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{{Short description|Canadian writer}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=November 2024}}
[[File:Gerard Bessette.jpg|thumb|Gérard Bessette]]

'''Gérard Bessette''' (25 February 1920 – 21 February 2005) was a Canadian writer and educator.

== Life and career ==
Bessette was born in [[Sainte-Anne-de-Sabrevois]], Quebec, and grew up in [[Montreal]]. He attended the [[Collège Saint-Ignace]]. He continued his studies at the [[Université de Montréal]], where in 1950 he completed his [[doctorate]]. His [[Thesis|doctoral thesis]] was published in 1960 as ''Images in French-Canadian Poetry'' (''Les images en poésie canadienne-française'').<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bessette |first=Gérard |url=http://archive.org/details/lesimagesenpoesi0000bess |title=Les images en poésie canadienne-française |date=1960 |publisher=Montréal : Éditions Beauchemin |others=Internet Archive}}</ref>

Unable to obtain an academic position in Quebec because of his [[atheism]], he taught at [[Duquesne University]] in [[Pittsburgh]] from 1951 to 1957. He then found a job in Kingston, Ontario, first at [[Royal Military College of Canada]] in 1958, and then in the Department of French Studies at [[Queen's University at Kingston|Queen's University]] from 1959 to 1979.

== Writing ==
When he was 28, his early poem "Le Coureur" was selected to compete in the "Literature, Lyric Works" subcategory of the [[Art competitions at the 1948 Summer Olympics|art competition at the 1948 Summer Olympics]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Gérard Bessette |url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/902731 |accessdate=21 August 2020 |work=Olympedia}}</ref>

Several of Bessette's works address issues that led to and were representative of the [[Quiet Revolution]], a series of societal shifts that took place in Quebec during the 1960s, which saw increased secularization and a general movement away from the influence of the [[Catholic Church]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}} His literary criticism is noted for its [[Freud]]ian readings of [[Quebec literature]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}

One of his most famous novels is ''Not for Every Eye'' (''Le Libraire'', 1960), an [[existentialism|existential]] tale of a [[book store]] employee in a small Quebec town in the 1950s. The book deals with one of Bessette's most common themes: the stifling culture of Quebec of that time.{{Citation needed|date=October 2025}}

In the 1960s, he was influenced by the [[nouveau roman|Nouveau Roman]] literary movement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Macé |first=Suzanne |url=https://archive.org/details/litteraturesmela0000unse |title=Littératures: mélanges littéraires |publisher=Hurtubise |year=1971 |editor-last=Ethier-Blais |editor-first=Jean |pages=227–233 |chapter=Le nouveau roman au Québec}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Harger |first=Virginia Ann |title=Alienation and the search for self in the "nouveau roman" of France and of Quebec |date=1973 |publisher=University of British Columbia |url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0101160 |language=en}}</ref> His novels became increasingly experimental, drawing comparisons to [[Claude Simon]], one of his favourite writers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richardson |first=Nicole L. |date=1996 |others=Université D'Ottawa / University Of Ottawa |title=Du lecteur réel au lecteur fictif : essai de sociopoétique des quatre premiers romans de Gérard Bessette. |url=http://ruor.uottawa.ca/handle/10393/10399 |journal=Masters Abstracts International |doi=10.20381/RUOR-16812}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Boussaid |first=Nadir |date=2006 |title=Towards new comparisons Gérard Bessette's "Le libraire" and Albert Camus "L'étranger" a transtextual study |url=https://hdl.handle.net/11143/2490 |website=Savoirs UdeS}}</ref> ''L'Incubation'' (1965) and ''Le Cycle'' (1971) both won the [[Governor General's Award for French-language fiction]]. In 1980, he was awarded the [[Prix Athanase-David]], Quebec's highest literary honour.

He died in [[Kingston, Ontario]], on 21 February 2005.

== Bibliography ==

=== Novels ===
*''La Bagarre'' (1958). ''The Brawl'', trans. Marc Lebel and Ronald Sutherland (Harvest House, 1976)
*''Le Libraire'' (1960). ''Not for Every Eye'', trans. Glen Shortliffe (Macmillan of Canada, 1962); translation later revised by Steven Urquhart (Exile Editions, 2010)
*''Les Pédagogues'' (1961)
*''L'Incubation'' (1965). ''Incubation'', trans. Glen Shortliffe (Macmillan of Canada, 1967)
*''Le Cycle'' (1971). ''The Cycle'', trans. A.D. Martin-Sperry (Exile Editions, 1987)
*''La Commensale'' (1975)
*''Les Anthropoïdes'' (1977)
*''Le Semestre'' (1979)
*''Les Dires d'Omer Marin'' (1985)

=== Essays ===

* ''Les Images en poésie canadienne-française'' (1960; 1967)
* ''Une littérature en ébullition'' (1968)
* ''Histoire de la littérature canadienne-française par les textes : des origines à nos jours'' (edited with Lucien Geslin and Charles Parent, 1968)
* ''De Québec à Saint-Boniface'' (editor, 1968)
* ''Trois romanciers québécois : [[Victor-Lévy Beaulieu]], [[André Langevin]], [[Gabrielle Roy]]'' (1973)
* ''Mes romans et moi'' (1979)

=== Other ===

* ''Poèmes temporels'' (1954)
* ''La Garden-party de Christophine'' (1980, short stories)

== Awards and honours ==

* 1947: [[Prix David|Prix du Concours littéraire de la province de Québec]] for ''Le coureur et autres poèmes''
* 1961: ''Le Libraire'' selected by the "Grand Jury des lettres" as one of the 10 best novels of the previous 15 years<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 20, 1961 |title=Les lauréats du Grand Jury |url=https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2778190 |work=Le Devoir |pages=8}}</ref>
* 1965: [[Governor General's Award for French-language fiction]] for ''L'Incubation''
* 1965: Prix du Concours littéraire de la province de Québec for ''L'Incubation''
* 1966: Member of the [[Royal Society of Canada]]
* 1971: Governor General's Award for French-language fiction for ''Le Cycle''
* 1980: [[Prix Athanase-David]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* France, Peter (Ed.) (1995). ''The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. {{ISBN|0-19-866125-8}}.
*[http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=461510975 "Gérard Bessette," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009] ([https://archive.today/20240524180017/https://www.webcitation.org/5kwqPUoJB?url=http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx%3Frefid=461510975 Archived] 2009-10-31)

==External links==
* [http://www.prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/recherche/desclaureat.asp?noLaureat=46 Remise du prix du Québec]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bessette, Gerard}}
[[Category:1920 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Montérégie]]
[[Category:Writers from Quebec]]
[[Category:Governor General's Award–winning fiction writers]]
[[Category:Prix Athanase-David winners]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Royal Military College of Canada]]
[[Category:French-language Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male novelists]]
[[Category:Art competitors at the 1948 Summer Olympics]]
[[Category:Canadian expatriate writers in the United States]]
[[Category:Collège Ahuntsic alumni]]
[[Category:Novelists from Ontario]]
[[Category:Novelists from Quebec]]

Gérard Bessette - Revision history

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