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Alexandre Turgeon

Alexandre Turgeon

The Jean-Marie Fecteau Prize

2014

Alexandre Turgeon, « “Toé, tais-toé!” et la Grande Noirceur duplessiste. Genèse d’un mythistoire ». Histoire Sociale / Social History Vol. XLVI, no 92 (Novembre / November 2013).

Alexandre Turgeon’s “’Toé, tais-toé’ et la Grande noirceur duplessiste. Genèse d’un mythistoire,” is a fascinating exploration of the genesis and perpetuation of myths, exemplified by the equally fascinating story of a media outburst by Maurice Duplessis…which never actually happened. For Turgeon, the famed ‘Toé, tais-toé’ is a story about the interplay between reality and fiction. Through a close reading of the press, and in particular the work of caricaturist Robert La Palme, the author traces how the phrase took hold of the public imagination because it symbolized perfectly the perceived crude and authoritarian character of Duplessis and his regime. Turgeon’s well-crafted analysis of myth making advances our knowledge of the role played by the media in shaping public understandings of power during the Duplessis era. His micro historical approach successfully illustrates the “va-et-vient” between history and fiction and the process of elaboration of what he refers to as a mythistoire.