“C’est mon signe de vie que d’écrire comme à la fontaine de couler». Le Journal d’Eugénie de Guérin, une invitation à écrire pour Laure Conan

Abstract

Since its publication, Angéline de Montbrunhas been heavily compared toEugénie de Guérin’s work. Both substantial and formal similarities between those two workshave served as examples to support this thesis. Wasn’t it, after all, Henri-Raymond Casgrain, “the father of French-Canadian literature”, who used to refer to Laure Conan as “the Eugénie de Guérin of Canada”? While revealing some common features in both works, as well as similarities in the circumstances under which they were written, this article aims to obviate the need for strictly considering links between women’s writing in order to give their works a more universal reach. As highlighted by Rachel Sauvé, it seems, indeed, much more pertinent to observe and identify the authors’ attempts to overcome the many limits of traditional writing in order to read and re-write against all traditional constraints.