Louky Bersianik

Louky Bersianik is the pseudonym of Lucille Durand (born 14 November 1930), a Québécoise writer who studied in Montréal and Paris, and worked for radio, television and cinema, before choosing this name to publish landmark feminist works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Although Bersianik writes in French, L'Euguélionne, a triptych novel told in the form of a new gospel (the title is a play on the Greek word euaggeion), which tells the story of the arrival of an alien woman who is looking for the male of her species on Earth, and her indictement of the sexism present in Quebec society and culture, has seen two separate English translations.

Bersianik's revolutionary use of language, and her work subverting the sexism of French grammar and literature, pose special problems for translators. Québécoise linguist Céline Labrosse has published two feminist essays, Pour une grammaire non sexiste (1996) and Pour une langue française non sexiste (2002), that have made use of ideas put forth in Bersianik's L'Euguélionne.

Bibliography

N.B.: This bibliography is very incomplete. The items listed refer to the original French-language titles.

• Maternative (1980)

Fiction

• L'Euguélionne (1976)

Essay-Fiction

• Le Pique-Nique sur l'Acropole (1979)

Further reading

• "Les terribles vivantes / Firewords" - A film about Louky Bersianik, made by the National Film Office of Canada (1986); 16 mm (84 mm). Featuring Louky Bersianik, Jovette Marchessault, and Nicole Brossard. In French and English.

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