moé pi toé

• Contents :: 
• Essay :: 
• Author of Change - Anne Hebert :: 

Author of Change

At a 1975 conference on women and writing, Nicole Brossard, a feminist theorist and writer, offered the following remarks concerning women writers in Quebec have: “attained an unusual level of recognition as authors and yet have shared in a cultural oppression felt by women with particular force” (Green 2001:3). Until the 1960’s women writers of literature were defined through the masculine philosophy and definition of the world. One writer that pushed this change towards acceptance of women writers, as well as, instituted a change in the bucolic viewpoint of life in Quebec and Canada was Anne Hebert. Anne Hebert is just one of Quebec’s women authors to be recognized as an important writer because they she has been widely perceived as speaking to and about the people of Quebec. Her writings reflected the contemporary psychological and societal reality of their time as they broached previous taboo topics including social prohibitions. Hebert’s books are brutally realistic, through topics ranging from verbal abuse, isolation, the sick, the obsessed, living on the fringe of society and to the life of marginality (Smith 1986:12).
Anne Hebert’s writings were critical in bringing about an abrupt change in Canadian literature when the Quebec society was also undergoing a radical change and focus. French Canadians were undergoing profound social changes. The people of Quebec were in disarray over the national economical and societal change from an agricultural focused to an urban and industrial based society. The French Canadian population was experiencing alienation and discrimination at the hands of the English Canadians; they became subordinate to members of other cultures with their move from the farms and rural horizons to the cities and urban streets of society. For many French Canadians this relocation to urban settings and the feeling of alienation and subordination was a new, distasteful phenomenon. This change was predicated by the impending World War II. Although World War II was horrific and alarming to the world’s population with the events occurring half way around the world; it also provided relief from poverty. World War II provided opportunity for employment, a way out of the poverty stricken environment. Other societal changes from World War II were the emergence of women in new, nontraditional roles, bread winner and head of the family.
Anne Hebert


Born August 1, 1916 into a well respected Quebec family with roots among the early settlers of New France; Anne Hebert became a Paris exile and self publisher. Hebert’s Paris exile was necessary to continue to pursue her passion of writing her way when in 1950 her novella, Le Torrent, was deemed too violent through it’s portrayal of children that were deaf, abandoned, punished by adults and victimized by repressive Catholic morality (Smith 1986:40). Le torrent was an attack on the cultural values typically portrayed in rural Quebec writings and her poetry collection, Les Tombeau des rois, too dark for the eyes of Quebecois readers (Green 2001:19). Rural literature promoted the French-Canadian ideology of comfort, romancing the land, burial of individual identity instead promoting the family as a unit (Green 2001:51). Hebert’s writings became associated with a psychological examination of violence, rebellion, and the quest of personal freedom (Anne Hebert, Answers.com). The personal freedom to not write to satisfy the traditional perception of bucolic Quebec Society. Her writing is rooted in imagination, physically rooted as well as having real roots (Smith 1986:37). She took life’s experiences, such as an acquaintance with a female moonshine seller and expressed them in Les enfants du Sabbat. She took the experience of the moonshine seller and pushed it to “the point of absurdity” starting with a real to a surreal (Smith 1986:37).
Anne Hebert entered this world as the first child of Maurice Lang-Hebert and Marguerite Marie Tache when they were summering in Holy-Catherine-of-Fossambault (today Holy-Catherine-of-the-Jacques-Cartier), a small village located approximately 40 kilometers north-west of Quebec. She was the eldest of five children born to the Hebert family; only four lived beyond 30 years of age (Harvey 2006). Her father,
Maurice Lang-Hebert, whose ancestors were among Acadian’s exiled French Canadian’s, worked for the provincial government as director of the Tourist bureau, he was a poet and a critical literary respected, member of the royal Company of Canada (Harvey 2006). Mr. Hebert had the greatest influence on her writing at a young age, through his encouragement and editorial review of her writings she found her work being published in periodicals by 1939 when she was in her early twenties (Senateure 2002). Hebert’s mother contributed to her passion for theater and storytelling. One of Anne’s mother’s favorite subjects was the history of her maternal grandfather, Eugene-Etienne Tache, the architect of the Parliament of Quebec, and his aieul (grandfather), Achille Tache, lord of Kamouraska. The Kamouraska history relayed by her mother was not the same reflected in Hebert’s later book by the same name, Kamouraska, a historical novel based on a murder case in 19th century Quebec and translated into at least seven languages (Northwest Passages Undated){See Appendix A, Anne Hebert Bibliography}.
Anne Hebert did not enter a formal school until age 11, partly because of illness but mostly because it was her mother’s family custom, as well as certain other Quebec families; of not allowing young children to attend school instead a young child was provided a private schoolmistress (Smith 1986:36). Her home education developed Hebert’s desire for a quiet life of seclusion. When she finally entered formal schooling she felt lost, shy and became a scapegoat for other children as she did not speak up for herself. Hebert felt isolated and alienated from the other children. Hebert continued her schooling at the College Saint-Coeur de Marie, Merici, Quebec and College Notre Dame, Bellevue, Quebec (Athabasca University Books and Writers 2002).
Hebert’s childhood found her spending summers in Holy-Catherine, visiting her grandmother in Kamouraska and wintering in Quebec. She developed stories to the delight of her younger brothers and sisters, and from the time she learned to write she composed stories and sketches. Her summers were spent developing a friendship and respect of nature among the forest, fields, rivers and countryside. Upon the families return to winter in Quebec she felt constrained by the low city and the upper town. Hebert felt like a captive, separated by the rate and rhythm of the seasons (Harvey 2006). The themes of isolation, alienation and the repressive nature of small communities would follow her as a recurring theme in many of Hebert’s writing (Athabasca University Books and Writers 2002). Other themes in her writing include tales of witchcraft, incest, sorcery and intercourse.
Hebert’s writing of Le Torrent began her self imposed exile to Paris in the 1950 which lasted until 1998 when she returned to live out her life in Montreal after learning she was terminally ill from bone cancer. She moved to Paris to escape the repressive Quebec society and find a more receptive audience for her work. When all the Canadian firms refused to publish Le Torrent, Hebert had it published at her own expense by the Editions du Bien public, in Trios-Rivieres. A second of her writings, Tomb of the Kings, was to suffer the same fate requiring self-publication. The Tomb of the Kings is a collection of poems which she had written over a ten year period (Harvey 2006). Initially she lived hand to mouth writing news and magazine articles to pay the bills while pursuing her writing passion.
Hebert was unable to escape her early childhood isolation or sense of captivity as it perpetuated in her writings through her characters seeking to return to childhood and their refusal to grow into responsible adults (Brazeau 1972:63). The desire to escape is depicted within a number of themes in her stories: solitary was viewed through the character’s dreams; dreams were a means of maturing which evokes silence, immobility and solitude. Captivity is depicted as a rejection of the outside world as it signals her characters living death their desire to escape. Distorted relationships are shown within her character’s relationships that are cold or as a character captured by possessiveness of another. Immobility is depicted via the lack of communication, movement or sound; such as in Le Torrent, Francois’s impending deafness at the hands of his mother (Hebert, 1973:20). Hebert’s characters lives are in constant turmoil as shown in their fighting and, at times, their untimely death (Brazeau 1972:63).
In Hebert’s early writings, in her poems such as Gants du ciel she revealed her religious side, the early teachings and world of Catholicism. The symbol of the crucifixion in Gants du ciel exhibited suffering and the need to break free of masochistic images of pain (Smith 1986:38). It was Hebert’s belief that Catholicism provided one with a source of richness, imagery; although it also brought both a source of suffering. Although Hebert found religion constricting she believed that Quebecois who were “completely cutting themselves off from their religion were also cutting themselves off from a great source of richness -the richness of the bible- which is cutting themselves off from a source of culture that was their own” (Smith 1986:38).
The theme of nature and Hebert’s life is pervasive through her writings in the form of symbols, many of which are repeated in multiple publications. Examples of symbols evident in Hebert’s Le Torrent, Le Tombeau des rois and Les chambres de bois are a “chateau” to symbolize childhood, dreams and consequences of leaving childhood; “kings” the world of mystery, like childhood passing; “jewels and flowers” the promise of happiness, a happiness that is not attainable; and “cold/warmth” the opposition of being between the worlds of outside reality. “Water” has a duel meaning as it symbolizes opposing feelings: isolation and revolt from circumstances, as well as, calm, purity and tranquility (Brazeau 1972:61-71). The central similarity of her writings is in the atmosphere of “la chamber de bois” with the main character living in a world “imprisoned, immobile, silent and alone” (Brazeau 1972:72).
Kamouraska, written in 1970, showed another side of Hebert’s writing genre, it was a historical novel based on historical fact. This historical nature required years of research into the life of a woman trapped in a prearranged marriage; a marriage without love. The woman sought the love she desired from another. Kamouraska is set in 19th Century Quebec when the province was “calm on the outside while underlain by strife and societal undoings” (Smith 1986:45). The symbolism of Kamouraska is depicted in the snow – red snow for violence, the death of Elisabeth’s husband; white snow depicted the inability of spring and love to arrival, a lack of escape.
Heloise perpetuated Hebert’s writing of death as it arrives in one form or another in most of her publications. Hebert approached death as a question of how to live with death; the frailty of life. The main character in Heloise is a vampire; the vampire represents death. A secondary character in Heloise is Bernard, who is fascinated with death as he had a strong mother who chose to keep him close to her, to keep him from living a life of his own (Smith 1986). Bernard saw death as an escape from his mother’s clutches.
Not all of Hebert’s writings were jarring to the senses, Le Premier Jardin (1988) was a homage to all the women who founded New France, “these women which one did not even keep the name and which the history made disappear” (Harvey: Glory 2003). (see Appendix A, Anne Hebert Bibliography). According to a critic writing for Club des rats de biblio-net: Le Premier Jardin “presents a nostalgic account to us which recreates a childhood and its echoes, through a text of a great sobriety of expression. With its poetic writing, combining softness and melancholy, Anne Hébert approaches the topic of the reconciliation … the pains and the secrecies which one hides with deepest of ourselves.” (Club des rats de biblio-net 2001). The prose of Le Premier Jardin is elegant as well as visually pleasing “They sowed the first garden with seeds that came from France. They laid out the garden according to the notion of a garden, the memory of a garden, that they carried in their heads, and it was almost indistinguishable from a garden in France, flung into a forest in the New World.” [Translation] (Cultivating Canadian Gardens 2001).
In Hebert’s opinion the publication of Les songes en equilibre and Le tom beau des rois were “childish stammerings and best forgotten” (Smith 1986:55). Hebert did not feel that she found her voice in writing until 1960 with the publication of Mystere de la parole. It was with Mystere de la parole that Hebert could claim her place among poets as it was a “hymn to the world” (Smith 1986:55).
During Hebert’s life in Paris and upon her return to Montreal she was bestowed numerous awards, recognitions, prizes and honors from both Canada and her adopted country of France. Her first award was bestowed as third place for Dreams in Balance, a collection of poems, from the Athanase-David in 1943. Her prizes and recognition included being nominated for the post of lieutenant-governor of Quebec by Prime Minister Rene Levesque in 1978 (Harvey 2006). Hebert declined the invitation, this is the same year she was presented the Price David as a life achievement for her work. Hebert went from being snubbed through her inability to obtain a Canadian publisher for two of her early works to obtaining the prize of the Booksellers of France and the prize of literature from a writer outside of France from the royal Academy of Belgium as well as seeing a number of her novels set to film (Appendix A, Anne Hebert).
Besides being an acclaimed writer and poet, Hebert held other avocations as script writer for radio and television, play writer and role model. Anne Hebert was the first francophone woman script writer at the National Film Board of Canada from 1953-54 and 1959-60; play writer as shown in the Appendix A bibliography of Anne Hebert. Honorarium continued to be bestowed post-humorously upon Anne Hebert, on September 8, 2003, International Literacy Day, the Canada Post honored the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Library of Canada with a set of four domestic stamps featuring five of the nation’s most respected writers (Wilson 2003). The commemorative stamps bear the portraits and literary passages of five well-known Canadian writers: sisters Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill on a single stamp; Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Morley Callaghan and Anne Hebert. These authors were selected from a list submitted by the National Library of Canada. The stamp honoring Hebert was unveiled by the National Librarian, Roch Carrier and Frederic Brochu, Director of Archives at the Universite de Sherbrooke followed by a theatrical reading from her 1983 novel, Les Fous de bassan (In the Shadow of the Wind), a mystery in which landscape plays a dominant role as read by Jacqueline Pelletier (Wilson 2003).
Having never married and without children Anne Hebert donated her work to the scientific department of the Department of the Letters and Communications of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the Universite de Sherbrooke. On November 25, 1996 the Universite de Sherbrooke created the Center Anne-Hebert to promote research and the studies on the work of the author by providing access to her works. The Center also promotes the writing by Quebecois or foreign female authors (Harvey 2003). Every two years, as part of the promotion of Anne Hebert’s writings, the Center hosts a contest for a report of control or a doctorate these based entirely or in part on the ecrivaine housed in the Research Center. The recipient’s study is published by a recognized Canadian publisher, as well as, the receipt of a monetary purse that in 2006 equaled $500 (Harvey, undated). The Universite de Sherbrooke has announced the acceptance of a report of control or a doctorate thesis prepared between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2007 for Third Edition of the Scientific Price (sic) Anne Hébert (Harvey undated).
Anne Hebert has been a role model for girls and women with a passion for literature. By refusing to accept limitations placed on the women of her day she was a role model and opened doors for future French Canadian female writers such as Gabrielle Roy, Marie-Claire Blais and Antonine Maillett. Hebert created very powerful characters that were determined and independent women, free in their own way. They found freedom through Hebert’s literary legacy of truth, sensitivity, strength and passion. As said before Le senat du Canada following Hebert’s January 22, 2000 death of bone cancer in Montreal “The literary works of Anne Hebert show us what is essential and noblest about romanticism: that reality has no life or meaning without passion, without that inner core which creates light and darkness, angels and demons” (Senateure 2002).
Anne Hebert is but one of the French-Canadian female writers that have changed the writings of Quebec and Canada while giving a voice to the forgotten women of early New France. In the words of Roch Carrier “If we are to protect our heritage then we need to be vigilant in ensuring that our books and recordings are saved for the generations to come.” (Library and Archive Canada 2000).
“One never should say good-bye, that carries misfortune.”
Anne Hebert (Wood rooms)


Bibliography
“Anne Hebert.” Answers.com. 2006. 9 Dec. 2006 HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-h-bert" http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-h-bert .

Athabasca University Canadian Writers Web Page: Anne Hebert, Brief Biography. 31 Oct. 2006. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hebert.html" http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hebert.html . Centre for Language & Literature – Athabasca University.

Athabasca University Books and Writers: Anne Hebert (1916-2000). 2002. 9 Dec. 2006. < HYPERLINK "http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hebert.htm" http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hebert.htm>. Centre for Language & Literature – Athabasca University.

Brazeau, J. Raymond. An Outline of Contemporary French Canadian Literature. Toronto: Trinity College - University of Toronto, 1972.

Green, Mary Jean. Women and Narrative Identity: Rewriting the Quebec National Text. Montreal: McGill – Queen’s University Press, 2001.

Harvey, Robert (ed.) Center Anne-Hebert. Opening of the second edition of the contest of the scientific Price Anne-Hébert 2006. Undated. 9 Dec. 2006 < HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/prixscientifique.htm&prev=/se" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/prixscientifique.htm&prev=/se>.

---. Anne Hébert (1916 – 2000): Publication of the Test on the Work of Anne Hébert. 2 Jan. 2006. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/index.html&prev=/search%3F#Menu%20principal%20principal" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/index.html&prev=/search%3F#Menu%20principal%20principal .

---. New biography: Glory. 2003. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/la_gloire.htm&prev=/search%3F" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/la_gloire.htm&prev=/search%3F.

---. New biography: Recognition and Success. 2003. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_d_apprentissage.htm&prev=/search%3F" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_d_apprentissage.htm&prev=/search%3F.

---. New biography: Years of Training. 2003. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_d_apprentissage.htm&prev=/search%3F" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_d_apprentissage.htm&prev=/search%3F.

---. New biography: Years of Youth. 2003. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_de_jeunesse.htm&prev=/search%3F" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/les_annees_de_jeunesse.htm&prev=/search%3F.

---. Third edition of the scientific Price (sic) Anne Hebert. Undated. 9 Dec. 2006. < HYPERLINK "http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/prixscientifique.htm&prev=/se" http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.anne-hebert.com/prixscientifique.htm&prev=/se>.

Hebert, Anne. Le Torrent. Trans. Gwendolyn Moore. Montreal: Harvest House, 1973.

House of Anansi Press: Authors, Anne Hebert. Northwest Passages. Undated. 16 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://www.anansi.ca/authors.cfm?author_id=51" http://www.anansi.ca/authors.cfm?author_id=51 .

Le Premier Jardin. Club des rats de biblio-net. 2001. 9 Dec. 2006. < HYPERLINK "http://www.ratsdebiblio.net/hebertannelepremier.html" http://www.ratsdebiblio.net/hebertannelepremier.html>.

Library and Archives Canada. Cultivating Canadian Gardens: A History of Gardening in Canada. 8 August 2001. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://www.collectionscanada.ca/garden/h11-2041-3.html" http://www.collectionscanada.ca/garden/h11-2041-3.html .

---. Postage Stamps for the National Library of Canada’s 50th Anniversary – News Release. 19 September 2000. 9 Dec. 2006. < HYPERLINK "http://www.collectionscanada.ca/whats-new/007/013007-371-e.html" http://www.collectionscanada.ca/whats-new/007/013007-371-e.html>.

Smith, Donald. Voices of Deliverance: Interviews with Quebec & Acadian Writers. Trans. Larry Shouldiece. Toronto: Anansi, 1986.

The Late Anne Hebert. Senateure. 8 Feb 2000. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/lpepin/index.asp?Pgld=596" http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/lpepin/index.asp?Pgld=596.

Wilson, Rhonda and Jean-Marie Briere (eds.). “Canada Post Stamp Launch.” November/December 2003. Bulletin: National Library and Archives Canada. 9 Dec. 2006. HYPERLINK "http://www.collectionscanada.ca/bulletin/015017-0603-02-e.html" http://www.collectionscanada.ca/bulletin/015017-0603-02-e.html.


Appendix A

Anne Hebert Bibliography

Novels
The Silent Rooms (Les chambres de bois) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1958" \t "_top" 1958)
HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/kamouraska-book" \t "_top" Kamouraska (Kamouraska) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1970" \t "_top" 1970)
Children of the Black Sabbath (Les enfants du sabbat) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1975" \t "_top" 1975)
Heloise(Héloise)
In the Shadow of the Wind (Les fous de Bassan) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1982" \t "_top" 1982)
The First Garden (Le premier jardin) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1988" \t "_top" 1988)
The Burden of Dreams (L'enfant chargé de songes) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1992" \t "_top" 1992)
A Suit of Light (Un habit de lumière) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1999" \t "_top" 1999)
Collected Later Novels" - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/2003" \t "_top" 2003)
Poetry
Les songes en equilibre - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1942" \t "_top" 1942)
Le tombeau des rois (The Tomb of the Kings) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1953" \t "_top" 1953)
Poèmes (Poems) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1960" \t "_top" 1960)
Selected Poems - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1987" \t "_top" 1987)
Le jour n'a d'égal que la nuit (Day Has No Equal But the Night) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1992" \t "_top" 1992)
Poèmes pour la main gauche - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1997" \t "_top" 1997)
Short stories and novellas
Le torrent (The Torrent) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1950" \t "_top" 1950)
Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle et le Lieutenant anglais (Aurélien, Clara, Mademoiselle, and the English Lieutenent) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1995" \t "_top" 1995)
Est-ce que je te dérange? (Am I disturbing you?) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1998" \t "_top" 1998)
Theater
La Mercière assassinée
Le temps sauvage - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1956" \t "_top" 1956)
La cage suivi de L'île de la demoiselle - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1990" \t "_top" 1990)
Film scripts
L'Éclusier (Lock-keeper) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1953" \t "_top" 1953)
The Charwoman - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1954-1" \t "_top" 1954)
Midinette (Needles and Pins) - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1955" \t "_top" 1955)
La Canne à pêche - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1959" \t "_top" 1959)
Saint-Denys Garneau - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1960" \t "_top" 1960)
L'Étudiant - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1961" \t "_top" 1961)
Kamouraska - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1973" \t "_top" 1973)
Les Fous de Bassan - ( HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/1987" \t "_top" 1987)
Source: “Anne Hebert.” Answers.com. HYPERLINK "http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-h-bert" http://www.answers.com/topic/anne-h-bert .