Le jeu des apparences
La ConfĂ©rence Antonine Maillet â Northrop Frye
DAVID ADAMS RICHARDS
Copyright © 2008 David Adams Richards.
Tous droits de traduction, de reproduction et dâadaptation rĂ©servĂ©s.
Maquette de la couverture et des pages intérieures : Julie Scriver
Photo de lâauteur : Jerry Bauer
Traduction : Claudine Hubert
Imprimé au Canada sur du papier recyclé.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Catalogage avant publication de BibliothĂšque et Archives Canada
Richards, David Adams, 1950-
Le jeu des apparences / David Adams Richards; traduction,
Claudine Hubert.
(La conférence Antonine Maillet-Northrop Frye)
Texte en français et en anglais, tĂȘte-bĂȘche.
Publ. en collab. avec : Université de Moncton.
ISBN 978-0-86492-503-9
1. Sincérité et littérature. 2. Vérité dans la littérature.
3. Art dâĂ©crire. 4. LittĂ©rature â Histoire et critique.
I. Université de Moncton II. Titre. III. Titre: Playing the inside out.
IV. Collection: Conférence Antonine Maillet-Northrop Frye
PN56.S57R52 2008 809â.93353 C2008-900357-8F
Goose Lane Editions bĂ©nĂ©fice de lâaide financiĂšre du Conseil des Arts du Canada, du gouvernement du Canada par lâentremise du Programme dâaide au dĂ©veloppement de lâindustrie de lâĂ©dition (PADIĂ), et du ministĂšre du Mieux-ĂȘtre, de la Culture et du Sport du Nouveau-Brunswick. Le Festival littĂ©raire international Northrop Frye tient Ă souligner la contribution de la Banque Scotia Ă la ConfĂ©rence Antonine Maillet â Northrop Frye.
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Sommaire
Préface
Le jeu des apparences
Note biographique : David Adams Richards
Note biographique : Antonine Maillet
Note biographique : Northrop Frye
Préface
Depuis plus de trente ans, lâĂ©crivain David Adams Richards puise dans lâexpĂ©rience de la marginalitĂ© de la Miramichi pour approfondir lâintĂ©rieur de lâĂȘtre humain, lĂ oĂč se loge le vrai. Richards utilise lâĂ©criture comme stratĂ©gie de prĂ©sence pour sortir de lâaliĂ©nation lâĂȘtre qui peut sembler dĂ©pourvu. Tous les romans de Richards racontent lâhistoire dâune Ă©preuve que des protagonistes doivent affronter Ă un moment de leur vie; ils ressentent alors une lutte intĂ©rieure qui les force Ă faire un choix, comme lâexplique lâauteur : « It is a war however about personal integrity, and decisions about the importance of this integrity that my characters face1. » Le romancier privilĂ©gie la voix de lâauthenticitĂ© pour dĂ©peindre cette confrontation inĂ©vitable avec soi-mĂȘme dans le contexte de marginalitĂ© quâest celui de ses protagonistes et dont le parcours vacille entre le vrai et les apparences.
Dans sa confĂ©rence donnĂ©e Ă Moncton le 28 avril 2007 dans le cadre de la deuxiĂšme confĂ©rence Antonine Maillet â Northrop Frye, Richards dĂ©peint le rapport de rĂ©sistance crĂ©ative quâil entretient avec lâaltĂ©ritĂ© stigmatisante qui menace lâauthenticitĂ© et exprime son appĂ©tence dâaller audelĂ des apparences. Lâapproche sociale et existentielle quâil adopte dans son parcours littĂ©raire et personnel privilĂ©gie la rĂ©vĂ©lation dâun vrai possible, quâil incarne assurĂ©ment lui-mĂȘme en tant quâĂ©crivain. Emile Dexter, alter ego de Richards, personnifie cet Ă©crivain aspirant au vrai dans Hope in the Desperate Hour, comme lâexplique le critique littĂ©raire Tony Tremblay : « Peterâs truth (and our own) is in Dexterâs hands (and Richardsâ)2 ». La littĂ©rature devient le mode dâexistence pour pallier la perte dâauthenticitĂ© que Dexter et Richards expriment en termes psychologiques et existentiels. Mais ce geste dâĂ©criture tant par lâĂ©crivain fictif que lâĂ©crivain rĂ©el est avant tout une affirmation de la primordialitĂ© de lâauthenticitĂ©, au-delĂ de la violence vĂ©cue dans une socialitĂ© exiguĂ«. La critique littĂ©raire du centre du pays, bien quâelle sâintĂ©ressait aux Ă©crits de Richards, a privilĂ©giĂ© pendant prĂšs de vingt ans les clichĂ©s « rĂ©gionalistes ». Depuis son premier roman, The Coming of Winter publiĂ© en 1974, Richards consacre son Ă©criture aux moins nantis de la Miramichi. La critique nationale reconnaĂźt maintenant la place singuliĂšre quâil occupe au sein de lâinstitution littĂ©raire : « Richards is a national treasure, giving voice to a place and a class that Literature usually ignores3. » Dans A Literary and Linguistic History of New Brunswick, Fred Cogswell contextualise lâĆuvre de Richards dix ans aprĂšs la publication de son premier roman : « Through Richardsâ skill and imagination, a whole mute section of New Brunswick life has been given the kind of voice that proves it deserves membership in any genuine peerage of the human race4. » Le parcours de lâauteur nĂ©o-brunswic-kois en est un empreint de marginalitĂ©, une marginalitĂ© consentante pour prĂ©server le vrai.
Tel quâil le fait dans sa confĂ©rence et Ă lâinstar de ses romans, David Adams Richards contredit, dĂ©place et transforme le discours hĂ©gĂ©monique pour privilĂ©gier le vrai. LâĂ©crivain-confĂ©rencier nous raconte des histoires qui se dĂ©roulent dans un endroit qui devient seul lieu et tout lieu. LâesthĂ©tique du rĂ©cit assume lâauthenticitĂ© qui possĂšde une valeur dâexpansion permettant dâaccĂ©der Ă des lois plus puissantes. La dĂ©marche de Richards sâinscrit humblement dans une tentative de sonder une rĂ©alitĂ© plus proche de lâĂȘtre fondamental, voire universelle, au-delĂ des apparences.
MARIE-LINDA LORD
Professeure titulaire
Chaire de recherche en Ă©tudes acadiennes
Faculté des arts et des sciences sociales
Université de Moncton
NOTES
1 David Adams Richards, « My Miramichi Trilogy: A Practising Novelistâs View of the Novel in New Brunswick », dans W. F. Bogaards, Literature of Region and Nation: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference of Region and Nation. University of New Brunswick in Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, 2-7 August 1996, SSHRC/UNBSJ, vol. II, 1998, 73-84, 84.
2 Tony Tremblay, « David Adams Richards: An unblinking eye on passion and triumph », The New Brunswick Reader Magazine, April 27 1996, 20-21, 21.
3 « Readings », Giest 12, November-December 1993, 36.
4 Fred Cogswell, « English Prose Writing in New Brunswick: World War I to the Present », A Literary and Linguistic History of New Brunswick, Reavley Gair, dir., Fredericton, Goose Lane, 1985, 229-244, 243.
The Northrop Frye International Literary Festival honours Northrop Frye, one of the twentieth centuryâs leading intellectuals, literary critics, and educators. A celebration of Fryeâs contribution to culture and civilization, the festival is dedicated to the advancement of literacy and the appreciation of literature. It also promotes Canadaâs bilingual literary heritage by bringing together French and English authors from around the region, across the country, and throughout the world.
The Frye Festival began in April 2000. Since then, forty poets, dramatists, and fiction and non-fiction writers from the Atlantic region, across Canada, and around the world have gathered each year in Moncton, New Brunswick, where Frye grew up. For four days, they participate in bilingual events, reading their works in schools, cafés, and restaurants in the language in which they write.
The Antonine Maillet â Northrop Frye Lecture began in 2006. A close collaboration between the Northrop Frye International Literary Festival and the UniversitĂ© de Moncton, this series exemplifies two great traditions: the literary heritage of Antonine Maillet and the critical heritage of Northrop Frye. It will eventually develop into the bilingual Antonine Maillet â Northrop Frye Research Chair in Imagination and Criticism, hosted by the FacultĂ© des arts et des sciences sociales at the UniversitĂ© de Moncton. Those gathered on April 28, 2007 to hear David Adams Richards deliver the second annual Antonine Maillet-Northop Frye Lecture had the unusual privilege of hearing a writer speak his mind about his writing career and about the career of writing in the Maritimes. The lecture was an honest and compelling reflection on an exemplary career. Richards alludes to the difficulties he faced as a young writer attempting to situate himself vis-Ă -vis the literary establishment and subsequently to the hostile reception given his early books. The message of his anecdotes is not one of resentment over past treatment, however. His message is that instead of bending to the pressures of taste or popularity, he remained an outsider, thereby remaining true to his artistic inspiration, his material, and his treatment of them. By not playing the careerist game of compromise, by not âplaying the inside out,â he gained access to the full force of his artistic integrity. Without this integrity of purpose, Richards reminds us, the artist is lost.
As readers of Richardsâ novels, we understand that the struggle for integrity is perhaps his primary theme. Although these stories are often described as grim, harsh, or sad â and they are â the struggle for integrity occurs everywhere and, by contrast, illuminates the whole. Joe Walsh struggles to be himself rather than the person he is assumed or perceived to be by others. Joe must be doubly perspicacious, therefore; he must interpret accurately how others misperceive him. Jerry Bines is another outsider (menacing to many); but Richards is careful to align Jerry with Joe Walsh in several powerful and positive ways. Joe and Rita take Jerry in to live with their family when he is a boy; Joe comes to the prison to help Jerry and others through the AA meetings; Jerry, like Joe, is associated with old Dr. Hennessey, the irascible doctor who is both the sign of and a means to the communityâs health. Meager Fortune, suffering in silence over the loss of his young family (and whose name belies the richness of his character), struggles valiantly to defend Stretch Tomkins, the character who least deserves our sympathy, and who, the narrator points out ironically, is most like us.
As an open letter, Richards aims at an ideal of the genuine in literature, and he has the good sense to know that literary marksmen do not always hit the bulls-eye. Writers, however, ought not short-change intention in favour of resolution. He urges the young writers of New Brunswick and the Maritime region to be true to the individual and specific demands of their art, to their own âcreative conscience.â This uncompromising fidelity, as Richards says, â. . . is in many ways the hardest and most necessary thing an artist, man or woman can ever do.â But it is the most necessary, since â. . . the truth, not as others see it, but as you do, can only be told by you.â He remarks that it is a âdouble disadvantageâ to be a writer in the Maritimes because the region is regarded as conventional and therefore less worthy of notice or less capable of being wondrous. The genuine or true rejects such notions, of course. It discovers the wondrous everywhere and in everyone. Striving to tell oneâs own truth is the writerâs challenge.
This essay is compelling, honest, direct. Words and phrases such as âconvention,â âlike-minded people,â and âliterary circlesâ come under sharp scrutiny as, by implication, do the people who rely upon their currency. Read this essay once, profit...