Montreal in Historical Perspectives:

1
Montreal in Historical Perspectives North and
No Racial Relations
"I don't like this city Montreal.  You can't
throw a stone without breaking a church window"
(Mark Twain qut in  57)

• The Battle of Quebec 1756-1763

2
Outline

• History
• Major Dates
• the Quebec separatist movement
• Features Two solitudes and St. Laurence Blvd.
• 1950s -- Clark Blaise
• A Childs View of Language/Culture Issues in
  North (from Resident Alien 1986)
• 1970s (? 1980) Robert Lepage
• No Introduction and FLQ
• No (1998) Analysis

3
History Dates
Source
1608 -- Quebec city founded
1608 -- ????????????????????
1763 -- The Seven Years' War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which allows Anglophones to take over New France. ? orphan mentality
1763???????????????
1840English is the official language even in this region where the majority (60) speaks French
1840????????????,?????????????????
1917????????????,??????????? There are riots in Quebec as the federal government enforces conscription.
1948??????? Adoption of a new Flag of Quebec.
4
the Quebec separatist movement
1960 ??????????????(Quiet Revolution),???????????,???????????
1960 The beginning of a period of sustained change known as the Quiet Revolution.
1967 ?????????????,???????????(vivre le Quebec libre),??????????????
1967 Visiting President of France Charles de Gaulle shouts "Vive le Québec libre!" from the balcony of Montreal city hall.
1968 ??????,??????????????????
1968 On October 26, the Parti Québécois is created.
1970 ????????(October Crisis),?????????(FLQ)?? ???????,?????????(Trudeau)??????,??????????????
1970 October Crisis Terrorist activities by the Front de libération du Québec culminated with the abduction of James Cross, the British Trade Commissioner to Canada, and Pierre Laporte, a provincial minister and Vice-Premier. Martial law is declared and civil rights are suspended
Source

• ?????????????????,?????????????????
• 1969 --Two official languages

5
Language Policy and Referendum
Source http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Q
uebec_history_(1960_to_1981)
1974 ?????????????
1974 "Bill 22" (Official Language Act (Quebec)) language legislation (later superseded by Bill 101).
1976 ??????????,????,??????????? 
1976 the Parti Québécois (PQ) is elected. With a participation rate of 85.27, the highest in Quebec's history, 41 of voters give 71 seats to the PQ.
1977 178 Act ???????????????
1977 All French in store signs.
1980 first referendum,???????????????(59 said NO)?
1990 ???????????????(Distinct Society)??????(Meech Lake Accord)??,?????????????
1990 The Meech Lake Accord collapses as it fails to win unanimous ratification by the deadline. Support for Quebec sovereignty rises to high levels.
1995 2nd referendum (??/No??/Yes50.5849.42)
6

Montreals City map and cityscapes

Three major buildings Churches, skyscrapers and
triplexes or duplexes with steep stairways.
7
Two solitudes and St. Laurence Blvd.

• Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan 1945 (e.g. Views
  from the Typewriter)
• The French live in the east, the English, in the
  west, and the Portuguese, Italians, Greeks,
  Chinese, and Blacks in between.
• Between the solitudes clip 1246
• North the Jewish p. 212
• Catholic church major influence in politics
  until Quiet Revolution in 1960s. (North 212,
  213)

8
Two Solitudes?
Come, my brothers,let us govern Canada,let us
find our serious heads,let us dump asbestos on
the White House,let us make the French talk
English, not only here but everywhere,let us
torture the Senate individually until they
confess,let us purge the New Party,let us
encourage the dark races so they'll be
lenient when they take over,let us make the CBC
talk English,let us all lean in one
direction and float down to the coast of
Florida,let us have tourism,let us flirt with
the enemy,.

• the rich Brits
• Leonard Cohen
• about Q parents stereotypes

9
Clark Blaise the migrant writer
-- at 10, after one of his father's frequent
business failures

• Born to Canadian parents in North Dakoda, 1940.
• French-Canadian father handsome, extroverted,
  charming, and untrustworthy English-Canadian
  mother upright, resolute and intelligent.
• Went to Canada for refuge
• -- at 5, following an assault charge against his
  father in Pittsburgh

10
Clark Blaise the migrant writer

• Started moving at the age of 6 month He moved 30
  times before the 8th grade and attended 25
  different schools. He spent his childhood in
  Alabama, Georgia, and central Florida, later in
  the American midwest, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh,
  but always returned to his mother's family in
  Winnipeg whenever his father "ran out of work, or
  was run out of work, or town" (RA 167).
• Montreal 1966 1978 13 years, the longest of
  his stay in one place (with his wife Bharati
  Mukherjee).
• Now in San Franscisco, CA

11
Ref. Blaise Mukherjee

• The host introduces both writers, as well as
  their meeting in Iowa Writers Workshop and their
  marriage.

12
Clark Blaises self-creation in his fiction

• His work is usually half-autobiographical and
  half fictional.
• Anyone who led a life as tenuous as I did,
  fraught with almost daily evidence of
  evanescence, is obviously going to be concerned
  with establishing a place and a name and an
  identity for himself that he could not have
  established in life. I did not ever have a sense
  of place, or belonging, in my life. So I had to
  create it, fabricate it, in my art.
• e.g. "I was born in Fargo, North Dakota, in
  1940. from the autobiographical fragment
  "Memories of Unhousement" in Resident Alien.
• (Source http//www.ucalgary.ca/library/SpecColl/b
  laisbioc.htm)

13
North Resident Alien

• "This book is a journey into my obsessions with
  self and place not just the whoness and whatness
  of identity, but the whereness of who and what I
  am." (RA 2).
• Two "autobiographical fragments four short
  stories about the character Carrier/Porter.

14
North Autobiographical Elements

• Blaise
• Went to Canada for refuge at 5, following an
  assault charge against his father in Pittsburgh
• a French-Canadian father who is handsome,
  extroverted, charming, and untrustworthy and
  English-Canadian mother upright, resolute and
  intelligent.
• Blaise moved around, unlike Porter.

15
North Starting Questions

• How are different races or different nations set
  against each other?
• What is Phils position regarding these
  conflicts?
• What makes him change?
• What does the ending mean?

16
North Races or Places

• Phil in between different conflicting forces and
  opinions
• the U.S. vs. Canada
• English vs. French
• Mick Fortins looking for comrades p. 210
• Phils father and mothers argument over Phils
  schooling p. 212 213-14
• Pittsburgh vs. Papineau pp. 214
• Therèse vs. American teenagers p. 215

17
North Catholic school

• Phils experience of Catholic education
• punishment pp. 213 14 shame
• The societys conformity and dullness p. 218
  (weather, names)
• Change Therèse as tutor
• Apologetics(?????)? searching for nuns and monks
  as if they were wildlife animals 216

18
Phil and Therèse

• Therèse interested in English names American
  cultures pp. 216-17
• Find common interest with Therèse
• Therèse Englishized

Image Source
19
Mother against French education the alternative?

• Eaton Center, scones and lemon curd, speaking
  English
• Meeting with Ella (220 221)
• feminists
• Ella from Austria, studied with/by Freud
• Adoption by Dolly and Ella (223)? McGill
  University
• Knowing the world, and being racist 224

20
Ending

• separation between the mother and the son.
• Gloomy old environment, constraints vs. youthful
  love learning immanent domination of US
  culture
• the seascape of dust and cracks on surfaces
  (225)
• Phil Therèse
• Radio and TV transmitting American culture real
  life experience

21
No National and Personal Choices

• Set on an International Stage
• Yes or no
• to separatism, to abortion, to obsession

22
Robert Lepage

• born in Quebec City, Quebec, December 12, 1957.
  An actor, director of plays and films.
• Characteristics
• Style auteur but not author -- his
  bilingualism, his explorations into multimedia,
  use of theatrical space and impromptu acting,
• Issues interculturalism and the nature of
  language (No), memory, guilt, father-son
  relationship, brotherhood, double identity, the
  act of creation itself. (source).
• e.g. The Seven Faces of Robert Lepage 1. acting
  writing 1000 Vinci 1250

23
Robert Lepage Works

• Films
• Possible Worlds (2000)
• No (1998)
• Polygraphe, Le (1996)
• Confessionnal, Le (1995)
• Starring in Stardom (2000) Montreal vu par...
  (1991) Jesus de Montreal (1989)

Plays Vinci, Hamlet, the Dragon Trilogy, and
The Seven Streams of River Ota (1994).
24
Robert Lepage existential concerns

• Le Confessional --the question "Where do I come
  from?"
• Le Polygraphe -- to examine "What is truth?"
• No -- to contemplate "Where am I going?"
• Possible Worlds -- to discover What my real
  world is?" (Dundjerovic source)

25
Robert Lepage on Independence Issue

• Sympathetic and critical e.g. FLQ idealist but
  comical (the insistence on correcting the
  language. To set off a bomb or to advance a
  cause) ? more discussion of Michel later
• Unlike most Quebecois artists, Lepage looks at
  Quebecois issues from a broadercross-cultural--
  perspective. e.g. The Confessional and No.
  E.g. Pierre and the translators the ones to
  link the East and the West.

26
the East as mirror

• My fascination with the East also helps me to
  understand the West.  For many years now, the
  former has helped me understand the latter.  How
  can you understand the West, the culture of the
  twentieth century, when you're a Quebecer with
  virtually no cultural means at your disposal to
  interpret the world?  You need a mirror, and one
  of my first mirrors was the East.  In Seven
  Streams, mirrors are pervasive.  They help to
  funnel Jana Capek's memory, bringing her back to
  Theresienstadt, the Czech concentration camp.  We
  also have the reverse, the complete lack of
  mirrors in the life of a hibakusha Nozomi. . .
  Charest 36

27
Examples of Interculturalism and Multiple
Language in No

• Double-plot (French play with the film)
• Sound track crosses over to the next scene (e.g.
  end of the invitation scene 3000-) and the other
  scenes (restaurant) images overlapping
  (beginning and 500)
• multiple language the translators scene
  translator traitor
• ? Coexistence,
• ? (mis)understanding
• (tower of Babel)
• Broader perspective or
• Solution of conflicts?

28
The Role of No play?

1. (As a contrast to the French farce) Tradition and
   self-composure
2. Duality in communication the use of
   lip-synching, mask and ritual
3. intercultural communication and life as
   performance,

29
No Background FLQ Front de Liberation du
Québéc

• Formed in the wake of Quiet Revolution in 1960s.
  
• While the majority of nationalists chose the
  democratic path of René Lévesques Parti
  Québécois, at the fringes more militant groups
  like the FLQ emerged. The FLQs campaign of
  bombings and robberies culminated in the
  kidnappings in 1970. . .
• Influence on literature In 1963, shortly after
  the first wave of FLQ bombings, a group of
  francophone writers in their twenties founded . .
  .Parti pris, advocating a sovereign and
  socialist Quebec.

30
October Crisis in 1970

• soldier stands guard at Parliament Hill in Ottawa
  as security was stepped up because of terrorist
  kidnappings in Montreal during the FLQ crisis.
  Oct. 13, 1970.

• Oct. 5, 1970 -- kidnapped James Cross, the
  British trade commissioner
• Oct 10 kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister
  Pierre Laporte and killed him on the 17th.

31
October Crisis in 1970

• Trudeau invoked War Measure Act.
• By noon of Oct 16, police officers arrested more
  than 450 people suspected of being FLQ members,
  even friends of FLQ members. e.g.Sophie
• Cross stayed alive, in return his kidnappers got
  safe passage to Cuba.

32
Nos Background (2)The Seven Streams of River
Ota and No

• No -- the characters taken from Act 5, in which
  Sophie has an affair with Walter.
• Seven Streams has as its historical contexts
• the second World War (concentration camps and
  Hiroshima)
• Madame Butterfly, and
• 1970 Osaka Expo, while No just used FLQ terrorism
  and Expo.

33
No Major Issues

• Personal Conflicts and Survival Characters with
  (or without) Emotional Problems
• National Conflicts FLQ movement
• Cultural Issues
• the Use of Symbols

34
No the Characters in Osaka

• The Canadian characters in Osaka
• What is Sophies problem and how is she looked at
  by Walter and Patricia?
• How do Sophie and Patricia express their
  antagonism to each other? (3900-)
• How about François-Xavier?
• How are Hanako and her translator friend Harold
  set as a contrast to her Canadian friends?
  (Hanako as an ibakusha)
• How do the Canadian expatriates in Osaka view
  themselves and Quebecois separatism? (106)

35
Re. to discussionSophie in and out of the play

• In the play, a whore who is able to finds ways
  out of her dilemma
• In her world, she is caught up in the
  complicated relations and faced with the
  difficult decision of whether to have an abortion
  or not.

Bumps her head
36
No the Characters in Osaka and Mirror/Photo

• Obsession (François-Xavier), fantasy (Walter),
  peeping (Patricia), harmony (Harold and Hanako)

37
No the Characters in Osaka and Mirror/Photo

• Fantasy? orientalism (stereotyping the East)
• mirror image reflects the narrow-mindedness of
  the twins as a kind of Canadian dual identity.

38
Hanako and Harold

• Hanako blind and perceptive helpful to Sophie,
  understanding and sensitive
• 2. Harold does not worry about the hereditary
  possibility of atomic radiation

39
No the Characters in Montreal

• In Montreal the officers and FLQ members
• How is Michel different from his comrades? Why
  does he insist on revising the communiqué?
• And the investigators?
• Central symbols and themes --
• 3. Why are the clocks and phone booths important?
  
• 4. The plays within the play?

40
No on Quebecois Separatism

• No puts FLQs faulty idealism in the context of
  the problems in human communication and the issue
  of survival.
• both critical of and sympathetic with Quebecois
  nationalism.
• The terrorists
• trivial concern (about routeswhich routes allow
  left turns Guy street is fine.), ones romantic
  involvement with Sophie (betrayal of his friend),
  mis-calculation of time?
• destruction(juxtaposed with François-Xaviers
  self-destructitve acts in the phone booth).

41
Michel a writer

• hasnt written anything for three years
  idealistic and unrealistic (refuses to write for
  Radio Canada)
• Reasons phrases not well-formulated,
  confusing, not French.
• Gaps in his communication with Sophie.
• failure to understand
• Bad timing in calling each other

42
Government Officers Trivial, Comic (seen as a
gay couple) and Incompetent

43
Symbols Clock ? bad timing
1. bad-timing ? miscommunication between Michel
and Sophie (5300 ) Patricias discover of the
affair

• 2. wrong calculation
• using the wrong clock (Tokyo time) to set the
  bomb,
• Since there is a 14 hour differenceor 2 hour
  difference on the clock face, the bomb is set 2
  hours earlier.

44
the plays within the film

• No play Feydeaus domestic farce

45
No and Farce

• Farce superficial patriotism, lack of blood
  lineage, an example of colonialism and
  superficial culture (Sophie 4400)
• The Japanese play// Hanako about a woman who
  finds her way back to life thanks to her hero
  lover.
• (vs. Sophie gets no help ? one of the innocent
  victims)

46
The Endings
47
Endings

• Immediate consequence miscarriage and possible
  sexual harassment
• 10 years later the couple is older, richer,
  calmer and probably more indifferent
• Common project birthing
• They are less concerned with national issues,
  but they survive.