Asymmetrical Hybridities: Youths at Francophone Games in Canada

Abstract

The purpose of this ethnographic comparative study of the Jeux de l’Acadie, the Jeux\nfranco-ontariens and the Alberta Francophone Games is to explore further how minority youth\nidentities are produced and manifested in Canada’s francophonies. Through interviews, drawings\nand questionnaires adolescents express and give meaning to their francophoneness in the context\nof the Games. The analysis reveals that francophone identities are reproduced as a component of\nhybrid identities. This hybridity refers to youths’ integration of once distinct francophone and\nanglophone cultural identities into a “hybrid” identity. This paper examines the different\nconfigurations of these hybrid cultural and linguistic identities, where some youths spontaneously\nand mostly live in French but insist on their hybridity, while other youths perform predominantly\nas anglophones but remain attached to their francophoneness. Indeed, Acadian youths primarily\nperform a singular francophone identity while Franco-Ontarian and Alberta francophone youths\nmanifest a rather complex and asymmetrical mélange of francophoneness and anglophoneness.