From Rhyme to Rights: Children’s Poetry and Minoritized Voices in Francophone Canada

Abstract

This article explores a corpus of Francophone children’s poetry published in Western Canada between 1985 and 2008, analyzing how these texts construct cultural identity through poetic form, territorial inscription, and ideological layering. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from children’s literature studies (Nières-Chevrel, Prince, Van der Linden), minority discourse theory (Paré, Cardinal), and cultural poetics, the article proposes the concept of a poetics of vulnerable cohabitation as a key to understanding the dual literary and communal function of these works. These poems, whether didactic, lyrical, or playful, are not merely texts to be read, but cultural acts situated within a fragile sociolinguistic ecology. In this ecology, French-language poetry for children performs the work of symbolic anchoring, fostering collective memory and identity through repetition, rhythm, and place-based imagery. Such poetic performativity aligns with Butler’s (1997) theory of language as a constitutive act, where utterances do not merely reflect reality but actively shape identities and relations. The analysis highlights how this literature both reflects and resists the pedagogical, ideological, and aesthetic pressures of minority life. Particular attention is paid to the works of David Bouchard and André Duhaime, whose writings exemplify tensions between heritage and hybridity, between performativity and introspection. By foregrounding the poetic, the communal, and the precarious, this article invites renewed scholarly attention to the underestimated literary and cultural significance of minority Francophone children’s poetry in Canada.

Keywords:Francophone children’s literature; minority poetics; vulnerable cohabitation; cultural identity; Canadian Prairies; pedagogical ideology

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/108-01

Publication date:August 31^st 2025