Ni Verbe Ni Chair/e? La Religieuse et Le Cloîture chez Michèle Mailhot et Anne Hébert
Abstract
In this paper, Verthuy examines two of the very few novels written on the religious life by Quebec women authors. In each case, the convent, commonly thought of in Quebec as a form of matriarchal society, is shown to have only one goal, the denial of femininity, of female identity. The mother superior exercises only ersatz power, all real power being held by the male priesthood. In every sense, including its preoccupation with material possessions, the convent is merely a mirror to, an extension of, the patriarchal society that exists outside. Although both main characters are in revolt against the convent life, Verthuy attributes the difference in their reaction, at least in part, to the eight years that separate the two books and witnessed the rise of the latest wave of feminism in Quebec.Metrics
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