We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Une "histoire véritable" littéraire à l'Hôtel-Dieu de Québec: l'"Histoire de Ruma" (1711) de Marie-André Duplessis et de Marie-Élisabeth Le Moyne de Longueuil.
- Authors
Carr Jr., Thomas M.
- Abstract
A previously unknown 1711 text embodies the worldly wit practiced in salons in France, but rare in writings from Canada surviving from this time. It was signed by two hospital nuns at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec to persuade the younger sister of its principal author, Marie-André Duplessis, to follow her into the convent. It uses many conventions of salon fiction: claiming to be a found manuscript, it narrates the life of the younger sister as in a roman à clé; the narration evolves toward the kind of portrait popular in salons; it seeks to amuse the reader; it has an open ending that the reader (the younger sister) is invited to complete. Both nuns had experience in elite circles in France in their youth. This is the first known text by M.-A. Duplessis. Her Annals of the Hôtel-Dieu, when published in 1751, was the first book of a Canadian woman published during her lifetime; a musicologist credits her with "Canada's first music theory manual." This "histoire véritable" that uses multiple fictional conventions may be Canada's first literary fiction. The text is transcribed with historical notes.
- Subjects
FRENCH-Canadian manuscripts; DUPLESSIS, Marie-Andre; LE Moyne de Longueuil, Marie-Elisabeth; NUNS' writings; FRENCH-Canadian women authors; FRENCH-Canadian fiction; CANADIAN history to 1763
- Publication
Quebec Studies, 2015, Vol 59, p171
- ISSN
0737-3759
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3828/qs.2015.11