Pierre Vadeboncoeur

Career Highlights and Publications

Pierre Vadeboncoeur became an employee of the Catholic Trade Union Association (known as the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) since 1960). After studying law and economics, he worked in business, freelance journalism and translation. During the 1949 Asbestos Strike he allied himself with Jean Marchand, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Gérard Pelletier and, especially, with the mine workers.

Vadeboncoeur contributed to the magazines Cité libre, Parti pris and Socialisme before becoming a regular columnist for the Montreal newspaper Liberté. His first important article was "La Ligne du risque," about Paul-Émile Borduas and the creative artist as a prophet of liberty. The essay gave both title and tone to a somewhat disparate collection published in 1963. The tone of the collection Lettres et colères (1969) echoed that of the great French Catholic pamphleteers.

He also brought together polemical articles about Quebec nationalism, Un Génocide en douce (1976) and Chaque jour, l'indépendance (1978). Indépendances (1972), however, is not a political thesis but a cultural essay about youth and youth movements after Marcuse and the events of May 1968 in Paris. Les Deux Royaumes (1978) explores the limits inherent in any system, attacks reason for its authoritarianism, and defends intuition, meditation and spirituality.

Other books by Vadeboncoeur are L'Autorité du peuple (1965); Un Amour libre (1970); La Dernière heure et la première (1973); Dix-sept tableaux d'enfant (1991), on the metamorphosis of a child into a painter, and Qui est le chevalier? (1998). Other essays explore the expressions and silences of love: L'Absence (1985) and Le Bonheur excessif (1992). After denouncing American imperialism and cultural homogenization in Trois essais sur l'insignifiance (1993), the polemicist is overtaken by history: Gouverner ou disparaître (1993), between two referendums. His Essais inactuels (1987) focus on reading, the visual arts, and the “inner gaze.” Vivement un autre siècle! (1996) attempts to reclaim subjectivity amidst objects.

Honours

The recipient of numerous awards, Pierre Vadeboncoeur has been honored with, among others, the Grand Prix littéraire de la Ville de Montréal in 1979, the Ludger Duvernay Prize in 1971, the Athanase David Prize, as well as the Victor Barbeau Prize in 2001 and 2008, and the Medal of the Académie des lettres du Québec.