Terres de nos aïeux : la représentation du territoire historique dans l’historiographie canadienne-française

Migratory movements from Quebec between the mid-19th century and 1930 led to the establishment of Francophone communities in various regions of North America, thus creating contexts favourable to the formulation of historical discourse. In the course of this dissertation, we analyze whether this discourse contributed to the great historical narrative of the French-Canadian nation, or if it proposed a region-specific narrative. The dissertation compares the historiography produced in Quebec to that emerging in the periphery, in Ontario, Western Canada and New England, examining more specifically the representations of historical territory and the development of a discours d’enracinement (or a sense of rootedness). This comparative study provides a better understanding of the dynamics between regions and nation that influence historical narrative in French Canadian history. Spanning more than a century, the study focuses on certain key moments in historical production in Quebec and in the selected regions we study. By drawing parallels between historical production in Quebec and in various minority settings, we examine the points of convergence and divergences between historical work in the regions and in Quebec. This dissertation therefore examines the place of the nation and the region in historical discourse, through the analysis of the discours d’enracinement or sense of rootedness, in order to understand the role it plays in Quebec’s historiography and in historical work being produced in the French Canadian diaspora until the 1960s. The objective here is to highlight regional experiences and the similarities and contrasts that have generally escaped researchers.