Representations of Brasil in contemporary Quebec literature

To a certain extent, the social space described by a novel reveals the imag inary world of the author searching for a kind of exile in distant, known o r dreamed-of spaces; it also indicates a desire to think differently. Margi nal inr elation to their own culture, strangers from the inside, writers tr avel--if only through their writing--to break the rules laid down by a nati onal culture. Quebec writers 'travelling' in Brazil meet a different space allowing them to speak of a world where cultural issues and interdictions a re different. A Brazilian woman living in Rio, I make the same journey in t he opposite direction. A privileged reader of Quebec authors, I watch them looking at us and I hand them a mirror. The representation of Brazil that t akes shape in this article is based on two interlocking glances. I don't kn ow if I will find naked truth at the bottom of a well, but I choose to init iate an intercultural dialogue, dealing with pitfalls as they appear along the way.