ABSTRACT
The expressions “return from Europe” and “return from America” embody a symbolic importance particular to Quebec’s cultural history. They refer to the French-speaking Canadian students who, having resided in Europe, particularly in Paris, or the United States, on university campuses, as part of study tours, subsequently returned home. As educated travellers, they also moved in the world of culture and the social hierarchy. Immersed in the grace, intensity, abundance and power of “great nations,” they were seized by a certain malaise, if not indeed vertigo. It was upon contemplating themselves in the mirror of great cities and institutions of high culture that the returnees from Europe or America took stock of the shortcomings, failings and incompleteness of their own culture whose greatness suddenly appeared to them as unattainable. The effects of this shock, felt twice, upon departure and upon returning, took different forms, including feelings of cultural inferiority, self-disgust and a desire for change and improvement. This chapter explores the heuristic figures – comparable but not identical – of the return from Europe and the return from America, as they crystallised, in Quebec, a way of being in the world, which is characteristic of the so-called “small” nations.
