Fortunes and misfortunes of culture: sociology and anthropology of culture in francophone Quebec, 1965-1985

A travers la pensee de deux auteurs-cles et de leurs contradicteurs, sont examinees trois periodes de l'evolution de la sociologie et de l'anthropologie au Quebec: gloire, eclipse puis regain de la culture. Dans le cadre d'une conjoncture socio-politique turbulente (non seulement liee au neo-nationalisme quebecois mais a tous les mouvements sociaux qui ont deferle sur l'Occident depuis 1965), ces 'fortunes' et 'misfortunes' de la culture ont ete marquees par des polemiques internes au champ quebecois, elles-memes liees aux principaux courants theoriques qui ont traverse les sciences humaines, en provenance surtout de la France et des Etats-Unis: apres une periode ou regment la culture-cohesion/coherence et la culture-identite, les courants issus du marxisme imposent une eclipse dans le recours a cette problematique de la culture de meme qu'un souci de totalite, et surtout une articulation aux rapports sociaux; puis cette macro-approche sera suive d'une resurgence de la culture, un retour vers le sujet, une affirmation du sens, une critique de l'economisme ainsi qu'une conception de la culture plus eclatee et plus materialisee. En conclusion sont soulignes certains liens entre ces discours sur la culture et le neo-nationalisme quebecois du dernier quart de siecle. Through the thought of two key authors and their critics, three periods of the evolution of sociology and anthropology in Quebec are examined: glory, eclipse and cultural renewal. In a period characterized by social and political turbulence (linked not only to a Quebecois neo-nationalism, but to all social movements to have appeared in the West since 1965), these fortunes and misfortunes of culture have been marked, in Quebec, by internal polemics and debates which are linked to the principal theoretical currents occuring in the human sciences emerging particularly from France and the United States. Following a period dominated by a conception of culture as coherence, cohesion and identity, key issues in Marxism overshadowed the approach of culture-cohesion problematic and its concern for the totality, expressed above all in its articulation of social relations. Following upon the macro approach of this period is a cultural resurgence marked by a return to the subject, an affirmation of meaning and sense, a critique of economism coupled with a conception of culture which is both more vigorous and concrete. At the conclusion, key links between the developing cultural discourse and Quebecois neo-nationalism of the last 25 years are emphasized.
Fortunes and misfortunes of culture: sociology and anthropology of culture in francophone Quebec, [...]