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French Connections: Cultural Mobility in North America and the Atlantic World, 1600-1875

writer Mongo Beti’s Main basse sur le Cameroun: Autopsie d’une décolonisation, an essay which was re-published in Quebec in 1974, after being banned in France two years earlier. Even though Beti’s controversial essay was seen as a criticism of the actions of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, who was helped by France during the election process, Tolliver claims that republishing Main basse was not only a proof of a “publicatory solidarity” (118) in Quebec literary circles, but also a means to compare Quebec with the context of how the French-administered part of Cameroon gained its independence. From the paratextual elements, including the prefaces and a documentary film, Tolliver scrutinizes the nature of the similarities to draw her comparisons, and to find common ground between Quebec and the African ex-colonies in order to show how solidarity could be fostered. Lastly, the fourth chapter looks at Moroccan French novelist Driss Chraïbi, and how his writing genre and style changed after he spent time teaching literature at Université Laval in the late sixties. The political context of the Quiet Revolution may have inspired him to write La civilisation, ma mère! (1972), a commissioned novel and textbook intended for Canadian English speakers learning the French language. This shows a subtle solidarity with Quebec’s linguistic struggle. Tolliver states that “Locating La civilisation in this original framework decontextualizes French as a language of conquest in the Maghreb and reconceptualizes it as a language of resistance in Quebec” (18). This inspired Chraïbi to reevaluate his younger years in Morocco, and his perception of them. His outsider perspective offered him a way to escape from the pressures of the (post) colonial FranceMaghreb binary, and to reflect on the Quiet Revolution’s political movement, without politicizing his depictions of Quebec. In short, The Quebec Connection brings an important and innovative contribution to the field of francophone literatures. It will be appreciated by scholars especially because of how it successfully connects African and Caribbean literatures to the Québécois literary context, highlighting their connections and their solidarities, while reframing Quebec as an anticolonial francophone nation. It can also be appreciated for its links to current topics like cultural diversity and the ideal of solidarity, and its insights on how they serve as counterpoints through respect and empathy.