Autour de Maïr

For many centuries, women's literature was considered to belong to the domestic sphere, to concerns involving the home or family correspondence. It was long held that women could only write letters or their private diaries. "For me, reaching out to literature was like emerging from the wilderness," says Jeanne Hyvrard. Co-founder and first director of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute (Montreal, 1978), Maïr Verthuy introduced the first course in women's literature at Canadian universities and opened the way for women's writing to be published, read, taught, and translated. (Montreal World Film Festival)