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Le temps se présente comme une des préoccupations centrales de la littérature du vingtième siècle; cette préoccupation se révéle dans le contenu thématique des romans et dans leur structure aussi. Signifiant done sur les plans thématiques et structuraux, le temps nous fournit une optique utile pour comprendre le sens profond de 1'oeuvre. L'étude du rôle du temps dans les trois romans de Jacques Godbout se divise en trois parties, traitant chacune d'un des romans, car chaque roman représente la vision personnelle d'un narrateur et se caractérise done par une expérience particulière du temps. Cette expérience se rapporte à la situation existentielle du narrateur: dans L'Aquarium le narrateur, volontairement exilé dans un pays du Tiers Monde à la veille d'une révolution indigene, éprouve l'immobilité du present, car il refuse le passé mort de sa propre civilisation sans pouvoir participer à l'avenir que préparent. les indigènes. Le narrateur du Couteau sur la table fait l'expérience d'une succession d'instants autonomes qui disparaissent dans le néant du passé: c'est l'expression temporelle de son "étrangeté" vis-à-vis de la civilisation industrielle de l'Amérique anglo-saxonne. Le narrateur de Salut Galarneau! éprouve surtout la fuite inexorable du temps et le cheminement vers la mort; cette expérience se rapporte à sa condition aliénée. Québecois dépossédé, serviteur dans son propre pays, il est incapable de s'emparer des moments qui passent et regrette leur disparition. Dans les trois romans, l'expérience subjective du temps s'oppose au temps public et mesuré: le présent immobile de L'Aquarium s'oppose ainsi à l'écoulement chronologique du temps dans le monde extérieur. La succession d'instants autonomes du Couteau sur la table se différencie du temps historique et collectif. Et l'arrêt du temps que Galarneau effectue derrière son mur fait contraste avec la progression des saisons à l'extérieur. Dans les trois cas, l'opposition se résoud par l'intégration du temps subjectif et intérieur dans le temps public. Cette intégration marque l'établissement d'un nouveau rapport chez le protagoniste entre sa vision personnelle et le monde extérieur. La structure temporelle des romans provient des rapports que le narrateur établit entre le présent, le passé et l'avenir. Dans les trois romans, le narrateur illumine le présent par le moyen d'une découverte du passé, et ces deux temps se déroulent dans la forme d'une double durée: le présent s'avance, et en même temps une tranche du passé se révèle progressivement, soit dans son ordre chronologique soit (dans L'Aquarium) en ordre inverse. Dans chaque roman, le développement parallele des deux durées aboutit à un point culminant qui marque une prise de conscience chez le narrateur; la durée passée a servi à éclaircir la situation actuelle et pousse le narrateur à en sortir. Dans les deux premiers romans cette nouvelle orientation chez le narrateur s'accomplit par l'acceptation du passé, et dans le troisième roman par le refus du passé. A cette évolution dans la conception de la valeur du passé correspond une transformation progressive de la façon d'envisager l'avenir: de L'Aquarium à Salut Galarneau!, l'avenir prévu à la fin du récit devient de plus en plus précis et positif. L'étude du rôle du temps dans ces romans révèle done certains élèments structuraux communs aux trois romans, et en mé temps il signale une évolution thématique dans l'oeuvre romanesque. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

Short but productive, Jacques Godbout's career has been diverse: professor of literature, Godbout is also a film writer and director, journalist, novelist, poet, and painter. His literary production consisting of poetry and novels is the object of the present study. This thesis does not aim at discussing all the aspects of Godbout's literary achievement, but rather at examining the themes that deal primarily with the relations between the individual and his social milieu, thereby assessing Godbout's positive social contribution to this predominant theme in contemporary French-Canadian literature. Exposing various social problems of this century, Godbout seeks to resolve the lack of communication between the individual and the society in which he lives, particularly in the contemporary French-Canadian context. This thesis is divided in two chapters. The first chapter analyses the relations between the individual and the society in which he lives as it is presented in Godbout's poetry; the second chapter examines these relations in particular in the novels. In each chapter, the social problems and the reaction of the individual to his social milieu are discussed. The novels are studied chronologically because they expose, in my opinion, a progress from pessimism to optimism in life. In the poetry, society is depicted as being oppressive. External politics of a government resulting in war force soldiers to risk their life to assure the security of their nation and their families. Internal politics in the form of dictatorships constrain the citizens of a country to obey the decisions of a dictator whose principal goal is the accomplishment of his own personal ambitions.. Christianity as practiced by religious leaders is hypocritical. And in civil judiciary institutions, lawyers manipulate judges and juries unscrupulously. Finally, by mistreating their children, parents cause psychological inhibitions and deformation of character. The individual exposed to these social conditions becomes, as presented in Godbout's poetry, consciously or unconsciously hypocritical, afraid and prejudiced. Repressed emotionally and spiritually, he succumbs to mental lethargy. He becomes passive and discouraged. Gradually, he hardens and presents a facade of indifference towards other people. He loses his sens of identity. To survive happily, Godbout seems to suggest, the individual must strive to live harmoniously with his society enforcing his own individuality. In Godbout's three novels, a progress from pessimism to optimism is expressed towards life: the individual subjected to social tensions, finally learns to reconcile himself to society and to become self-sufficient. The Aquarium presents a group of people subjected to the rigorous political domination of a government and a rigidly structured society. They suffer the hardships of a restricted material and geographic environment and the discomforts of an oppressive climate. Spiritual decay gradually invades their life. The flight of the narrator and his mistress from this social milieu marks the first stage in the development of the individual. In the Couteau sur la table, an incoherent and tumultuous society reflects the instability of the two principal personnages who revolt against their society, the second stage in the progress of the individual towards self-possession and self-assertion. A lack of equilibrium between the social classes, a tension between different nationalities, a political antagonism against English and Americans, a criticism of the army, the police and the church, parallel the lack of communication between Patricia and the narrator and their irresponsible attitude towards life. Finally, in Salut Galarneau, the final stage of the evolution of the individual is achieved by Francois, the principal character, who learns to adjust to society without being passively modified by it. The criticism of the politics of the Americans, of the French-English conflict in Canada, of education, of outmoded divorce laws, of the economic gap between the social classes mirror Francois initial instability. By persevering to affirm himself in his society despite successive failures, Francois succeeds in making a way for himself in life. Thematically, the literacy works of Godbout present, on balance, a positive and constructive social approach towards life. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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Jacques Godbout, writer and filmmaker, always had a critical look over Quebec society in his thirty-five-year career. The object of our study is to analyse the socio-political representation of Quebec through Godbout's essays and novels. / Since the early sixties, with an anticlerical crusade, Godbout asserted himself by promoting many reforms in the education system especially, and endorsing the philosophy of Parti pris: secularism, socialism, and independence. Since then, his articles and essays mostly revolved around secularism, americanization, consumerism, and effects of television. These issues are also part of his novels, which are always linked to Quebec reality, and often serve to express his theses in a different perspective. / Recent critiques reproached Godbout with his laxity in dealing with the Quebec independence issue. Therefore, we decided to propose an analysis which would cover the essays and the novels in order to seize the nature of Godbout's ideas and to see their evolution. In a word, we tried to bridge the universe of the essay writer and that of the novelist.

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