Abstract

Between 1976 and 1980, filmmaker Pierre Perrault released four films shot in Northern Quebec that formed an ensemble called ±the Abitibian Cycle». These films deal with the uncertain future of the agriculture in the area. Although they are today acknowledged as masterworks, they were rather considered passé and antiquated at the time of their release at the end of the ±Quiet Revolution». This is a misleading perception since the Abitibian Cycle is not at all concerned with a backward medievalism but instead with the ravages created by the transformation of an agrarian economy (based on colonization) into a capitalist one. This study will demonstrate that a ±Patriot» figure stands out in the Cycle and that it is a powerful witness to this social phenomenon. Rooted in Quebec history, the Patriot is much more than a figure of political resistance. It partakes in a symbolic reclaiming of a past rejected by most Quebecers as an ±injurious atavism». In the following analysis, the Patriot figure incorporates several social traits forming a bridge between the 19 th Century Lower-Canada and the 20 th Century Quiet Revolution in Quebec: sudden abolition of the feudal peasantry, proletarianazation of the masses, modernization of the economic means, and so on. The Rebellions of the 19 th Century were crucial in creating the national ideal in Quebec since they gave birth to the Patriot figure which is fundamental in understanding its Great National Narrative. As this study will show, the emergence of the Patriot figure also generates some interpretative problems whether we approach it from its popular or elitist aspect. Those dimensions will actually reveal two historical functions of the figure: the revolutionary and the reactionary.