The writer Marie-Célie Agnant launched her series of lectures on Monday night in Craig Lecture Hall with a provocative lecture on “Migrant Literature in Quebec.”

Agnant, who originally hails from Haiti, has lived in Montreal for over 24 years. Her personal background and her experiences in the famously multilingual Quebec province enabled her to speak eloquently about issues of language, origin, nationality and ethnicity in literature.

Monday’s lecture was the first of five classes taught by Agnant as part of a weeklong “mini-course” sponsored by the department of French and Italian.

Though the conference was conducted in English, its companion courses will be conducted entirely in French and will be open only to students enrolled in the course. They will read key representations of migrant literature and discuss them in a class dialogue with the writer.

Agnant’s discourse largely consisted of references to Quebec’s current leading “migrant writers.” These controversial literati write in French and have often lived in Quebec for decades. However, in an age when “ethnicity makes headlines,” they diverge from the Quebecois literary mainstream in their diverse national origins.

Though Agnant identified 1945 as the year of the appearance of the first truly Quebecois literature, representation of migrant Quebecois has been a long time coming.

This is a result of a common desire to preserve traditionally white Quebec heritage and a reluctance on the part of many Quebec Anglophones and Francophones alike to see French-speaking ethnic minorities as true residents of the province among other factors.

Stratification in the social status and power roles of Quebecois based on language has led to what Agnant called a “linguistic schizophrenia.” Many citizens of her province speak one language at work, another in the home and, especially in the case of young men and women, a third language among friends.

English is increasingly popular due to its hip allure among youth, while French, as an official language taught in many Quebec schools, maintains an air of superiority.

Many immigrants speak their native tongues, such as Italian, at home, further confusing the lines between political and ethnic identity. Agnant presented modern Quebec as a province full of both adults and young people “fragmented by language politics.”

Still, the status of immigrant writers in Quebec has improved. Instead of dwelling in the same degree on matters of language, exclusion and isolation as they did in the past, such authors have “evolved” into dealing with issues such as exile and adaptation to a new homeland.

As a commentator on the multifaceted nature of Quebec society and literature, Agnant dealt with the intersections of ethnic identity, nationality and true citizenship in a humane and enlightening manner.