TWO NATIONS

Also as "DEUX PAYS POUR VIVRE: UN PLAIDOYER"

Two Nations: An Essay on the Culture and Politics of Canada and Quebec in a World of American Pre-eminence (also published as Deux Pays Pour Vivre: Un Plaidoyer) calls into question "a certain model of industrialized society, focused on unlimited growth and where power is the privilege of a few". For the authors, cultural domination is the ultimate form of imperialism that the people of Quebec - and Canada - must free themselves from.

This book is the product of an unusual and very fruitful collaboration between two writers: one, a young anglophone critic who has been active in cultural affairs in Canada for more than a decade; the other, a distinguished Quebec scholar and historian. Together, they address questions about the survival of English-Canadian and Quebec society and culture which are usually discussed in isolation by each of the “two nations.” The result is a book which offers a new perspective on this important subject.

Susan Crean and Marcel Rioux share a commitment to the idea that the independent cultural and economic life of both English Canada and Quebec must be strong if each is to survive as a political and social entity. They believe that the fundamental issue for both “nations” in Canada is addressing the challenge that the United States poses to their independent existence. That challenge is as strong on the cultural front, in the penetration of U.S. content in the arts and the media, as it is on the economic front, where foreign control over large sectors of Canada’s economy remains.

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"This is an important book with serious implications, a discourse on many of the issues, economic, political, and cultural, facing citizens in contemporary Canadian society."

CO-AUTHOR'S NOTE

I met Marcel Rioux in 1978 at a meeting of museum and art gallery professionals convened by the Canada Council. Included among the curators and directors were a couple of artists who been active in the founding of the artists’ union CAR/FAC, myself and Gary Greenwood. The meeting was a weeklong session held at Stanley House (which the Council owned) in the Gaspésie not far from Amqui where Rioux was born. A sociologist and militant in the révolution tranquille (a professor at the Université de Montréal and author of Quebec in Question), I was amazed to recognize in him someone who sympathized with the history and the politics of Who’s Afraid. We began a collaboration, in essence a long conversation, that resulted in these two books. One is not a translation of the other as they were written together; I wrote the first draft of some sections, and Marcel of others which we’d then each translated, fleshing them out in various places. The two introductions are distinct as Marcel introduces me to his Quebec audience in one, and I introduce him to an (English-speaking) Canadian audience in the other.

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Author: Susan Crean & Marcel Rioux.
Pages: 170
Subjects:  Civilization American influences, English-French relations in Canada, International relations, Canada Civilization American influences, Canada English-French relations,United States Relations Canada, Canada Relations United States, Canada, United States, Québec (Province) History Autonomy and independence movements, Non-fiction.

Publisher: Lorimer

Publication Year: 1983

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