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Antonine Maillet has been hailed as the "soul of contemporary Acadian Literature" for her work which reflects the "dialect and heritage of the Acadian people".[1]Her many honors include a Governor General's Award, the coveted French Prix Goncourt, and a number of honorary doctorates.
Antonine was born in 1929. She is the daughter of Léonide Maillet and Virginie Cormier. [2]
Antonine Maillet grew up on the coast of New Brunswick, in a life intertwined with a rich Acadian heritage, fanciful legends, and folk tales.[3]
In 1931, two-year-old Antonine was the youngest of the eight children of Leonide and Virginie Maillet. The eight children ranged in age from Antonine at two to Anna at 14. The family identified their heritage as French, and their mother tongue as French. The Maillets were living in Wellington, New Brunswick, Canada where Leonide was a salesman at a retail store.[4]
Antonine attended the Université Laval and received a Ph.D. in literature. She taught at that institution among others. She published her first novel in 1958, and went on to write nearly 20 more, plus a number of plays.[1]
Antonine's Acadian heritage set the stage for many of her notable works. According to the University of Ottawa, who awarded Maillet an honorary doctorate, "Before [Antonine Maillet], Acadian fiction existed only in oral tradition".[5] Her cultural ties to the Acadians were evident in her novel "Pelagie", which dealt with the return of a band of sojourners to their homeland after their forced expulsion by Britain in the mid-eighteenth century.[6] In Pelagie, Maillet masterfully used a blend of folk tales, unusual syntax, and a variety of literary devices to portray the feelings of the exiles for their homeland, their community, and their independence. For her efforts, Maillet was awarded the French Prix Goncourt Award.[7]
Maillet's one-woman stage play titled "la Sagouine" also dealt with Acadian culture and heritage and was performed over 600 times throughout Canada and in Paris. [8]
Maillet attributed her literary success to leaving behind the "King's French" and using the language spoken by the people around her. In writing the way that "real people" spoke, she was, in her words, liberated. Her work has focused on the language and culture of the Acadian people -- people who, at the time of the interview in the 1970s made-up 40 percent of the New Brunswick population and were still struggling with an oppression that began in 1762.[9]
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Antonine is 23 degrees from Herbert Adair, 24 degrees from Richard Adams, 23 degrees from Mel Blanc, 25 degrees from Dick Bruna, 23 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 35 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 24 degrees from Sam Edwards, 22 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 25 degrees from Marty Krofft, 20 degrees from Junius Matthews, 18 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 24 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
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Categories: New Brunswick, Authors | Notables