Research
Dr. Defraeye’s research interests include but are not limited to the following:
- Québécois literature: terroir, migrant and indigenous literatures
- Franco-Ontarian literature
- Theories in ecocriticism and ecopoetics
- Environmental literature
- Nature in romanticism and transcendentalism
Dr. Defraeye’s research has been published in journals Voix Plurielles, @nalyses, Études littéraires, and Nouvelles Études Francophones and in many collective works. He recently edited a special issue of Nouvelles Études francophones (2018) focusing on the perception of nature and space in Québécois literature (19th-21st centuries) and co-edited a special issue of Études littéraires (2019) on ecopoetics in contemporary French and Québécois literatures.
Dr. Defraeye’s new research project analyses the essential contribution of Québécois indigenous literature to our understanding of the natural environment and the epistemological crisis it is going through. Focusing on local activism and resilience, authors such as Bernard Assiniwi, Joséphine Bacon, Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui and Rita Mestokosho, as well as publishing houses such as Mémoire d’encrier in Montreal and Hannenorak in Wendake, have been carrying traditional knowledge on environmental issues since their beginnings. Dr. Defraeye hopes an investigation of this emerging body of works will help put forward the expertise of the multiple voices of Inuit, Metis and First nations and bring a new approach to environmental issues.
Dr. Defraeye is the French editor for the journal The Goose and the co-founder and the French editor for the bilingual cultural platform Artis Natura. He is also the Vice-President (Francophone section) of the Association for Canadian and Québec Literatures (2019-2020).