Nineteenth-century critical reception of Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau's Charles Guerin. The emergence of a national literature (Francophone Canada)

For Abbe Henri-Raymond Casgrain and his contemporaries, the desire to found a national literature in French Canada is connected with a determination t o appreciate literary works according to the ultramontanist ideology convey ed by the ecclesiastical authorities of the period. Pierre-Joseph-Olivier C hauveau's novel Charles Guerin, in addition to eliciting widespread interes t from literary critics, contributed to the literary effervescence that mar ked the second half of the 19th century. This article therefore proposes to analyse Charles Guerin's critical reception in the 19th century in order t o identify the aesthetic standards prevailing in the evaluation of literary production in the context of an emerging literature.