„Indiánský Orfeus“ u Leonarda Cohena (Beautiful Losers) a Jacquesa Ferrona (Le Ciel de Québec)
| Title in English | "Indian Orpheus" in Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers and Jacques Ferron's Le Ciel de Québec |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | World Literature Studies |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Mass media, audiovision |
| Keywords | Canadian literature; Leonard Cohen; Jacques Ferron; mythology of first nations; history and mythological syncretism; cultural otherness |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The multicultural situation of Canada frequently involves cultural syncretism, which is not only a matter of blending modern and postmodern, but it has its historical dimension. Since the 60ies of the 20th century this cultural integration concerns also indigenous Indian cultures, including the mythological ideas of syncretism.The mythology of the First Nations has often been assimilated to the European archetypes, as the narrative of the travel of the souls to the Village of the Dead shows. Written down by the Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf (1636), this Wendat myth has been incorporated into modern literary creation, which is demonstrated in two examples: the novel Beautiful Losers (1966) by the Anglophone Montreal writer Leonard Cohen and the one by the Quebecois writer Jacques Ferron, Le Ciel de Québec (1969). Both authors treat the Indian theme as a manifestation of Otherness facing History, both also reflect the conflicting situation of the Quebec national emancipation in relation to other anglophone provinces of Canada. While Beautiful Losers put stress on the individual Otherness and the right to individual rebellion against History, Le Ciel de Québec integrates the Wendat myth into a new aetiological myth relating to the birth of modern Quebec culture. The paper is based on a public lecture at the Institute of World Literature of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and develops in comparative sense another article by the same author: Indian myth of Orpheus, Graeco-Latina Brunensia, Brno: Masaryk University, 14/2009, 1-2, p. 131-141. |
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