French Literature Reviews - 2026
The Regionalism Dispute in Quebec (1904–1931)
History, Politics and Society
Press Release
The Regionalism Dispute in Quebec (1904–1931)
Annette Hayward
Le Nordir, 2007.
1. "Here is Annette Hayward's monumental work, whose publication has been long awaited. The fruit of many years of research, this comprehensive study of the conflict between regionalist writers and ‘exotic' poets represents the first complete analysis of the reception of the two aesthetic movements that dominated the Quebec literary scene in the early 20th century. The author traces in meticulous detail the genesis of this dispute, which helped structure the literary field and gave rise to numerous writings.
Every stage of this evolution unfolds before us: first, the establishment of the positions held by the key representatives of both groups; then, the gradual and parallel rise of their antagonisms; and finally, their confrontation, which reached its peak in the early 1920s.
This remarkable book is dedicated to analyzing a pivotal event in the formation of Quebec's literary sphere. A rigorous critical examination of the journals and newspapers that played a decisive role in this history finally provides us, for the first time, with a comprehensive overview of the stakes, tensions, and contradictions that drove the key figures of a literature then in its gestation phase.
I am delighted to know that this exhaustive research—which has inspired numerous studies by scholars and historians—will now be accessible to a wider audience."
JACQUES MICHON
Canada Research Chair in the History of Book and Publishing
Université de Sherbrooke
2. "[T]his book [...] is a true milestone. For years, researchers in Quebec literary history have regarded the thesis underlying this publication as the most significant ever devoted to the early 20th-century conflict between the regionalists and the ‘exoticists'. Since its submission in 1980 at McGill University, all works addressing the subject—including my own study on the relationship between language and literature from 1895 to 1914—have acknowledged their debt of gratitude to Annette Hayward's foundational work. After more than two decades of citations and photocopies, one can only rejoice that this remarkable thesis is finally being published.
Madame Hayward has shed the most illuminating and well-informed light on the genesis and evolution of this conflict, which pitted proponents of regionalism against those they derisively termed the ‘exoticists' between 1900 and 1920. Nothing escapes her investigation: no actor, no text, no significant trace. It is impossible to discuss these long polemical debates—which figure in Quebec literary history as a dispute between the Ancients and the Moderns—without referring to this work, which remains to this day the most complete and detailed on the subject. Furthermore, the author's approach is likely to engage not only established and emerging literary historians, but also the many readers interested in the history of ideas and the construction of modernity in Quebec."
MARIE-ANDRÉE BEAUDET
Professor, Department of Literatures
Director of CRILCQ
Université Laval
3. "Completed more than twenty-five years ago as a doctoral dissertation, Annette Hayward's study on the regionalism dispute has met with a paradoxical fate. Although never published, throughout all this time it has not only been consulted and abundantly cited by researchers of Quebec literature, but has also been regarded by them as a major, truly ‘indispensable', and even definitive reference on this crucial period of local literary history—a reference whose reliability, scope, and richness remain unsurpassed. One can only welcome the news that this study is finally being made available in book form.
If Annette Hayward's work has not aged a day, and if it still retains its full relevance and value today, it is because it offers both the most detailed and comprehensive overview of its subject—based on exhaustive archival research and meticulous analysis of frequently neglected texts—and the most nuanced interpretation, free of bias and attentive both to the context of the dispute and to the changing nature of its stakes and the distinct role of each actor. Yet this enduring quality is also due to the formal merits of the book: methodological rigor, a commitment to precision, interpretive caution, and a transparent, sober style of writing, all of which make Annette Hayward's work a model for all researchers in literary history."
FRANÇOIS RICARD
James McGill Chair
Department of French Language and Literature
McGill University
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ANNETTE HAYWARD is a professor of Quebec literature in the Department of French Studies at Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario). She has edited or co-edited the collective volumes *Critique et littérature québécoise* (1992), *États du polémique* (1998), *La Vieille Fille. Lectures d'un personnage* (2000), and *La rhétorique au féminin* (2006).
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La querelle du régionalisme au Québec (1904-1931). Vers l'autonomisation de la littérature québécoise
Annette Hayward
Éditions du Nordir
«Roger-Bernard» Collection, 2006
624 pages. Format: 15 x 23 cm.
Includes a bibliography and index.
Unit price: $49.95
TO ORDER
Éditions du Nordir
Department of French Letters
University of Ottawa
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Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5
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email: lenordir@sympatico.ca
For additional information:
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The early decades of the twentieth century in Quebec witnessed significant aesthetic debates regarding the proper orientation of a developing national literature. The tension between writers championing local regionalist themes and those drawn to broader, external literary horizons—often termed exoticists—helped structure the emerging literary field. Intellectual history and the sociology of literature frequently examine such polemical exchanges as formative moments in the institutionalization and autonomization of cultural production within specific regional contexts.
Annette Hayward's The Regionalism Dispute in Quebec (1904–1931) traces the genesis, evolution, and confrontation of these two dominant aesthetic movements through an examination of contemporary journals and newspapers. Readers interested in the history of ideas, literary institutions, and the construction of modernity in Quebec may find this research relevant to understanding the broader evolution of Francophone literary history.