[LINK] "American? Maybe. But not `United States-ian'"

[rfmcdonald]

Sean Gordon's article in The Sunday Star takes a look at a conference in Montréal where the idea of a common North American identity--américanité--was discussed. Américanite is a term that I'm familiar with from Québec, describing the somewhat controversial thesis that the Québécois (and other North American Francophones) are at least as much shaped by American influences as French influences, if not more. (This difference sometimes surprises French immigrants to Québec, as Fannie Gordon wrote last year.) This is the first time that I've heard about américanité being applied to the North America continent as a whole.

Is the conventional wisdom regarding U.S. cultural imperialism wrong? What if the "American" identity were being nudged toward a trans-national, continental one by the influence of Canadian and Mexican cultural factors?

French-language scholars in Quebec and elsewhere refer to it as "l'américanité," an idea that beyond national boundaries, linguistic differences and divergent histories, the countries of North America have forged a distinctive continental culture.

"Are we American? In my eyes, yes," said Université du Quebec à Montreal sociology professor Jean-Francois Côté. "But that's not the same thing as being United States-ian."

In research he presented to one of the conference workshops, Coté discerned a continental sensibility in a literary genre he identified as "travel literature" – the greatest exemplar of which is Jack Kerouac, the U.S.-born child of French-Canadians who penned the seminal On the Road.

"It began before NAFTA and has gone a long way beyond it in cultural terms," he said.

Côté cited the common thread that unites authors as varied as Russell Banks, Dany Laferriere, Octavio Paz and many others – themes such as solitude and nativism, a preoccupation with border narratives and the search for a broader identity.

"These are all ideas that put into question political borders," he said. "They have evolved into a cultural space that is no longer national ... there is an ongoing rediscovery of the Americas in literary terms."

Poet and author Emile Martel – the impromptu Spanish translator – also broached the subject of "l'américanité."

"The word American has strong resonance, both positive and negative, depending on your point of view. American-ness also allows for significant differences ... labels like Canadian or Québécois offer a sort of protection," he said, speaking in French.

Martel also suggested that national identities in North America are often invoked less out of profound difference than as a political reaction when a country's sensibilities are offended, such as Canada's by the George W. Bush administration.

"We create a moral wall called Canada, or better yet, a refuge called Quebec," he said. Points of differentiation like language, geography and history "help distinguish us without reducing our shared American-ness," he added.