Lionel Groulx

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Lionel-Adolphe Groulx (approx. 1925–1935)

Lionel-Adolphe Groulx (born January 13, 1878 in Vaudreuil , † May 23, 1967 ibid) was a Roman Catholic priest , historian and one of the most famous representatives of Québec nationalism.

life and work

Groulx was the son of a farmer and lumberjack. He received a rudimentary school education, expanded it at the Ste-Thérèse seminar and was trained as a priest in Europe from 1906 to 1909. Apart from this three-year training, he taught from 1900 to 1915 first at the Collège de Valleyfield in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield near Montréal, then at the University of Montreal, where he held the first chair of Canadian history until 1949. In 1917 he was a co-founder of the magazine Action Française , whose editor he became in 1920. He also founded the youth organization Association catholique de la jeunesse canadienne-française .

Groulx investigated the founding of Canada and was a defender of the minority rights of Francophone Canadians. In view of the language dispute in Manitoba and the participation in the First World War, he emphasized in his work La Confédération Canadienne (Montreal 1918) the historical derivation of these rights from the colonial era. He saw the most important stages in the Quebec Act of 1774, in which Great Britain had recognized the minority rights of the French in the North American colonial empire and which had related to language, religion and jurisdiction, then in the right of self-government (responsible government), which had granted similar rights, and finally in the founding act of Canada in 1867, in which the autonomy of Québec and the decisive role of the French Canadians emerged.

Groulx saw in the founding of Canada an undesirable development, which should be reversed by the establishment of an independent Québec, and that the provincial government had the task of eliminating the economic, social, cultural and linguistic plight of the French nation. In doing so, however, he underestimated the internal conflicts within Francophone society, especially the clashes between clericals and nationalists.

In 1928 the University of Montréal asked him not to attack the constitution any further, but Groulx refused to sign a corresponding paper. Instead, he promised to limit himself to historical topics. Therefore he ended the editing of the paper L'action canadienne-française ; it ceased its publication at the end of the year.

Lionel Groulx's main works include La Confédération canadienne (Montréal 1918), Notre maître le passé (1937), Histoire du Canada français depuis la découverte (1951) and Notre grande aventure (1958). In his eyes, the conquest of New France by Great Britain was a national catastrophe, just as Adam Dollard des Ormeaux had seen, whom he tried to rehabilitate as a historian. He by no means shared the prevailing view that New France had escaped the terror of the French Revolution in this way. Again and again he emphasized the achievements of the Quebec Act of 1774 and the successes of Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine , who would have prevented Lord Durham's assimilation plans with their self-government from 1849 .

In the Ligue d'Action française , Groulx and his colleagues hoped not only to restore the pride of the Francophone Canadians in their own history, but also to promote the economic revitalization of the province and at the same time act as an intellectual pioneer. The Catholic social doctrine should prevent the emergence of socialist groups and improve capitalism, at the same time the internal and external mission should be expanded. To this end, economic education should be improved. His teachings went into the party program of the Action liberale nationale (ALN), which Groulx supported. However, he was opposed to the government under Maurice Duplessis . Instead, he allied himself with the leader of the Liberals in Québec, Adélard Godbout , who led the province from 1939 to 1944. But he broke with this too, when the Liberals of the province submitted to the nationwide Liberal Party of Canada . In the elections of 1944 Groulx and his colleagues supported the newly founded Bloc populaire Canadien under André Laurendeau , who also belonged to the future mayor of Montreal Jean Drapeau . But this party also broke up and disbanded after the 1948 elections.

Groulx founded the Institut d'histoire d'Amérique française in 1946, which from 1947 published La revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française , a journal that is still the leading French-speaking historian in Canada. Although he influenced numerous Québecers and especially Montréal intellectuals, they often rejected his conservatism, especially on the question of religion. This was especially true for his successor Guy Frégault , but also for his opponents in the Delisle-Richler controversy. Mordecai Richler and Esther Delisle accused Groulx of anti-Semitism. On the last day of his life, the thirtieth book from his pen appeared: Constantes de vie .

His work reflects the self-image and taste of the conservative nationalist forces of his time. With his historical works and literary fictions, such as L'Appel à la race , 1922, he spread an image of history that was clearly influenced by right-wing nationalism in Europe. He sketched his time negatively, because the French culture and language in North America would be wiped out. He categorically opposed the view of "England" as a liberal and maternal country for Canada and wanted a strong man like Mussolini or Salazar for the necessary collective mobilization of the people . In order for the lessons of the past to have an effect, one needs a spiritual unity of the Francophones, whose specialty Groulx demonstrated with biological-racial reasons. Propagandistically he advocated a "holy mission" for the French Canadians. Groulx, a wish corporative state order as the Dollfuss regime for Canada.

The Lionel-Groulx station on Metro Montreal is named after him .

literature

  • Michel Bock: Quand la nation débordait les frontières. Les minorités françaises dans la pensée de Lionel Groulx . Montréal 2004
  • Adriana Kolar: La dimension politique de l'histoire. L. Groulx (Québec) and N. Iorga (Roumanie) entre les deux guerres mondiales. Series: Canadiana, 5th Peter Lang, Bern 2007 ISBN 978-3-631-56278-9
  • Esther Delisle: Le traître et le juif. Lionel Groulx, Le Devoir et le délire du nationalisme d'extrême droite dans la province de Québec 1929-1939. L'Étincelle, Outremont 1992
    • Translated: The Traitor and the Jew. Anti-Semitism and Extremist Right-Wing Nationalism in Quebec from 1929 to 1939. Robert Davies, Outremont 1993
  • this: Mythes, mémoire et mensonges. L'intelligentsia du Québec devant la tentation fasciste 1939-1960. Robert Davies, Montréal 1998
    • Translated: Myths, Memory and Lies. Quebec's Intelligentsia and the Fascist Temptation 1939-1960. Robert Davies Multimedia, Westmount 1998
  • Jean-Pierre Gaboury: Le nationalisme de Lionel Groulx. Aspects idéologiques . Université d'Ottawa 1970
  • N ° special of Les Cahiers d'histoire du Québec au XXe siècle, 8, autumn 1997: "Lionel Groulx: actualité et relecture", Ed. Center de recherche Lionel-Groulx ISSN  1195-9908

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Mason Wade: The French-Canadians 1760–1967 , Vol. 2, New York 1945, revised new edition 1968, p. 894.
  2. ^ Notes on Anti-Semitism Among Quebec Nationalists, 1920-1970. Methodological failings. Distorted conclusions .
  3. ^ Texts on Lionel Groulx .
  4. ↑ Groulx
personal data
SURNAME Groulx, Lionel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Groulx, Lionel-Adolphe (full name); Brassier, Jacques (pen name); Groulx, Abbé (spiritual title)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian clergyman, Roman Catholic priest, historian and representative of Québec nationalism
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Vaudreuil
DATE OF DEATH May 23, 1967
Place of death Vaudreuil