Building the Fransaskois Identity through Drama

By exploring how drama contributes to building a Fransaskois identity, I attempt to situate Fransaskois literature within Saskatchewan’s literary landscape. Literary critics have to this day mostly excluded Fransaskois literature from the concept of Saskatchewan literature, and yet a close look at Fransaskois texts reveals an identity deeply anchored in Saskatchewan’s landscape, history, and language. I analyze four plays: Bonneau and Miss Bellehumeur by Raoul Granger, The Betrayal by Laurier Gareau, sTain by Madeleine Blais-Dahlem and Rearview by Gilles Poulin-Denis. I argue that these plays build the Fransaskois identity by exploring the relationships Fransaskois characters have with the other linguistic-cultural minorities of Saskatchewan, as represented by the Métis, as well as with the linguistic-cultural majorities of Saskatchewan and Quebec. Through these relationships the plays explore how a linguistic minority rooted in the experience of the Canadian prairie may resist the hegemony of the two distinct official languages and cultures of Canada in the process of defining the Fransaskois identity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Vennes-Ouellet, Sarah

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Purdham, Medrie

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Groeneveld, Leanne
• Sherbert, Garry

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4817

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/7706