The geographical essay: Reflections on the work of Luc Bureau
Luc Bureau’s works is relatively unique within Quebec geography in particular, and French speaking geography more generally. While it shares many features with human and cultural geography of the humanistic tradition (a fascination for representations, imagination, symbols and literature), it sets itself apart with its original style, tone, candor, the way it relates to its topics, and its unforgiving recourse to subjectivity. In a word, his writings take full ownership of their status as essays. The essay form allows for such discursive and epistemological liberties. Yet, few geographers have exploited its possibilities as systematically as Bureau did. Based on a courteous reading of his work and its critical reception (academic and journalistic), this paper proposes a general reflection on Bureau’s work, within the context of the last forty years of human geography’s evolution.