It’s high school exam time in Quebec as in France. There, the Quebec poet Hélène Dorion is included in the French baccalaureate program, a very demanding pre-university test that thousands of high school students must pass. This notable honor closes a prosperous year for the influence of Quebec literature on the other side of the North Atlantic.
“My forests/tell a story”: these are the few words of Dorion that many young French people have had to analyze as part of an essay to obtain the baccalaureate. These verses are taken from My forests, the first Quebec work to appear on the program for this event. It is also the first time that a woman has joined the select club of living authors to be studied.
“I really wasn’t expecting it,” said the author interviewed by The duty. Nobody expected that. It’s a unique and quite extraordinary adventure that I’m experiencing. »
This mark of consecration by one of the oldest institutions in France sets another milestone on the path to the recognition of local literature by the Old Continent, and of Mme Dorion in particular. The “bachelor’s degree” corresponds in France to a high school diploma, the last two years of which are roughly equivalent to the Quebec CEGEP. The concept of the baccalaureate has existed in France for hundreds of years: coinciding with the founding of the University of Paris, its history dates back to the 13the century. It has obviously undergone numerous reforms since, notably that of Napoleon 1er after the French Revolution.
If the success of this series of evaluations has never been the absolute guarantee of success – Émile Zola, among other celebrities, failed it twice before giving up – the French baccalaureate still provides the key today to access higher education. The literary tests were taken last week. The highly anticipated grades will be delivered in July.
“The day before, I had the impression that I was going to take the exam with [les candidats]admits Mme Dorion. I was a little nervous. It’s not easy, these are questions that are not necessarily easy. »
As usual, the major media published the questionnaires and proposed answers. In The world, Professor Loïc Collot tackled the dissertation plan on the verses of the Quebec poet. “We can read in Hélène Dorion’s collection a multiplicity of descriptions of the forest which all have in common the personal vision of the poet, as indicated by the determinant “mes”, analyzes Professor Collot. This multiplicity goes far beyond the description of a simple natural place. The forest is taken as a very broad metaphor which allows us to rewrite stories, that of the world, that of men, that of one’s intimate experience. »
Hélène Dorion already has numerous distinctions, including the Governor General of Canada Award (2006), the Athanase-David Prize (2019) in Quebec and the Mallarmé (2005) in France. “The inclusion of my collection in the baccalaureate program is obviously for me an immense privilege: my forests have become those of the students”, comments the author who will be read by around 1.5 million high school students during the three years in which it will appear in the program.
If the Quebec literary community prides itself on an increasingly solid autonomy with regard to its French counterpart, the recognition of the first by the second remains a source of important symbolic capital. As proof, the media and collective pride when Kevin Lambert won the Médicis Prize in November, and when Éric Chacour won the 70th in May.e Prices of bookstores in France. Quebec was also able to promote its literature through its status as guest of honor at the Paris Book Festival this spring.
“They didn’t choose me because I’m from Quebec, nor because I’m a woman,” adds the poet. They chose a text. The Quebec aspect counted for very little. What I felt was a desire to move towards poetry. »
Mark Fortier, editor at Lux, a Montreal publishing house, also notes a growing openness for Quebec essayists in France in the last 20 years. He emphasizes, however, that “the real breakthrough, from the point of view of publishing, of books in general, of culture in the broad sense, will be when the French are published by Quebecers. And not the reverse. There, we will have left the provincial spirit which is still too often ours.”