Louky Bersianik arrived on the Quebec literary scene in 1976 with her best-selling novel L'Euguélionne , which perhaps more than any other individual work heralded the arrival of feminism in Quebec literature. She has also produced several stories for children, a substantial body of poetry and of theoretical work, and a second novel, Le Pique-nique sur l'Acropole (1979). While sharing in the feminist movement which transformed the themes of Quebec literature begining in the late 1970s, her work distinguishes itself by its broad-ranging cultural references, its use of humor and parody, and its blend of theory and fiction that is both polemical and irresistibly funny. A product of the classical college system of pre-1960s Quebec, Bersianik uses her detailed knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Christian mythology in a devastating attack on the original texts of Western patriarchal society.

Bersianik was born Lucile Durand, 14 November 1930, in Montreal. Her parents...