Belief and Doubt in Roch Carrier's "The Hockey Sweater"

Wednesday, January 28^th, 4-5pm – Dr. Jamie Dopp, University of Victoria 

Roch Carrier’s story “The Hockey Sweater” is perhaps the most well-known text about hockey in Canada. The story tells of how Carrier as a boy idolized Maurice Richard of the Montreal Canadiens and how he—like all his friends—wore Richard’s famous No. 9 sweater. Young Roch’s sweater gets too small, so his mother orders a new one for him, but when the new sweater arrives, it turns out to be a sweater of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. Mayhem ensues. 

This story has had an enormous success in Canada since it was first published in 1979. It has sold over 300,000 copies as a children’s book and its first lines quoted (in both official languages) on the back of the Canadian five dollar bill. Canadians love the story because it reinforces a nostalgic and traditional view of hockey’s place in Canada and a view of Canadian identity rooted in the hockey myth. 

If “The Hockey Sweater” is read in context, however, and with attention to the subtle clues within it about what has been left out to create its nostalgic picture, a quite different version of the story—and of Canadian identity—emerges.