Even if she notes that young people are no longer educated in the same way and that American influences are taking more and more place in their reading, she wanted to go to the end of this European ideal that was well anchored at a certain time. “Among my colleagues, says Catherine Mavrikakis, who is also a professor of literature at the University of Montreal, there is still a myth of Europe, especially in French literature. »
I think that culture as we conceive of it, “high culture”, is European culture, whereas if we talk about American culture, it’s always seen as popular culture.
Catherine Mavrikakis
“I wanted to write about it, and I thought I was going to do a joke, a prank. Even though I feel like it’s very realistic [rires]. »
Impromptu tells the special relationship between Professor Karlheinz Mueller-Stahl, a specialist in German literature, and his student Caroline Akerman-Marchand. It all begins in Montreal in 1984 in an ATM that gives the professor trouble, forced to borrow a sum from his not very rich student that he will never give her back. Karlheinz Mueller-Stahl is what is called a “character”, a little pedantic, exaggerated, playing on his aura of being a European in Quebec, only frequenting places that recreate a junk Europe, but he will not least a mentor for Caroline Akerman-Marchand. She will carry her heritage while freeing herself from it.
Those who went to university in the 1980s will probably recognize a teacher or two who had the same cast, and Catherine Mavrikakis has created an amalgamation of some notable teachers for herself.
Without ever making a thesis out of it, the writer tackles the subject of power relations. With Karlheinz Mueller-Stahl, don’t we basically have the caricature of the white man who has dominated reading lists and universities for a long time? Catherine Mavrikakis defended her thesis in 1989 in front of four men. She had spoken to her psychoanalyst about it, because she wondered why there was no woman. “But is it really possible? she told me. Could there have been? Not many, that’s what I mean. It’s changed now, but the teacher’s role model was a male role model, right? »
We are ten years apart, and I have to say yes. I had a Karlheinz Mueller-Stahl too, which was super important in my career, but which probably wouldn’t pass the test of some grids today. “In the 1980s, we were perhaps at the peak, or the end – perhaps it was the peak because it was the end – of this mentality, of this idea of the great male teacher. »
I didn’t mention #metoo in there, but a friend told me it’s watermarked all over my text. I didn’t want to bring it up, but hey, Mueller-Stahl is married to his former student, you know what I mean.
Catherine Mavrikakis
Being a teacher herself, how does Catherine Mavrikakis see the relationship of power with the students? “Like a comedy too,” she replies. I think there’s something about acting when you’re a teacher, you have to change characters according to the students. I feel like a resonating chamber, some ask me to be strict, others don’t. At the same time, I don’t think students have the same respect I had for teachers. Today, they would send me packing if I allowed myself what Mueller-Stahl allows with Caroline. I wanted to insist on the ridiculous nature of power. »
On a more personal level, this Europe of fantasy also comes from her childhood, since she grew up with European parents. Catherine Mavrikakis’ mother even forbade her to take the Quebec accent. “She wanted to keep something pure from her past. I think my mother didn’t know how to immigrate, and a lot of people find it very difficult to immigrate. I lived in a kind of very kitsch and false Europe, that of the 1940s and 1950s, when Europe was on the move. Europe is changing, it is at the same time as us. In my family, we watched over the dead and the past. »
Which has always given him the impression of being a double agent, like Hubert Aquin, she admits. Catherine Mavrikakis recently passed one of these famous DNA tests which taught her that she was much more of Italian than Greek origin! “I find that children of immigrants live with cash from imported Taj Mahals. Many of these teachers like Karlheinz Mueller-Stahl came as settlers and not as humble immigrants. But hey, they still founded things…”
Impromptu
Catherine Mavrikakis
Heliotrope
72 pages
In bookstores February 2