ABSTRACT
In the mythologies of modern nations, one particular dimension of cultural identity seems to take on overwhelming importance in defining difference. Few would dispute that the strong explanatory powers given to class in Great Britain or race in the United States are given in Canada to language. William Hume Blake is less concerned with the political realm: his interest lies with valorizing the specific cultural and spiritual values of French Canada. Blake’s relatively tame experiments with the representation of French-Canadian speech in English are nevertheless an important moment in what could constitute as a history of the linguistic representations of alterity. The specific qualities of Blake’s translation of Maria Chapdelaine also become evident as they are contrasted with a competing version published by Andrew Macphail. Macphail’s translation, like Blake’s, reflected his ‘deep commitment to a rural and traditional way of life and [his] sentimental admiration for French Canada’.
