Culture of Quebec
[3] History made Quebec a place where people can experience North America, but from the point of view of a linguistic minority surrounded by a larger English-speaking culture.
This enclaved status has pushed many in Quebec to favour cultural protectionism, which can be seen in efforts such as the adoption of laws like of the Charter of the French Language and the creation of government institutions like the Office québécois de la langue française.
Since 2007, the government promotes, with the various players in the field, the conclusion of agreements on the use of property belonging to episcopal factories and corporations to establish "partnerships in financing the restoration and renovation of religious buildings.
Many literary works reproduce the daily lives of the past, following the social and cultural traditions of Quebec television series reproducing the old days[9] such as the trilogy of Pierre Gauvreau (Le Temps d'une paix, Cormoran and Le Volcan tranquille), La Famille Plouffe, Les Belles Histoires des Pays-d'en-Haut, La Petite Patrie, Entre chien et loup, Les Filles de Caleb, Blanche, Au nom du père et du fils, Marguerite Volant, Nos Étés or Musée Éden, among others.
[29] Several prominent Quebec artists and humorous groups are known nationally and internationally, such as Rose Ouellette (known as La Poune), Juliette Petrie, Stéphane Rousseau, François Pérusse, Gilles Latulippe, Yvon Deschamps, Marc Favreau (famous for his character of Sol, a hobo clown), Michael Noël (and the character of Capitaine Bonhomme), Jacques Desrosiers (performer of the famous clown Patof), Serge Thériault and Claude Meunier (as Ding et (and) Dong), Les Grandes Gueules, Lise Dion, Jean-Michel Anctil, Martin Matte, Garihanna Jean-Louis and Louis-José Houde, to name only a few.
Prominent Quebec writers of this period include Émile Nelligan, Victor Barbeau, Paul Morin, Guy Delahaye, René Dugas, René Chopin, Charles Ignace Adélard Gill, Jean-Aubert Loranger, Arthur de Bussières, Albert Lozeau, Robert Choquette, Albert Dreux, Gonzalve Desaulniers, Lionel Léveillé, Robert de Roquebrune, and Léo d'Yril.
After 1900, Quebecois writers explored regional and ethnic identity in what has become called the roman du terroir (English: novel of the homestead, or from the land) movement.
Writers who can be placed within the terroir framework include Camille Roy, Adjutor Rivard, Frère Marie-Victorin, Louis Hémon, Lionel Groulx, Alfred Desrochers, Albert Laberge, Blanche Lamontagne-Beauregard, Henriette Dessaulles, Germaine Guèvremont, Damase Potvin, Albert Ferland, Adélard Dugré, Pamphile Lemay, Ulric Gingras, Alphonse Désilets, Nérée Beauchemin and Rodolphe Girard.
The roman du terroir style of novel continued its popularity during the era sometimes called "La grande noirceur" (the great darkness), during the premiership of Maurice Duplessis, a time of extreme social and political conservatism in the province.
Writers of this period include Claude-Henri Grignon, Félix-Antoine Savard, Ringuet, Anne Hébert, Saint-Denys Garneau, Alain Grandbois, Rina Lasnier, Clément Marchand, Roger Lemelin, Gabrielle Roy, Yves Thériault, Félix Leclerc, Isabelle Legris, Claire Martin, Francis Reginald Scott, Jean-Charles Harvey, A.M. Klein, Irving Layton, Léo-Paul Desrosiers, André Langevin, Gérard Bessette, Gratien Gélinas, Marcel Dubé, Paul-Émile Borduas, Robert Élie, Robert Charbonneau, André Giroux, Claude Gauvreau, Rex Desmarchais, Gilles Hénault, and Jean Le Moyne.
The Cold War, the feminist movement,[35] the influence of the United States' "counterculture", the concerns of the baby boom generation, and other cultural developments sweeping the Western world during the era also permeated the works of Quebec writers.
Also writing during this era were Mavis Gallant, Denis Vanier, Michèle Lalonde, Lucien Francoeur, Patrick Straram, Gérald Godin, Michel Beaulieu, Nicole Brossard, Pierre Morency, Marcel Bélanger, Hélène Brodeur, Claude Jasmin, Gilles Archambault, Gilbert La Rocque, Jean-Pierre Ronfard, Normand Chaurette, Leonard Cohen, Jean Éthier-Blais, Yves Beauchemin, and André Loiselet.
[35] Writers prominent from 1970 onward include Mordecai Richler, Nicole Brossard, Louky Bersianik, France Théoret, Madeleine Gagnon, Denise Boucher, François Charron, Claude Beausoleil, Yolande Villemaire, Marie Uguay, Roger Desroches, Gaétan Brulotte, Jean-Yves Collette, Daniel Gagnon, Michel Khalo, François Ricard, Marie José Thériault, André Belleau, and Claudine Bertrand.
Popular French-language contemporary writers of the late 20th and early 21st century include Louis Caron, Suzanne Jacob, Yves Beauchemin, and Gilles Archambault.
From Quebec's musical repertoire, the song À la claire fontaine[37] was the anthem of the New France, Patriots and French Canadian, then replaced by O Canada.
Many Quebecers have made a name for themselves in the jazz world, such as Oscar Peterson, Oliver Jones, Karen Young, Lorraine Desmarais, Vic Vogel, Michel Donato, and Alain Caron.
Artists like Céline Dion and the pop-punk group Simple Plan have achieved considerable success in English-speaking countries by expanding their audience base.
French-language singers include Renée Martel, Gildor Roy, Patrick Norman, Willie Lamothe, Steph Carse, and Georges Hamel.
[41] Gratien Gélinas gained fame in Quebec and made an important contribution to Québécois identity with his character Fridolin, a Montreal boy who speaks in local slang (Joual) and has humorous views about everyday life.
During the 19th and early 20th century, Quebec art was dominated by landscape painting, although some artists, including James Wilson Morrice, Ozias Leduc, and Alfred Laliberté, showed a receptiveness to European trends such as symbolism and the style of Matisse.
[47] During the 1950s and 1960s, Quebec maintained record fertility rates, with the Roman Catholic church using their priests (established in all parishes and small towns) to guide and direct people's attitudes and morals.
On March 19, 2004, Quebec became the third province in Canada to legally perform a same-sex marriage, following a court challenge brought by Michael Hendricks and René Leboeuf.
Many poorer women often arranged their hair on Sunday in a more sophisticated fashion, despite administrators of the colony stating that this style was reserved for the bourgeois and nobles.
Starting probably in the late 1940s and reaching its peak in the 1970s, some Quebec residents have vacationed or spent the whole winter months in southeast Florida, mainly in the Hallandale Beach and Fort Lauderdale regions.
New locations and resort areas such as Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Caribbean islands are now favoured by many Quebecers to spend their traditional sunny one or two-week vacations.
Montreal's CJNT, owned by Rogers Sports & Media, is an affiliate of the English language Citytv network, while CFHD provides multicultural programming.
When Samuel de Champlain founded Québec City in 1608, his ship hoisted the French merchant flag, which consisted of a white cross on a blue background.
[74] French Canadians often established themselves in Little Canadas in many industrial New England centers like Lowell, Lawrence and New Bedford (Massachusetts); Woonsocket (Rhode Island); Manchester and Nashua (New Hampshire); Biddeford, Brunswick and Lewiston (Maine), and parts of Connecticut, among others.
The northeastern Franco-Ontarians of today, which are primarily concentrated in Timmins, Hearst, Moosonee and Sault Sainte Marie, among others, are the descendants of emigrants from Quebec who worked in the mines of the area.
Tourist attractions include the shrimp industry and salmon pass of Matane, regional food, coastal scenery, the Percé Rock, and the Chic-Choc section of the Appalachian Mountains.
