France Théoret (born 1942) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

feminist, author, poet, and teacher.

Biography

France Théoret was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

on October 17, 1942. Although she grew up in a house without many books, she discovered she loved to write in school and through writing letters. She earned her

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

at l'École normale Cardinal-Léger in 1965. She attended the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (; UdeM; ) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on M ...

in the 1960s, earning her bachelor's degree in 1968. From 1967 to 1969 she worked on the editorial board of ''La Barre du jour'', a student-run

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

literary magazine. From 1972 to 1974, she studied

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

and

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...

at the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

in Paris. In 1977 she earned a

Master of Letters A Master of Letters degree (MLitt or LittM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. Ireland Trinity College Dublin and Maynooth University offer MLitt degrees. Trinity has offered them the longest, owing largely to its tradition as Ireland's ...

from the Université de Montréal, and in 1982 a Ph.D. in French studies from the

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

. From 1968 to 1987, Théoret taught literature at Cégep Ahuntsic. In 1976, she co-founded a feminist newspaper titled ''Les Têtes de pioche.'' In 1979, she co-founded ''Spirale'', a cultural journal which she directed from 1981 to 1984. She published her first independent piece, ''Bloody Mary'', with Les Herbes rouges in 1977. She published three more over the next three years: ''Une voix pour Odile'', ''Vertiges,'' and ''Nécessairement putain'', and the four works went on to become widely studied in feminist studies. Les Herbes rouges also published her first novel, ''Nous parlerons comme on écrit'', in 1982. Théoret was awarded the

Prix Athanase-David The Prix Athanase-David is a literary award presented annually by the government of Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares b ...

in 2012 for her work.

Works

Poetry

* ''Bloody Mary'', 1977 * ''Vertiges'', 1979 * ''Nécessairement putain'', 1980 * ''Intérieurs'', 1984 * ''Étrangeté, l'étreinte'', 1992 * ''La Fiction de l'ange'', 1992 * ''Une mouche au fond de l'œil'', 1998 * ''La Nuit de la muette'', 2010 * ''L'Été sans erreur'', 2014 * ''Cruauté du jeu'', 2017

Fiction

* ''Une voix pour Odile'', 1978 * ''Nous parlerons comme on écrit'', 1982 * ''L'Homme qui peignait Staline'', 1989 * ''Trois femmes'' dans ''Nouvelles de Montréal'', 1992 * ''Laurence'', 1996 * ''Huis clos entre jeunes filles'',2000 * ''Les apparatchiks vont à la mer'', 2004 * ''Une belle éducation'', 2006 * ''La Femme du stalinien'', 2010 * ''Hôtel des quatre chemins'', 2011 * ''La Zone grise'', 2013 * ''Va et nous venge'', 2015 * ''Les Querelleurs'', 2018

Theatre

* ''L'Échantillon'', 1976 * ''Transit'', 1984

Essays

* ''Entre raison et déraison'', 1987 * ''Journal pour mémoire'', 1993 * ''La Bosnie nous regarde - essais et témoignages'', 1995 * ''Manifeste d'écrivaines pour le 21^e siècle'', 1999 * ''Écrits au noir'', 2009

Autres publications

* ''Folie, Mystique et Poésie'', 1988 * ''Enfances et Jeunesses'', 1988 * ''Les Grands Poèmes de la poésie québécoise'', 1998 * ''L'Écriture, c'est les cris'', 2014 (with

Louky Bersianik Louky Bersianik (14 November 1930 – 3 December 2011) was the pen name of Lucile Durand, a French-Canadian novelist. She studied French literature at the Université de Montréal, the University of Paris, Sorbonne, and the Centre d'études de ra ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Theoret, France 1942 births Living people 20th-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian novelists 21st-century Canadian novelists Canadian educators Canadian women novelists Canadian women poets Canadian novelists in French Canadian poets in French Canadian women essayists Canadian feminist writers Prix Athanase-David winners Université de Montréal alumni Université de Sherbrooke alumni Poets from Montreal 20th-century Canadian essayists 21st-century Canadian essayists Canadian non-fiction writers in French Novelists from Montreal