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The Fifth Estate

The unknown Acadian

Broadcast Date: Feb. 19, 1980

After winning France's prestigious Prix Goncourt, Antonine Maillet is a star in France. Fans have enthusiastically snapped up copies of her book Pélagie-la-Charrette and attend her book signings en masse. But in Canada, it's a completely different story. While Quebecers and Acadians have celebrated Maillet's win, English Canada seems to have barely noticed. This CBC Television documentary explores this bizarre phenomenon.

The unknown Acadian

• In a Globe and Mail editorial titled "English Canada misses the literary event," columnist William Johnson also commented on the lack of fanfare for Maillet. He noted that in Montreal's La Presse, reporter Louis-Bernard Robataille remarked, "They have put her in a tiny salon where the journalists see her at the rate of one or two and hour. Right ahead of me is the correspondent for a paper in Malaysia." — Globe and Mail, Nov. 29, 1979.

• Johnson continued by criticizing his own paper for running a wire service story on the award. He wrote, "What kind of country is this? A Canadian wins one of the world's major literary prizes and our literary establishment is unable to give an appropriate account of it. It's like being blind in one eye, hearing only in one ear. If it happens in French we give it second- or third-class treatment — or none at all." — Globe and Mail, Nov. 29, 1979.

• "For me the matière litteraire [literary matter] of l'Acadie is every bit as rich as the matière litteraire of Brittany — which produced the Arthurian legends — or the matière litteraire of France of the Middle Ages. And I'm not just dredging up the past, I'm dredging up the past, the present and the future of a people. La Sagouine and Pélagie are timeless characters as far as I'm concerned." — Antonine Maillet, the Montreal Gazette, Sept. 27, 1986.

The unknown Acadian

Medium: Television

Program: The Fifth Estate

Broadcast Date: Feb. 19, 1980

Guest(s): William Johnson, Viola Léger , Antonine Maillet


Host: Adrienne Clarkson

Duration: 14:08

Photos courtesy of Communications New Brunswick.
La Sagouine published by Leméac Editeur Inc.
This clip has been edited for copyright reasons.

Last updated:
Oct. 4, 2007


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