Fernand Dorais

Fernand Dorais (March 8, 1928 – January 16, 2003) was a Canadian writer, Jesuit priest and academic. A professor of French literature and translation at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario from 1969 to 1993, he was noted for his work as a key builder of Franco-Ontarian cultural identity, through both his academic research and his role in the development of many of the Franco-Ontarian community's contemporary cultural institutions.

Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Dorais was educated at the Université de Montréal, Columbia University and the Sorbonne. He taught at Collège Sainte-Marie de Montréal and Collège Lionel-Groulx in Saint-Jérôme in the 1950s and 1960s before moving to Sudbury to join the faculty at Laurentian University.

Career

At Laurentian, he became the first major academic at any Canadian university to advocate for the study of Franco-Ontarian literature as a subject in its own right, rather than as a minor footnote to Quebec literature.

Dorais published several works of academic literature during his lifetime, including Entre Montréal… et Sudbury : pré-textes pour une francophonie ontarienne and Témoins d'errances en Ontario français : réflexions venues de l'amer. The book caused a minor scandal, and was withdrawn from publication in 1978 after Dorais bought out all the remaining copies of the book and burned them.

Works 1963: Mon babel 1970: Un temps des poètes a-temporel. À propos d'un livre de Gilles Marcotte: Le temps des poètes 1975: Hermaphrodismes (as Tristan Lafleur) 1984: Entre Montréal ...et Sudbury, Pré-textes pour une francophonie ontarienne 1990: Témoins d'errances en Ontario français : réflexions venues de l'amer 2011: Le recueil de Dorais, volume 1 – Les essais, textes réunis et présentés par Gaston Tremblay 2012: Le recueil de Dorais, volume 2 – Les trois contes d'androgynie 2016: Le recueil de Dorais, volume 3 – Mémoire d'un religieux québécois, 1928–1944