Since it was first published, Gabrielle Roy's third novel, Alexandre Chenevert (The Cashier), has regularly been studied from the so-called "psychological" perspective while the hero's bodily dimension, as revealed through the narrative, has been generally ignored. But figuratively, literally and properly, what can be said about Alexandre's body? The aim of this study is to answer this question in two parts. First, by focussing on the cashier's body illnesses, we establish that his physical suffering is the metaphor of the psychological harm which affects him too, the prostate cancer illustrating his difficulty with oral and written communication. Then, through a semiotic reading of the body seen as a vector of communicative signs, we define the protagonist's behavioural attitude in relationship to other characters in the novel, we isolate the conditions behind the existence of various behaviours and, concurrently, we establish the poetics of the non-verbal. Our analysis reveals that the hero is able to use body language to his advantage, that the narrator shows him under his best light in this regard and that it is by this way, the non-verbal, that Alexandre succeeds in transmitting a message. If spoken words still conceal secrets for the cashier, body language has none. In fact, the character's alienation is confirmed but, for Alexandre, body language is a way to escape it.

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of French and Italian, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 78-79).

Thesis (M.A.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 21, 2008). Thesis director: Paula Ruth Gilbert. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Foreign Languages. Vita: p. 119. Includes bibliographical references (p.112-118). Also available in print.

Des etudes bibliographiques recentes indiquent que le total des etudes consacrees a Gabrielle Roy depasse maintenantHe millier de titres. C'est certainement une preuve de la vitalite de l'oeuvre de la romanciere canadienne. Un succes aussi Incontestable montre egalement que la creation litteraire du Quebec n'est plus une vue de 1'esprit. Gabrielle Roy fait partie d'une pleiade d'ecrivains contemporains qui contribuent tous, selon leurs moyens propres, a etablir les bases d'une tradition litteraire solide qui manquait jus-qu'alors au roman canadien-francais. Ltetude suivante s'attache avant tout aux sources de 1'imagination romanesque de Gabrielle Roy. La premiere partie traitera de la question des influences litteraires et verra comment elles se manifestent dans l'oeuvre de la romanciere canadienne. Ce probleme est important au Quebec au meme titre que dans tout pays francophone, car il met en cause toute 1'orientation d'une litterature nationale. Dans des pays ou la tradition litteraire est recente, il semble bien qu'il faille se resigner a aller chercher ailleurs ses mentors. Dans le cas de Gabrielle Roy, nous avons ete frappe par le fait que deux ecrivains frangais semblaient avoir ses preferences. Nous etudierons ce que Gabrielle Roy semble devoir a Georges Duhamel; elle donne 1'impression de fort bien connaitre sa Chronique des Pasquier ainsi que sa Vie et aventures de Salavin. De nombreux critiques avaient deja remarque 1'accent proustien de certaines pages de Gabrielle Roy. Nous passerons rapidement sur cette question, 1'enrichissant d'exemples nouveaux. L'originalite de Gabrielle Roy semble surtout se faire jour a travers deux themes principaux qui expriment sa vision du monde sous une forme poetique et symbolique. Le theme du voyage hante litteralement l'oeuvre de la roman-ciere canadienne et souligne le desequilibre fondamental de la plupart de ses personnages. Ceux-ci, a la recherche d'un ideal a leur mesure, errent dans un monde qui les ignore ou les ecrase. Ce meme theme permet egalement a Gabrielle Roy de peindre le desarroi social et metaphysique de 1'homme du vingtieme siecle. Par le voyage en soi ou, par son imagination debridee, le personnage de Gabrielle Roy tente desesperement d'accomplir une sorte d'eternel retour vers le paradis de l'enfance. Par le biais de ce theme, l'auteur souligne egalement la tendance innee qu'a 1'homme de vouloir fonder sa liberte. L'autre theme qui contribue a donner son unite a l'oeuvre de la romanciere canadienne-francaise est celui de l'arbre. Depuis l'antiquite, celui-ci s'est vu chaiger de symbolisme. Chez Gabrielle Roy, il est, tour a tour, frere de 1'homme dans le malheur et le desir d'evasion, aspiration a l'absolu, support de la creation artistique et meditation sur l'art. Par 1'usage qu'elle fait de ces deux themes, Gabrielle Roy prouve que le roman ne saurait se passer d'un certain halo poetique; celui-ci exprime souvent, mieux que les mots, les etats d'ame d'un personnage ou la Weltanschauung de l'auteur. Si Gabrielle Roy ne parvient pas toujours a camper des personnages inoubliables par leur psychologie, du moins son oeuvre a-t-elle d'incontestables resonnances poetiques et humaines. / Arts, Faculty of / French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

Thèse (M.A.)--McGill University, 1997. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

No description available.

The main objective of this thesis is to study the representation of the mother-daughter relationship in Rue Deschambault and La Route dAltamont, works of Gabrielle Roy. We will present, initially, an overview of the dominant ideological representation of women in the French-Canadian novel before 1945 and then study the manner in which Roy recounts and interprets the experiences of the women of her time. Thus, we will be led to indicate how the representation of Roys female figures reflects a certain transformation of the role of women in French-Canadian literature and society. In the first chapter we will analyze certain aspects of Roys first-person narrative. We will pay particular attention to aspects of the "autobiographical imagination," the representation of the maternal figure and the mother-daughter relationship, and the notion of being part of a "female genealogy". </p> In the second chapter we will reveal how the mother-daughter relationship contains a patriarchal message which encourages the daughter to embrace a certain role within her family. Moreover, we will study the process of awakening which brings the daughter as Roy constructs her to a desire for demarcation and emancipation from the maternal figure.</p>In the final chapter we will study the themes of travel, the mother, and writing in the novels we have been studying. These topics are studied in order to highlight how the themes of travel and writing are related to the theme of the desire to both draw closer to and move away from the mother. They highlight the daughters quest for space and identity of her own through expanding her horizons and affirming the legitimacy of her own imagination and creative processes.</p>We will conclude by affirming that Roy offers fresh perspectives on the representation of the maternal figure and mother-daughter relationships in French-Canadian literature.

The main objective of this thesis is to study the representation of the mother-daughter relationship in Rue Deschambault and La Route dAltamont, works of Gabrielle Roy. We will present, initially, an overview of the dominant ideological representation of women in the French-Canadian novel before 1945 and then study the manner in which Roy recounts and interprets the experiences of the women of her time. Thus, we will be led to indicate how the representation of Roys female figures reflects a certain transformation of the role of women in French-Canadian literature and society. In the first chapter we will analyze certain aspects of Roys first-person narrative. We will pay particular attention to aspects of the "autobiographical imagination," the representation of the maternal figure and the mother-daughter relationship, and the notion of being part of a "female genealogy". </p> In the second chapter we will reveal how the mother-daughter relationship contains a patriarchal message which encourages the daughter to embrace a certain role within her family. Moreover, we will study the process of awakening which brings the daughter as Roy constructs her to a desire for demarcation and emancipation from the maternal figure.</p>In the final chapter we will study the themes of travel, the mother, and writing in the novels we have been studying. These topics are studied in order to highlight how the themes of travel and writing are related to the theme of the desire to both draw closer to and move away from the mother. They highlight the daughters quest for space and identity of her own through expanding her horizons and affirming the legitimacy of her own imagination and creative processes.</p>We will conclude by affirming that Roy offers fresh perspectives on the representation of the maternal figure and mother-daughter relationships in French-Canadian literature.

Although Gabrielle Roy worked sporadically on La Saga d'Eveline between 1945 and 1965, she never finished the novel and it remains unpublished to this day. All that remain of the novel are a few manuscripts totalling some thousand pages conserved in her personal archives at the National Library of Canada. The manuscripts contain several versions of a story based on an episode taken from the history of the maternal side of Roy's family: the family's migration from Quebec to Manitoba at the end of the XIXth century. It revolves around Eveline, a character who already appears in the published works and who was essentially inspired by the author's mother, Melina Landry. This novel not only adds a new episode to the fictionalized story of the family, it reveals lesser known aspects of Gabrielle Roy's writing and thinking, notably her thoughts on the feminine condition. This thesis consists of a critical edition of two of the six versions we have identified. A fairly complete story, which includes the latest and the most perfected texts, is thus obtained. The text is annotated and accompanied by a section entitled "Reecritures et notes critiques" [Rewritings and critical notes]. A three-part essay presenting the novel ("Presentation de La Saga d' Eveline") precedes it. In the first part, "Situation de La Saga d'Eveline", after giving a general outline of the projected work, we discuss problems in dating raised by the manuscripts, establish links between La Saga d' Eveline and the published works, and suggest a few possible areas of further research. The next part, "Les manuscrits de La Saga d'Eveline", includes a presentation of the material as well as the textual aspects of the manuscripts, some hypotheses regarding dates, a proposal on how the manuscripts should be classified and a discussion of the unfinished character of the work. Finally, in "Edition de La Saga d'Eveline", we examine the methodological issues involved in editing an unfinished and unpublished novel