The first verified use of the term Canadien to designate the descendants of French settlers in Canada was written in a song composed in 1756 in honour of Governor Vaudreuil after the military victory of Fort Chouaguen.
Émile Nelligan, a follower of Symbolism, published his first poems in Montreal at the age of 16 but within five years he was diagnosed with Dementia praecox and confined to a lunatic asylum, after which he did not write any more works.
Louis Hémon, a native of France who moved to Canada in 1911, wrote the famous rural Quebec romance novel Maria Chapdelaine (1913) while working at a farm in the Lac Saint-Jean region.
Roman Catholic priest, historian, and Quebec nationalist Lionel Groulx wrote many works including the 1922 novel L'Appel de la race and the 1951 historical study Histoire du Canada français.
Priest and folklorist Félix-Antoine Savard won acclaim and a medal from the Académie Française for the 1937 novel Menaud, maître draveur, set in the mountains of rural Charlevoix.
Under the pseudonym of 'Ringuet', physician and academic Philippe Panneton published Trente arpents (1938), the famous novel about the transition from agrarian to urban life in Quebec.
In literature, the renovation during the 1930s is above all attached to the work by Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau which will explore the inner reality (Poésies) and the formal limits of writing in general (Œuvres en prose, Journal 1929-1939).
Abstract artist Paul-Émile Borduas, a founding figure of the Automatiste movement, wrote the manifesto Refus Global (1948), advocating the separation of church and state in Quebec, for which he was ostracized by the establishment of the time and dismissed from his teaching position.
Manitoba-born writer Gabrielle Roy's debut novel Bonheur d'occasion (1945), considered a classic of Canadian literature, described the conditions of life in Montreal's working-class Saint-Henri neighbourhood.
After being published in English as The Tin Flute (1947), the book would win the 1947 Governor General's Award for fiction and sell more than three-quarters of a million copies in the United States.
A. M. Klein found great success in 1948 with The Rocking Chair and Other Poems, which won a Governor General's Award for poetry and sold in unexpectedly large numbers.
[8] Mordecai Richler's fourth novel The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, set like much of his work in the largely Jewish Saint Urbain Street district of Montreal, was published in 1959 to great acclaim.
This novel, Joshua Then and Now (1980) and Barney's Version (1997) would all be made into major feature films, while St. Urbain's Horseman (1971) and Solomon Gursky Was Here (1989) were shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Leonard Cohen published the poetry collections Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956), The Spice-Box of Earth (1961) and Flowers for Hitler (1964) and the novels The Favourite Game (1963) and Beautiful Losers (1966) before going on to achieve international stardom as a musician.
[9] Quebec City author Yves Thériault found success with his sixth novel Agaguk (1958), which dealt with cultural conflicts between Inuit and white men.
Hubert Aquin's first novel Prochain épisode (1965), written while the author was detained in a psychiatric institution, is considered a classic of Canadian literature and was the winning title in the 2003 edition of CBC Radio's Canada Reads competition.
Prolific author Victor-Lévy Beaulieu, a fierce opponent of bilingualism in Quebec, wrote many novels beginning with 1968's Mémoires d'outre-tonneau and most notably 1974's award-winning Don Quichotte de la démanche.
Pierre Vallières, an intellectual leader of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), wrote the controversial 1968 book Nègres blancs d'Amérique while incarcerated in an American prison, awaiting extradition back to Canada.
[11] Physician Jacques Ferron published his first book L'ogre in 1949 and received the 1962 Governor General's Award for French fiction for his novel Contes du pays incertain.
[12] Réjean Ducharme's 1966 debut novel L'Avalée des avalés was short-listed for the Prix Goncourt and later won the 2005 French version of Canada Reads.
Michel Tremblay's first professionally produced play Les Belles-sœurs, written in 1965, set off a storm of controversy after its 1968 premiere for its use of joual street language and realistic portrayal of the lives of working-class Quebecois.
A prolific writer, Tremblay would win many further accolades for a diverse body of work including the comedic novel C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux (1973), the plays Hosanna (1973), Albertine en cinq temps (1984) and Le Vrai Monde?
[14] Poet and novelist Jacques Brault gained recognition for such works as Quand nous serons heureux (1970) and Agonie (1984), which each won Governor General's Awards.
Roch Carrier gained fame as a writer of contes (a brief form of the short story), most notably 1979's much-beloved children's tale The Hockey Sweater.
Suzanne Jacob created a diverse body of work including essays, installations, novels, performance pieces, plays, poems, and short stories.
Haitian-Canadian author Dany Laferrière's 1985 debut novel Comment faire l'amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer was adapted into a controversial 1989 film of the same name.