Papineau: Intentions & Outcomes

In October 1837, the British authorities were fearing an imminent rebellion - and with it, Canada following the Thirteen Colonies into open revolt.

The British fears centred on Saint-Charles, where Speaker of the Lower Canada Legislative Assembly, the Honourable Louis-Joseph Papineau was addressing the crowd. This gathering was known as the 'Assemblée des six-comtés'.

This Assembly was an open air public rally, the most influential of the popular assemblies held that year by supporters of the Parti Patriote. Assembled here were the leaders of their movement, each imploring them to challenge the 'pernicious, unconstitutional' governing power (Papineau, 1867).

Papineau was an outspoken advocate of challenging the Governor & Council through boycotts of British goods (Storrow Brown, 1872) - boycotts designed to humble the power of the colonial authorities by removing the provincial coffers from their grasp.

But others promoted a more extreme path, pushing for armed resistance (Wrong, 2009).

Monsieur Papineau, who had opposed arming against the colonial authorities, none-the-less found himself the subject of a treason warrant (Storrow Brown, 1872). Due to this act of victim blame, another of many on the part of the colonial authorities, Papineau spent the next decade in exile.

This struggle in Lower Canada raises the question: how far can an author be responsible for their audiences?

In reader-response criticism, the perspective and knowledge of the reader has serious influence upon the meanings extracted from a text (Davis & Womack, 2002). From Narnia author CS Lewis to Name of the Rose author Umberto Eco, proposals have been made to shift the focus of critique from the text itself to the reader. Lewis and Eco highlighted the experience of the reader as being influential in determining both the quality of the text and the meaning contained within it.

Those ideas have important implications for political thought. If Thomas Jefferson stands as an example of the extent to which authors can exert their influence, then Louis-Joseph Papineau stands as a warning that limitations exist - and that a great share of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the reader to engage with and understand works.

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References:
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+ 'Speech of the Hon. Louis-Joseph Papineau before the Institut canadien on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of this society'; December 17, 1867.

+ Thomas Storrow Brown's 'Brief Sketch of the Life and Times of the Hon. Louis-Joseph Papineau'; in Dominion Monthly; January 1872.

+ George M Wrong's 'THE Chronicles of Canada - Volume VII: The struggle for political freedom'; Fireship, 2009.

+ Todd F Davis & Prof Kenneth Womack's 'Formalist Criticism and Reader-Response Theory (Transitions)'; Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.