During the sixties decade, the literature of Quebec is marked by the emergence of the works of women writers who give precedence to the female protagonist. Thus, contrary to her counterpart prior to 1960, the fictitious woman of the sixties is no longer relegated to the background of the novel. This image of the female as a principal character around whom all the elements of the narrative unfold is new to our literature. Our writers seem to desire, consciously or not, to create heroines who are more than mere props for their husbands or their children. Furthermore, these heroines are portrayed as rarely having access to happiness. Indeed, more often than not, they are described as unhappy. Their distress seems to spring from the fact that their family and their milieu persist in defining them, symbolically or concretely, as inferior beings. Their world is a masculine one governed by patriarchal law. Our authors take great care in showing us that it is this law that transforms many of their female characters into figures who tend to submit to the prevalent attitudes and mores of their time. / These heroines lead repetitively dismal and somber lives. From one narrative to the next, the central character expresses feelings of unworthiness, of hatred of self and of others that often culminates in mental instability. Concurrently, certain protagonists are shown to rebel against traditional female roles. In doing so, they illustrate a new kind of character in our literature. One does not find in these works the representation of the following myths: the good mother, the faithful wife, the submissive daughter, the inconsolable widow, the charitable nun. / The new depictions of the female protagonist have a great symbolic value for they show that women authors of the sixties repudiate old models and elaborate an image of the heroine that is absolutely novel to our fiction. Indeed, in recognizing their condition of servitude and in breaking the traditional mould, these characters illustrate a freedom never before accorded to women in our literature. This transformation of the female character as detailed in these works foreshadows the writings authored by Quebecois women in the following decades.

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