De l’usage et du recyclage du joual, langue des écrivains «chiffonniers» de la Révolution tranquille

This article looks at the evolution of the commentary on the spoken French of Quebec and the dispute it has provoked, but only with regard to the involvement of the authors who first made it the subject of nationalist claims, and who were later called ‘écrivains joualisants’ (writers of Joual, name that was given to the French sociolect of the Québécois working class). It examines a body of critical essays, interviews, poems, novels and preliminary speeches by the writers of the Quiet Revolution (André Major, Michel Tremblay, Gaston Miron, Jacques Ferron, Gerald Godin) and the Quebec press of the same period (1960s), in which the authors speak about their use of Joual. I attempt to retrace the meaning that was given to Joual speech and its literary use during and after the Quiet Revolution, as well as its recovery by certain Quebec linguists in the public debate.