Riding the subway, a revelation of identity?
Using fiction, this article analyses the way in which the subway acts as a revealer of its users’ identity. Based on Alice Michaud-Lapointe’s short stories book Titre de transport (2016), we show how the Montreal Metro leads the traveler to confront others, but also themselves. Moreover, this study highlights and identifies different imaginaries and significant practices related to this mode of transportation. The analysis of Titre de transport considers the Montreal Metro as a form of palimpsest where a new relation to the metro is continuously reinscribed, depending on how the characters use it but also according to a specific context. This incursion into the literary field highlights the structuring role of mobility in the construction of identity, as it underlines the imaginary that nourishes and guides the behavior of subjects on the subway.