In late 2008, the McGill-Queen’s University Press was proud to officially appoint Magda Fahrni and Jarrett Rudy to the position of joint editors of the Studies on the History of Quebec/Études d’histoire du Québec series, which was inaugurated in 1991. This marks the first passing of the torch from the stalwart and visionary founding editors Brian Young and John Dickinson. Jarrett, assistant professor of history and director of the Quebec Studies Program at McGill, and Magda, associate professor of History at the Université du Québec à Montréal, are accomplished scholars and leading researchers in Quebec history, and it is with a sense of excitement and opportunity that we welcome them, while also thanking Brian and John for their many years of service to the Press and the scholarly community. The new editors share their perspectives on the series in conversation with acquisition editor Jonathan Crago.
(An upcoming title in the series, Done with Slavery: The Black Fact in Montreal, 1760-1840)
Jonathan Crago: The series has been in existence since 1991, which includes the time during which your own careers as scholars were taking shape. Tell me what you think is significant about the tradition of scholarship in the series that you are inheriting.
Magda Fahrni: It’s fitting, I think, that the first book published in this series was the English translation of Louise Dechêne’s groundbreaking Habitants et marchands de Montréal au XVIIe siècle. Habitants et marchands had a major impact on the historiography of New France and, indeed, on the writing of Quebec history more generally. The translation published by MQUP gave English-speaking scholars insight into this historiography and introduced them to the methodological innovations of the École des Annales. Many of the books subsequently published in the series shared this interest in the socio-economic history of Quebec and in quantitative analysis: they focused, for instance, on structural transformations such as the transition to capitalism and key Quebec institutions such as the seigneurial system and the Civil Code. These works helped to cement a more materialist tradition in Quebec historiography, especially in English-speaking Canada, broadening the view of Quebec history as a story of domination by the Catholic Church. More recently – since 2000, say – the series has included works on commemoration, public memory, and popular culture. This reflects the growing importance of these themes in the historical literature on Quebec, as well as in North American and European historiography more generally.
(Louis Dechêne's Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth Century Montreal)
JC: The series is unique in being a home for scholarship in both French and English. Why is that important?
MF: Very few academic presses in North America publish books in both English and French. That this series includes books in both languages is innovative in and of itself, but is particularly important for historians of Quebec, who necessarily read works in both languages. In this sense, the series might be seen as a metaphorical point de rencontre between historians trained in different linguistic and, sometimes, methodological traditions but who share an interest in the history of Quebec. We consider it absolutely essential that the series continue to publish works in both French and English.
(Thierry Nootens' Fous, prodigues et ivognes: Families et déviance à Montréal au XIXe siècle)
JC: What role does Quebec studies play in relation to the larger fields of social, cultural, or political history in Canada? Or, put differently, how does focusing studies in these disciplines on the Quebec context illuminate questions in these larger fields?
Jarrett Rudy: For the last twenty years one of the central questions that has been discussed and debated in Quebec history is the question of whether Quebec is the same or different from the rest of Canada and North America. Obviously, Canadian history is present within this discussion, but making Quebec history more prominent in Canada and North America pushes historians to think harder about the ways in which [the places they study] are similar or different from other cultures and the permeable and everyday nature of culture itself. The work we hope to include in the series points to Quebec as a place where different cultures have been established, and come into contact. The contexts and natures of these contacts have changed over time, being shaped by views about race, gender, class, and empire, just to name a few issues. This flux in relationships, which is really at the heart of Quebec history, is a constant reminder to the rest of Canada that cultural contact is nothing new and in fact is the foundation upon which the country was built.
(Jarrett Rudy's The Freedom to Smoke: Tobacco Consumption and Identity)
JC: How do you see the field of Quebec studies changing and what role do you see the series playing in accommodating and encouraging that scholarship?
JR: There are numerous areas of Quebec history blooming as we speak. We want to make sure that the series not only reflects these new developments but provides a podium where they are in the spotlight. Two new subfields – new cultural history and environmental history – come immediately to mind. These exciting fields of Quebec history are part of international historical debates as well as current political and cultural concerns and in many ways fit nicely with recent work published in the series. Similarly, we also think it is important to give greater recognition to the historical workings of gender and race, work which was also begun in recent books in the series. Finally, the diverse historical links between Quebec and the rest of the world are increasingly being explored by historians. Interestingly, in some ways this takes us full circle to the social history tradition of Louise Dechêne that has been central to the series since its inception.
No comments yet.