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Marcel Trudel

Marcel Trudel
CC GOQ
Born(1917-05-29)May 29, 1917
Saint-Narcisse-de-Champlain, Quebec, Canada
DiedJanuary 11, 2011(2011-01-11) (aged 93)
Longueuil, Quebec, Canada
OccupationHistorian
Known forCritical review of the history of New France
Spouse(s)(1) Anne Chrétien (1942)
(2) Micheline D'Allaire (1970)
Children3
AwardsOrder of Canada
National Order of Quebec
Governor General's Literary Award for French Non-Fiction, 1966
Academic background
Alma materUniversité Laval (doctorate, 1945)
Harvard University (post-doctoral studies)
Academic work
DisciplineHistorian
Sub-disciplineHistory of New France
InstitutionsUniversité Laval
Carleton University
University of Ottawa
Main interestsHistory of New France
Notable worksHistoire de la Nouvelle-France (six of seven volumes)
Deux siècles d'esclavage au Canada (published in English as Canada's Forgotten Slaves: Two Hundred Years of Bondage)

Marcel Trudel CC GOQ (May 29, 1917 – January 11, 2011) was a Canadian historian, university professor (1947–1982) and author who published more than 40 books on the history of New France. He brought academic rigour to an area that had been marked by nationalistic and religious biases. His work was part of the marked changes to Quebec society during the Quiet Revolution. Trudel's work has been honoured with major awards, including the Governor General's Literary Award for French Non-Fiction in 1966, and a second nomination for the award in 1987.

Early life and education

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Marcel Trudel was born in Saint-Narcisse-de-Champlain, Quebec, northeast of Trois-Rivières, the son of Hermyle Trudel and Antoinette Cossette, the ninth of eleven children. Orphaned at the age of five, he was adopted by a local couple in his extended family, Théodore Baril and Mary Trépanier.[1][2]

He showed great academic progress and spent some months at a seminary at Trois-Rivières, but concluded that the priesthood was not for him. Rather, he had a particular interest in literature and hoped to make his living as a writer. He earned a licence ès lettres (cum laude) in 1941 and a Doctorat ès lettres (magna cum laude) in 1945, both from Université Laval. He then had two years of post-doctoral studies at Harvard University before returning to Laval to teach history.[1][2][3]

Career

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In 1947, Trudel was the first professor of history in Laval's newly founded Institute of History. He went on to become head of the History department. From 1955 to 1960, he published on many subjects that the Catholic hierarchy controlling the university found scandalous, such as: "Chiniquy" (the first French Catholic priest who became a Presbyterian minister), "The Canadian Catholic Church under the English Military Government, in 1759-1764", and "The Slaves in New France" (most of them being Amerindian and belonging even to the Catholic Church masters). As of 1962, Trudel was also president of the For Laïcité Movement in Quebec City. It was too much: in 1962, under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church, Laval University demoted him from his position as head of the History department.

In 1961, Laval University Press joined with the University of Toronto Press in establishing the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB). Trudel served as the Associate General Editor from 1961 to 1965, working with the General Editor, George Williams Brown, a historian at the University of Toronto. They collaborated both in organizing the over-all project, which has published 15 print volumes and is on-going, and in editing the first volume, which covered the period from 1000 to 1700 and was published in 1966. The DCB is published simultaneously in English and French and has been widely recognized as one of the most important scholarly undertakings in Canada.

Beginning in the 1960s, Marcel Trudel publicly expressed his opposition to Quebec nationalism and the Quebec sovereignty movement, seeing these ideas as a break with the other French-speaking communities in Canada, a fragmentation of these communities on the North American continent and a denial of the historical French and English duality that has shaped Canada. He maintained these opinions throughout his life.[4]

In 1965, Trudel left Laval University and Quebec City to live near Ottawa and taught at Carleton University. The next year, he began teaching at the University of Ottawa after the Ontario government took over the university from the Catholic Oblate Fathers. Having reached age 65 in 1982, he was relieved of his lecturing duties, but he continued to write from his home near Montreal until the year he died; half of his books were published in retirement. In 1993, he also began lecturing at a university to seniors' groups.

Trudel's life's work was the history of New France, in particular his monumental and authoritative Histoire de la Nouvelle-France. Planned to be ten volumes in collaboration with another Quebec historian, Guy Frégault, Trudel wrote six volumes in the series, published between 1963 and 1999.[5] Trudel meticulously reviewed the primary sources and criticized previous accounts in his effort to tell the colony's story without what he viewed as pious or nationalist bias.

Family and death

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In 1942, Trudel married Anne Chrétien, with whom he had three children. He married again in 1970, to Micheline D'Allaire, who was also a professor of history at the University of Ottawa.[1]

Trudel died at the age of 93 on January 11, 2011, of generalized cancer.[1] He left his three children, plus six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Selected Honours

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Works and publications

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Trudel was a prolific author. He worked primarily in French,[12] but some of his works also appeared in English, via translation.[13]

Works in French

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1946-1949

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1950-1959

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1960-1969

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1970-1979

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1980-1989

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1990-1993

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2000-2005

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Works in English

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See also

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Marcel Trudel - French language article on Wikipédia français

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Marcel Trudel website: Biographie. Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ a b c Les Prix du Québec: Prix Léon-Gérin 2001.
  3. ^ Emeritus professor Marcel Trudel dies Archived 2011-01-18 at the Wayback Machine, University of Ottawa, retrieved 12th Jan 2011.
  4. ^ Dorais, François-Olivier (2022). L'École historique de Québec. Une histoire intellectuelle (in French). Montreal: Boréal. pp. 124–127. ISBN 9782764627365.
  5. ^ Marcel Trudel website: "Oeuvre inachevée". Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ Royal Society of Canada, J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal for outstanding work in the field of the history of Canada.
  7. ^ Canada Council for the Arts / Conseil des arts du Canada, Governor General’s Literary Awards: Past Winners and Finalists.
  8. ^ Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, Ludger-Duvernay Prize, for individuals who have distinguished themselves in the field of literature.
  9. ^ a b Order of Canada
  10. ^ Canadian Historical Association / Société historique du Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald Prize (now the CHA Best Scholarly Book in Canadian History Prize).
  11. ^ a b Ordre national du Québec : Marcel Trudel (1917-2011).
  12. ^ Marcel Trudel website: Bibliographie Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Marcel Trudel website: Books in English (1954-2002) Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ^ Louis Cornellier (August 2, 2008). "La vérité selon l'historien Marcel Trudel". Le Devoir (reproduit sur www.vigile.net). Retrieved January 12, 2011..
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