Preview
NICOLE BROSSARD
WordFest: Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival
Thursday, October 16
Librairie Monette
Friday, October 17
Uptown Stage
Saturday, October 18
Alliance Française de Calgary
Margaret Greenham Theatre (The Banff Centre)
It could be argued that Nicole Brossard is to francophone literature what Adrienne Rich and Gertrude Stein are to English literature.
Brossard has twice been a recipient of a Governor General's Award and the Grand Prix de la poésie de la Fondation des Forges, has won the Prix Athanase David and the Harbourfront Festival Prize for lifetime achievement, and is a member of l’Académie des lettres du Québec. She is a Canadian lesbian feminist icon (betcha didn’t know we had any of those, did you?). She is a writer whose poetry and prose are central to the history of the Canadian-Québécois feminist revolution, as well as the postmodern literary revolution.
Brossard began her career as an artist in the Quebec of the 1960s – a heady period of change that saw students’ movements, the feminist movement, the sexual revolution and the revolt against clericalism, as well as the revolutions to empower the French language within a Québécois context and erase the second-class status of francophones within the rest of Canada.
"It was an exciting time to be 20 years old and a new writer," muses Brossard. "As a young writer, there was a feeling that we were, in some sense, creating a new kind of literature – redefining it and also creating something new. There was the belief – such a strong feeling – that we would change the world." She bursts into laughter. "It took until the age of 62 to accept that we don’t change much."
Is that how it seems in retrospect? I ask, faintly appalled. That, in the end, nothing much changed?
She becomes sober again. "No. We did change some things. We were responsible for beginning some of the change."
Brossard was in the vanguard of the feminist revolution of the ’60s. In modern parlance, she is what is known as a first-wave feminist – the generation that was angry, fed up with life as chattel, and stood up to say so. Young women of today are sometimes a target of frustration and anger from the first wave, who see them as having reaped all the benefits of the struggle without any acknowledgement or understanding of how hard-won the privileges they now take for granted were.
However, Brossard has seen a change in the last few years. "Young women are not asking the same questions we asked – the struggle has moved onto new ground now and they ask the questions that are relevant to their lives. But it is good to see that they continue to struggle, to fight, to push, to ask questions."
The struggle is far from over, she adds. "Patriarchy still exists. Women are not – and this is true all around the world today – women are not viewed as entirely human, with the same rights. A different set of rules is applied to women…. And if that one thing could be changed… if women would truly be viewed as human, as equals, everything would change. Everything."
Passion pulses from Brossard as she speaks. This is, perhaps, her defining trait – a passion that has not waned over a career of more than three decades. Many other things may have altered, but Brossard’s unfailing fascination with the world and with language continues to lead her down paths less travelled as an author as well as an activist.
Over her lengthy career, her writing has transformed in many ways. One of the most influential changes in the late ’70s was her repeated focus on the body, and lesbian sexuality and love. She has said of her lesbian texts that, "I think the wild love between two women is so totally inconceivable that to talk or write that… one almost has to rethink the world, to understand what it is that happens to us. And we can rethink the world only through words."
So, on top of all the other challenges Brossard has set for herself, here’s a gem: Invent language around an emotional space that has been largely unrecognized throughout literary history. No problem.
"Part of the difficulty around telling the story of the space between two women – whether it be love or friendship, whatever – is that, throughout history, woman has never been the subject, always the object. In most of literature, woman is talked about, talked to, talked of, but how often is she the subject, the speaker?
"So, to write about the feelings between one woman as subject, central to herself, and another woman as subject, central to herself – that is a rare thing. And of course my writing changed when I started learning how to do that. If one can talk about writing having curves, my writing developed curves."
At WordFest, Brossard will be reading from two works that represent how her style has evolved. One is a compilation and re-release of her first three books, entitled The Blue Books. The other is a new work, Museum of Bone and Water. "I have great difficulty reading from The Blue Books now," she says, referring to how much the rhythm of her writing has changed over the years.
"I will try to do a little bit of them," she promises. "But I will read mostly from Museum, I think." Brossard gives a laugh, comfortable with the inevitable shifts of time. "My breathing has changed."
Brossard will be reading at several WordFest events, including the Poetry Bash on October 17 at 9:30 p.m. |
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