Janet M. Paterson is Professor of French and Québécoise modern and contemporary literature in the Department of French at the University of Toronto. At present she is the Chair of the Department of French. Her areas of interest are: I. Québec literature, particularly the novel;  II. Literary theory: structuralism and semiotics; models of autorepresentation; III. Theories and practices of Postmodernism in Québec and in France; IV. Alterity: the discourse of "otherness" in Québec literature. Professor Janet M. Paterson is the author of two books: Anne Hebert: architexture romanesque (1985; Les Èditions de l’Université dàOttawa, 1988) and Moments postmodernes dans le roman québécois (1990; Les Èditions de l’Université de Ottawa, 1993). This book was translated into English, and published with the title Postmodernism and the Québec Novel (University of Toronto Press, 1994).  She is co-author, with Marilyn Randall, of a critical edition of Hubert Aquin's novel, Trou de memoire de Hubert Aquin (Bibliothèque québécoise, 1993). Professor Paterson has published extensively in journals and edited volumes, and she has edited three books. At the present time, Professor Paterson is preparing a book on "Alterity in Quebec fiction". A great deal of Paterson's critical writing is inspired by a semiotic approach. Her book on Anne Hebert, and many subsequent articles, are partially based on the theories of the Tartu school of Semiotics. Her present research on alterity makes use of semiotic models proposed by Greimas and Landowski.