'Urbs, 'Urb Girls, and Martine Delvaux's Rose amer. (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Morgan, Ceri
• Is Part Of: Québec studies. Volume 68(2019)
• Page Start: 81
• Page End: 100
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Québec (Province) -- Civilization -- Periodicals; French-Canadian literature -- Québec (Province) -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Littérature canadienne-française -- Québec (Province) -- Histoire et critique -- Périodiques; Québec (Province) -- Civilisation -- Périodiques; Civilization; French-Canadian literature; Québec; Criticism, interpretation, etc; Periodicals; 971.4005
• DOI: 10.3828/qs.2019.18
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0737-3759

Abstract

Abstract : This article considers representations of exurban spaces in Martine Delvaux's Rose amer (2009), positioning it in relation to a broader take-up of "regional" spaces in Québec fiction. It argues that Delvaux's novel is prescient in its blurring of distinct spatial categories. Examining how Rose amer parallels setting and characters, the article argues that it offers an intervention in the politics of memorialization. This is achieved through a focus on the standardized and reproducible, so that the vernacular domestic geographies featured within the novel become everyday monuments to the violence which is daily perpetrated against girls and women.