Jacques Poulin’s "Volkswagen Blues": A journey through American texts
Abstract
This article analyses the intertextuality of the novel Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin, a French-Canadian take on the road novel. The aim of the paper is to examine not only the relationships between Volkswagen Blues and its culturally diverse sources, but also to show how those multicultural intertexts permeate the road novel genre. In order to achieve this purpose, the study identifies in the novel instances of intertextuality which are analyzed within Genette’s framework for transtextuality. Considering the intertextual presence in Volkswagen Blues, the analysis ponders whether it is limited to this novel or is a manifestation of Americanness and, thus, a piece of evidence of multiculturality in the hegemonic American discourse. The study shows how Poulin depicts the crucial role of non-Anglo-American identities in contemporary American culture and explains the influence of world literatures in Poulin’s work
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