“The point of developing Québec Studies around the world is not simply to maintain a university network, but to favour scientific exchanges and a better understanding of minority cultures. The idea of cultural diversity, directly inspired by the ecological concept of biological diversity, promotes the richness and necessity of diversity, which by extension involves the flourishing and understanding of the cultures of small nations.”

Daniel Chartier is professor of literature at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Editor of the Revue internationale d’études québécoises, Globe, he recently published an essay on the emergence of literary classics in Québec (L’émergence des classiques, Fides, 2000), a guide to Québec culture and literature (Guide de culture et de littérature québécoises, Nota bene, 1999). He is preparing a dictionary of Quebec’s immigrant writers (Dictionnaire des écrivains émigrés au Québec, 1800-1999) and is a regular contributor to the collective project of a history of Quebec’s literary life (Histoire de la vie littéraire au Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval, 1999-).

Methodology, Problems and Perspectives in Québec Studies In this book, the author reviews the history of the institutionalization of Québec Studies around the world, while identifying how they have come to be structured, be it through Canadian Studies or Francophone Studies. He also refers to the challenges raised by interdisciplinarity, the use of French as a language of scientific diffusion, as well as the problems and future perspectives of Québec Studies.