Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
STUDIES - Judit Molnár: Search for Identity in the English-language Writing of Allophone Quebecers
cultural existence are made by the various protagonists. To achieve this goal the primary means is to try and master each other's language at least to some extent as it is illustrated in each story without exception. The number of characters consciously trying to learn French even at old age is striking. It also testifies that a new attitude has been taking shape towards integration, but not assimilation into the society of Québec. The difference between the two is well-defined by the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism: ... integration 'does not imply the loss of an individual's identity and original characteristics of his original language and culture'. Assimilation , on the other hand, is 'almost total absorption into another linguistic and cultural group.' (SaintJacques 1985: 595) Hie reader is left with the feeling that the solution to the problems, the source of which can be identified in the internal politics of Québec, is to be found in intercultural mediation at different social levels. Political consciousness is present in Mary Melfi's novel, too, written about unmistakeably from the prespective of a protagonist, Nina, who belongs to the second generation of Italian —Canadian immigrants. Mary Melfi's immediate references to Québec are less direct and overwhelming than those of Raymond Filip's. Nina's standpoint is reflected in one of her paintings that foregrounds Italians with the two founding nations in the background at the historical moment when the fate of the British and the French was decided in North America. In one of her life-size paintings, for example, male giants are playing bocce with dolls dressed in traditional Italian attire. In the background —the battle of the Plains of Abraham. (175) Mary Melfi's protagonist can foresee a future for Canada when it would be swallowed up by the USA with Québec preserving its distinctiveness (84). Nina often thinks in terms of a North American context 102
