Teaching “notre littérature”: The Place of la littérature québécoise in the Curriculum in Quebec

Recent calls for a greater emphasis on the teaching of Quebec literature from primary school to cégep once more link the teaching of Quebec literature with the survival of a language and a culture. The current debate echoes those which have taken place over the last 100 years, both under the denominational system of education and since the Révolution tranquille. Different pedagogical and ideological factors have influenced not only whether Francophone Canadian literature has been taught, but also what has been taught and how it has been taught. Anxieties about the status, history and definition of “notre littérature” have recurred throughout the century, as have concerns about the relationship between the literature of Quebec and the literature of metropolitan France. This article will discuss the teaching of literature in Quebec since 1900 to conclude with a consideration of the teaching of Francophone Canadian literature in Quebec today.     

Festa‐catholicism and media religion: the reproduction and transformation of the festa in Malta

This article examines the evolution of the festa phenomenon in Malta. It suggests that rather than looking at popular religion as an aberration of official Catholicism, it should rather be seen as a sui‐generis phenomenon, and proposes its characterization as “festa Catholicism”. It begins by suggesting that the distinction adopted by many anthropologists in looking at the festa in terms of sacred and profane, to correspond to the internal feasts and external celebrations has limited value both heuristically and in terms of the experiences of the participants themselves. For many of the aficionados (dilettanti) the external festivities are not just ritual but hold religious significance. Indeed, the tension between the public supporters of the saint and the church authorities is not an unfortunate “aberration” but rather is fundamental to explaining the sentiments of the parishioners. It then suggests that the recent exposure of the festa in Malta to close media scrutiny is both exacerbating the tension between the aficionados and the church, but is also transforming the public perceptions of the festa. The media have thus become a primary territory of contestation where both the Church and the aficionados are exploring new areas for the expression of their religious sentiments.     

Mapping History: Cartography and the Construction of the San Pedro Valley

The San Pedro Valley of North America’s desert Southwest has been depicted in maps for over four centuries. These images composed by Euro‐American colonialists do not merely portray a topographical reality; they also construct singular notions of place. While place‐making often inspires a rich awareness of self and belonging, it is also a device of power that shapes people’s desires, perceptions and experiences. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, we explore the hidden messages embedded in maps from the 1500s to 1800s to reveal the social and political ideologies that buttressed the Spanish, Mexican and American empires. These analyses illustrate that Euro‐American maps do not advance in a linear evolution from simple (unknown) to complex (known) in the production of place. Rather they act to legitimize colonial rule through strategies of representation that privilege Euro‐American standpoints and disregard competing claims of entitlement.