Description
In Beheading the Saint, Geneviève Zubrzycki studies that transformation through a close investigation of the once a year Feast of St. John the Baptist of June 24. The celebrations of that national holiday, she shows, provided a venue for a public contesting of the dominant ethno-Catholic conception of French Canadian identity and, by the use of the violent rejection of Catholic symbols, the articulation of a new, secular Québécois identity. From there, Zubrzycki extends her analysis to the present, having a look at the role of Québécois identity in up to date debates over immigration, the place of religious symbols in the public sphere, and the politics of cultural heritage—issues that also offer insight on similar debates in different places on the earth.