Populist Poetry in the 1930s: Jean Narrache and the Articulation of Powerlessness

摘要

This article focuses on Jean Narrache (pseudonym for Emile Coderre) who sought to give voice to the poor of Montreal as they struggled for survival during the Great Depression. Writing in their ideolect and thereby giving them a voice of their own, Narrache adopted the persona of a man living in poverty who reflects on the ironies attending the meagerness of social assistance, the role of class, the pretensions of the commercial elite, and the counterfeit philanthropy of the rich.