The French have been fond of Quebec singers and comedians for decades, but the media, literature and intellectual circles in France have long remained barren lands for our compatriots. In addition to the accent barrier, some remember a certain contempt. Quebecers could certainly entertain, but still not make people think. However, the appointment of Dany Laferrière to the French Academy and the media rise of Mathieu Bock-Côté seem to change the situation. Are the French elites now opening up to cousins across the Atlantic?
“At the end of the 1990s, we were mainly talking about singers in France, starmania, by Céline Dion… But in the 2000s, with Wajdi Mouawad and Xavier Dolan, I have the impression that the perception of Quebecers changed in more intellectual circles. We have acquired a certain respectability, ”rejoices Yan Rioux, the director of the Librairie du Québec in Paris.
According to him, this curiosity has, somewhere, set the table for the arrival of a Mathieu Bock-Côté in the media in France. For a year now, the columnist of the Montreal Journal is one of the headliners of the CNews news channel, sometimes referred to by its detractors as “French Fox News”. The sociologist also regularly comments on French news at the microphone of Europe 1, a radio station of the same press group, and writes in the columns of the Figaro, a major daily reference for the French right. That’s not to mention his essays, which are now cited by leading French politicians.
Love him or hate him, we have to admit that no Quebecer before him had reached such strata in the French media ecosystem, not even Denise Bombardier, who nevertheless enjoyed great success. intellectual in France to the point of receiving the Legion of Honor. “I speak for myself, but quite honestly, I never felt a blockage. There has always been a big opening. I’ve never been welcomed like “my cabin in Canada,” says Mathieu Bock-Côté from his Paris apartment.
Since settling on the banks of the Seine, MBC, as it is nicknamed, strives to present Quebec intellectuals to the Parisian microcosm when they are passing through, anxious to open the way for them. In his wake, his companion, Karima Brikh, also joined the CNews newsroom this fall. Initially, the journalist did not have the ambition to be in front of the camera, but, quickly, she was offered to join the team of columnists. Less conservative than her illustrious spouse, Karima Brikh has been one of the centre-left counterweights on the news channel for more than a month.
“Yes, there is an issue of understanding for the French. They asked me to soften my accent, but they didn’t ask me to lose it. I felt a great openness, and it’s going very well so far, ”notes the one who provided the press review for Joël Le Bigot’s show on the Première Chaîne.
Persistent prejudices
However, Denise Bombardier is under no illusions. No, do not expect a wave of Quebec intellectuals to overwhelm Saint-Germain-des-Prés following the triumph of Mathieu Bock-Côté. There was indeed an invasion of singers with Quebec voices after starmaniabut we are talking here about a much more chauvinistic milieu than the show business.
“The door is not open. They choose Quebecers, their Quebecers. And even now, there are people who folklorize the accent, ”laments the author of Open letter to the French who believe they are the navel of the world.
As evidenced by a particularly vitriolic recent segment of the popular show Daily entitled “Ferme ton tabernacle”, in which the host Yann Barthès attacks Mathieu Bock-Côté. Very marked on the left, often qualified as “right-thinking”, Barthès makes fun of the Quebec accent, among other things, to discredit “the Quebec immigrant of CNews […] who has nothing to give a fuck here”, using all the clichés imaginable.
“It’s appallingly stupid. […] But this is the exception rather than the norm. We must not be discouraged by these residual prejudices à la Yann Barthès”, retorts Mathieu Bock-Côté, who also notes that this condescension is more present on the left than on the right in France.
Yan Rioux is not so sure. The director of the Librairie du Québec in Paris reports that the feminist Martine Delvaux and the libertarian Francis Dupuis-Déri may not have the notoriety of Mathieu Bock-Côté, but he confirms that their essays still meet with interesting success. .
“There are a few successful Quebec trials. In dramaturgy, Quebec has always been renowned as well. But in literature, it is more difficult, notes Yan Rioux. You should know that there are a lot of books coming out here every year. The French don’t wait for us, they don’t need us, they are self-sufficient. That said, there is great interest in Quebec on the part of booksellers. There have never been so many Quebec books on the shelves, but that may not yet translate into sales. »
Disinterest also from Quebecers
Admittedly, Dany Laferrière is now an “immortal”, but it is more the Haitian writer than the renowned Quebec author who was received at the French Academy, say gossips. Enough to feed this persistent impression that the French intelligentsia is less hermetic for the rest of the Francophonie than for Quebec. On France 24, an international news channel, it is also common to hear African and North African accents, while the Québécois language is conspicuously absent from the airwaves.
“There is zero discrimination, it’s just that there is no one to go and work in the media in France. There is a great capital of sympathy, but I think that we just did not bother to knock on the door, ”regrets the Gaspé native Bertin Leblanc, who was editor-in-chief at France 24 during the launch of the channel in 2005.
An observation shared with regret by Mathieu Bock-Côté. “The big mistake of Quebec intellectuals since the 1980s is to have turned away from France for the American east coast. Today, they dream 1000 times more of being published in The Atlantic that in Point “, saddens this convinced separatist, who sees in France the only ally of Quebec, hence the need to build bridges on both sides.