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

appear even more profitable to attempt to generate an 'interculture' by the fusion of the linguistic structures of two [or more] languages. (Ashcroft et al. 1989: 66) The systematic use of italics, the presence and the absence of translation equivalences, the phonetic immitation of "immigrant" speech all add to the colourful portrait of Québec's polyglossia, which is even further enriched by the author's playful handling of language(s) not excluding successful and highly original puns even across languages. The following passage is an illustration of how he switches back and forth among linguistic codes: "Comment?" Puzzled the pressure group of two. UY 'fou lui. Regardes pas

. My French not so fluid! But Jesus Maria! If I be good in French, I teach you good!" "Vincas!" Ona reprimanded him. "Ka tu cia kvailioji? Neerzink ju! Ainum nuomof" — Why are you fooling around? Don't bait them. Let's go home! "I very sorree for you, sir," One of the community women dared to answer back. "Is not my fault" "Commoonist make you see like dis!" Vincas poked out their eyes in jest " You comprenez?" "Nousne sommespas communistes" "Commonist! Somevere-my-love-socialist! Same phony baloney!" (28) The uninitiated reader may wonder about the readibility of such passages, but I wholly agree with Dasenbrock, who says that "to make it [a textl unintelligible is not to make it unmeaningful: the use of opaque foreign words can be part of a deliberate artistic strategy" (1987: 15). The writer's cross-cultural imagination originates in their regional consciousness in their own respective way. Raymond Filip's documentary realism illuminates the social reality of Québec in the near past while Mary Melfi's fictional world is more personal, though with a strong sense of the 99