“Friendship is Better than Family”: Women’s Friendships in Quebec Fiction
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Abstract
It has traditionally been assumed that women’s main goal in life is matrimony and that relationships among women are dominated by competition and rivalry. This article traces a history of women’s friendships in the Quebec novel since its beginnings, suggesting that another story, the story of love, support and solidarity among women, runs beneath the surface intrigue (the marriage plot). Since women’s friendships suggest female-centred values and possible resistance to patriarchal oppression, the question, though played out in the private sphere, becomes a public and collective one, entwined with issues of power, autonomy, social norms and social justice
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