(Ré)écrire le mythe d’Hydro-Québec: Les murailles d’Erika Soucy

Résumé

Québec’s collective memory is characterised by strong symbols of national identity, such as nature, including water, possibly the component that stroke the most the collective imaginary. Water is associated with a great and vital source of energy: hydro-electricity. In Québec, this form of energy is provided and managed by Hydro-Québec, which occupies an important role in the québécois collective narrative, because the public enterprise is closely linked to the ‘Révolution tranquille’. The importance of the corporation translates into a great number of studies achieved by researchers from various backgrounds: Stéphane Savard in history, Caroline Desbiens in geography and Dominique Perron in literature. However, Perron studied Hydro-Québec’s promotional materials, and not the company’s representations in literary works. With this paper, my intention is to provide a reading of a contemporary narrative of Hydro-Québec in Québec’s literature. To do so, I will discuss Hydro-Québec’s myth in Les murailles (2016), a novel by Erika Soucy.