“The Rocket”: Newspaper Coverage of the Death of a Québec Cultural Icon, A Canadian Hockey Player

Abstract

Through a systematic analysis of the English and French newspaper coverage of the May 2000 death of ice hockey great Maurice “the Rocket” Richard, this paper explores the cultural divide that continues to exist between Québec and the rest of Canada. We find that the French Québec media used the death to reassert the prevailing représentation of Richard as a Symbol of francophone identity and nationalism. For their part, the English Canadian media were willing to surrender this particular hockey legend to French Québec. The findings point to an enduring cultural gulf between Canada’s two solitudes that even the supposedly unifying Symbol of hockey cannot transcend. The analysis also provides insight into how the media construct shared meaning for a defensively situated collectivity, as well as how such counter-hegemonic media discourses are received and negotiated by a dominant community.