This monograph examines the modern literature of Quebec. Starting from the so-called rèvolution tranquille (1960), it discusses significant novels from the three subsequent decades. The phenomenological studies focus on the figure of the 'foreigner' and broaden the scope of interpretation by placing the novels in a political and ideological context. A poetics of heterogeneity is developed from an engagement with French literary theory. The literature of Quebec stands revealed as a body of writing whose uniqueness cannot be explained without reference to its specific relationship to heterogeneity.