Abstract

Quebec society currently lives with an acute awareness of the "other." Questions regarding immigration have turned the traditional linguistic debate among francophones and anglophones upside down; likewise, the ambiguous desire for a culturally specific "projet de société" leaves newcomers to Quebec in a precarious place. The debate over issues surrounding the problematic of the "other" in Quebec (integration, assimilation, etc.) has provided a forum in which to contest the idealization of a purist québécois identity. This essay considers the transgressive treatment of cosmopolitanism in the work of Antonio d'Alfonso and places it within the contexts of l'écriture migrante and the hegemonic discourse of the welcoming society.