This thesis addresses four Canadian immigrant English-language prose writers in order to identify commonalities and differences in their literary representations of the immigrant experience over time. While origin and ethnicity factored in the selection of writers so as to ensure diversity, the primary selection criterion was to obtain a significant historical range, from the 1830s to the present. The writers selected are: Susanna Moodie, an immigrant from England in the mid-19th century; John Marlyn, an immigrant from Hungary in the early-20th century; Michael Ondaatje, an immigrant from Sri Lanka via England in the mid-20th century; and Rawi Hage, an immigrant from Lebanon via the US in the late-20th century. I conclude that there are significant similarities among the works of all four writers, generally attributable to their shared experience of being immigrants, and equally significant areas of divergence, generally attributable to the development of Canada, with Moodie and Marlyn on one side of an important watershed in the mid-1950s, and Ondaatje and Hage on the other. All four write extensively of the experience of the immigrant with a fundamental similarity in their depiction of isolation, non-belonging and dislocation. Over time, the representations of isolation have become more complex, mirroring the increasing diversity and complexity of Canadian society. The mid-1950s shift in Canadian immigration policy from preferred British, US, and Northern European immigration to multinational immigration has resulted in increased diversity of both the Canadian immigrant population and Canadian literature. While the environment of the immigrant to Canada changes, one constant has been and is likely to continue to be a sense of dislocation, non-belonging and isolation, of being an uninvited outsider, or survenant. Canadian literature has reflected this reality consistently for almost 200 years and will no doubt continue to do so.

This thesis addresses four Canadian immigrant English-language prose writers in order to identify commonalities and differences in their literary representations of the immigrant experience over time. While origin and ethnicity factored in the selection of writers so as to ensure diversity, the primary selection criterion was to obtain a significant historical range, from the 1830s to the present. The writers selected are: Susanna Moodie, an immigrant from England in the mid-19th century; John Marlyn, an immigrant from Hungary in the early-20th century; Michael Ondaatje, an immigrant from Sri Lanka via England in the mid-20th century; and Rawi Hage, an immigrant from Lebanon via the US in the late-20th century. I conclude that there are significant similarities among the works of all four writers, generally attributable to their shared experience of being immigrants, and equally significant areas of divergence, generally attributable to the development of Canada, with Moodie and Marlyn on one side of an important watershed in the mid-1950s, and Ondaatje and Hage on the other. All four write extensively of the experience of the immigrant with a fundamental similarity in their depiction of isolation, non-belonging and dislocation. Over time, the representations of isolation have become more complex, mirroring the increasing diversity and complexity of Canadian society. The mid-1950s shift in Canadian immigration policy from preferred British, US, and Northern European immigration to multinational immigration has resulted in increased diversity of both the Canadian immigrant population and Canadian literature. While the environment of the immigrant to Canada changes, one constant has been and is likely to continue to be a sense of dislocation, non-belonging and isolation, of being an uninvited outsider, or survenant. Canadian literature has reflected this reality consistently for almost 200 years and will no doubt continue to do so.

Ce projet inscrit la figure du flâneur dans la littérature contemporaine et examine les liens possibles entre le trauma et la pratique de la flânerie en milieu urbain. Plus spécifiquement, par l’analyse de The Lonely Hearts Hotel de Heather O’Neill, Cockroach de Rawi Hage, What We All Long For de Dionne Brand et Bottle Rocket Hearts de Zoe Whittall, cette dissertation démontre que le fait d’être un flâneur peut se révéler être une pratique à la fois traumatisante et thérapeutique. La façon dont les jeunes protagonistes de ces romans occupent les différents espaces de la ville est profondément enracinée dans leurs expériences traumatiques, qu’il s’agisse de traumatismes passés ou de traumatismes liés à la métropole en soi. En effet, la ville peut devenir un lieu propice à la création de communautés et à l’émancipation, permettant ainsi à la personne ayant subi un traumatisme de (re)prendre le contrôle de son propre parcours et de commencer un processus de guérison. En revanche, la ville peut se révéler traumatisante en soi, dans un contexte où l’individu est soit victime, soit témoin d’un événement tragique. Le flâneur, en tant que spectateur attentif de l’urbanité qui l’entoure, peut être confronté à des éléments évoquant des événements passés, ce qui peut ainsi générer de nouveaux traumatismes. Outre l’analyse du potentiel thérapeutique et traumatique de la ville, cette étude propose une nouvelle interprétation de la figure du flâneur dans la littérature contemporaine et met en lumière son évolution depuis que Charles Baudelaire l’a définie dans son essai de 1863 intitulé « Le Peintre de la vie moderne ». Par ailleurs, ce projet s’appuie sur les réflexions des plus importants auteurs spécialisés dans les théories du trauma pour interpréter ces romans et explorer la manière dont les expériences traumatiques exercent une pression sur la définition même du flâneur. L’analyse de ces quatre récits en tenant compte de la notion de flânerie permet d’explorer de nouvelles perspectives quant à la manière dont la victime perçoit l’espace, le temps et les autres lors de ses déplacements urbains. La façon dont un individu flâne dans la ville devient un symptôme qui témoigne des effets, des problèmes et des processus associés à la fois au trauma et à la flânerie. / This doctoral dissertation places the figure of the flâneur in a contemporary context and analyzes the possible intersections between trauma and the performance of flânerie within the metropolis. More specifically, through the analysis of Heather O’Neill’s The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Rawi Hage’s Cockroach, Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For, and Zoe Whittall’s Bottle Rocket Hearts, this study demonstrates the different ways in which being a flâneur can be both a traumatic and therapeutic practice. The protagonists of these novels are young flâneurs whose modes of being in the city are deeply rooted in the traumatic experiences that define them, whether this trauma comes from past experiences or from the urban landscape itself. On the one hand, the city has the potential to serve as a space of community and empowerment that allows the person who has experienced trauma to take control of their own path and initiate their journey towards their recovery process. On the other hand, the city can be traumatic in and of itself in a context where the individual is either the victim or the witness of a tragic event. To the flâneur’s acute observing eye, the city can also confront them with a past event, the resurfacing of which can be retraumatizing. In addition to analyzing the therapeutic and traumatic potential of the city, this dissertation also proposes a reexamination of the flâneur figure in contemporary literature and highlights the ways it has evolved since its early definition by Charles Baudelaire in his 1863 essay “The Painter of Modern Life.” Furthermore, this project draws upon the observations of the most prominent trauma theorists to read the selected novels and to explore the ways in which trauma puts pressure on the very definition of flânerie. Reading these four narratives through the lens of flânerie allows new perspectives of the victim’s view of space, time, and others as they move through the city. The way a person performs flânerie becomes a symptom that speaks to the effects, the problematics, and the processes of both trauma and urban walking.