This book traces the remarkable journey of Hébert's shifting authorial
identity as versions of her work traveled through complex and contested
linguistic and national terrain from the late 1950s until today. At the
center of this exploration of Hébert's work are the people who were
inspired by her poetry to translate and more widely disseminate her
poems to a wider audience. Exactly how did this one woman's work travel
so much farther than the vast majority of Québécois authors? Though the
haunting quality of her art partly explains her wide appeal, her work
would have never traveled so far without the effort of scores of
passionately committed translators, editors, and archivists. Though the
work of such "middle men" is seldom recognized, much less scrutinized as
a factor in shaping the meaning and reach of an artist, in Herbert's
case, the process of translating Hébert's poetry has left in its wake a
number of archival and other paratextual resources that chronicle the
individual acts of translation and their reception. Though the impact of
translation, editions, and archival work has been largely ignored in
studies of Canadian literary history, the treasure trove of such
paratextual records in Hébert's case allows us to better understand the
reach of her work. More importantly, it provides insight into and raises
critical questions about the textually mediated process of
nation-building and literary canon formation.
