SOURCE: "Subversion Is the Order of the Day," in Essays on Canadian Writing, Nos. 7/8, Fall, 1977, pp. 17-25.

In the following essay, Bayard compares Brossard's earlier work to her later writing, tracing her growth as a writer.

It has been said about Québécois writers that they start writing earlier and produce more than their English Canadian or European counterparts, as if the inner pressures and the cultural motivations which sustain them are intensely productive. Whether or not this generalization is valid, it holds true for Nicole Brossard. In 1965, when she was 22, her first volume of poetry, Aube à la saison, was published, and in that same year she founded La Bane du Jour; and her next, Mordre en sa chair, came out the following year.

It is surprising to examine these early works today in the light of her later, more daring, and complex avant-garde experiments, for they...