Curative Illnesses

Julie Robert

During a time of uncertainty over collective identity and social transformation, Quebec novels started getting sick - after 1940, the number of narratives about illness, disease, and sick characters intensified. For the last seventy years, generations of authors have turned to medically oriented stories to represent day to day life and political turmoil. In Curative Illnesses, Julie Robert investigates how the theme of sickness is woven into literature and gauges its effect on depictions of Quebec{u2019}s national identity. Challenging the legitimacy of illness as a metaphor for the nation, Robert contests interpretations of illness-related literature that have presented Quebec itself as ailing. Through re-examinations of Quebec novels, Curative Illnesses shatters the illusion of congruency between the nation and the body, countering assumptions about nationwide weakness and...