Transgressing invisible borders: Hutchison Street

Hutchison Street was historically the border between two cities in Quebec, Montreal and Outremont, and more recently, since the political merging of former municipalities on the Island of Montreal, became the city limit between two contrasting neighbourhoods, Outremont and the Mile End. Yet, it has rarely been represented as such in literature. This all changed very rapidly with the recent publication of four novels in French, Hadassa (2006) by Myriam Beaudoin, Lekhaim! (2006) by Malka Zipora, Judas (2007) by Tassia Trifiatis, and Le sourire de la petite juive (2011) by Abla Farhoud, all of which depict the Hassidic community of Montreal settled on both side of the “invisible frontier”. The aim of my conference is to question and analyze this literary phenomenon, in relation to the problematic of diversity and transgressive writing.