About the Book La Souillonne, Monologue sur Scène Le personnage de la Souillonne est tiré du Petit Mangeur de Fleurs, roman de l’auteur paru il y a quelques années. Normand Beaupré trouvait si attachante cette femme marginalisée, portant sur ses épaules courbées le fardeau du mépris et d’un destin parfois accablant, qu’il en a fait la protagoniste d’un monologue sur scène à la façon de la Sagouine d’Antonine Maillet. En fait, la Souillonne se veut la Sagouine franco-américaine. Elle nous révèle, à travers ses histoires, une vie cousue de revers, de mésestime et d’amitiés conservées dans le creux de son âme. Ancrée dans le gros bon sens dont disposent – habituées qu’elles sont au dur labeur quotidien – les ouvrières de filatures, la manière de la Souillonne est rude, directe. Elle se «débourre le cœur», comme on dit dans sa langue populaire qui est celle des Franco-Américains, et elle exprime, de cette façon, vertement sa vision du monde.
Norman Beaupre was born in southern Maine and educated bilingually, French and English. He earned an A.M. and a Ph.D from Brown University. He then joined the faculty of St. Francis College in Maine which became the University of New England. He taught French, world literature in translation, French Impressionism and a course on Transcultural Health Care.
He has traveled often to Paris and took two sabbaticals there. He went to Brazil on a Fulbright grant, took a leave of absence to study Spanish and the traditional healing(curanderismo)in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1997, and traveled to several other countries such as, Belgium, Croatia, Spain and Portugal. He has written eleven books. He writes in French and English. His latest novel, The Boy With the Blue Cap---Van Gogh in Arles, is his latest creative venture. He went to Arles and Amsterdam to do research for this novel. His one-woman play, a long dramatic monologue,was produced in Paris in October 2008 at the Theatre des Dechargeurs followed by two more performances, one in Dijon and the other in Angers.
He received several awards among which is the Order of Arts and Literature from the French Ministry in June 2008 for outstanding contributions to French culture.
