Le roman à l’étude dans cette analyse littéraire est L’hiver de force de Réjean Ducharme, publié chez Gallimard en 1973. L’objectif de ce travail a consisté à chercher à comprendre pourquoi les personnages principaux André et Nicole, des mécontents intelligents et éduqués, ont choisi de vivre une vie les menant à rien, le tout en invectivant à peu près tout autour d’eux. Nous suggérons également une réponse, dans le contexte du récit, à la question « pourquoi l’hiver débute un 21 juin? » Pour réaliser ce travail, nous nous sommes intéressés à l’invectif, théorie littéraire développée par Marie-Hélène Larochelle, ainsi qu’à la notion de déterminisme social. / The novel studied in this literary analysis is L’hiver de force written by Réjean Ducharme and published by Gallimard in 1973. The objective of this work was to reach an understanding as for why the main characters André and Nicole, two clever and educated malcontents, chose to live a life leading to basically nothing, all this while insulting just about everyone and everything. Furthermore, we suggest an answer, in the narrative context, to the question « why does the winter begin a 21st of June? » In order to realise this study, we looked into the invectif, a literary theory developed by Marie-Hélène Larochelle, as well as the notion of social determinism.

Theatre is the passport to the creation of a balanced educational system in the United States (US), while standardized testing is the downfall of the ideology behind ‘No Child Left Behind’ (NCLB). As an educator, I was greatly influenced by Howard Gardner, theorist of Multiple Intelligences and Neil Fleming theorist of learning modalities. This work has carried over into my work in theatre as a director. Theatre does not have to didactically serve formal education, which emphasizes mathematics and reading/writing, nor does it have to be merely a spectacle. Theatre can be experimental, artistic, cathartic, foster social and intrapersonal skills and increase intelligences in all areas for children and adults. The adaptation of the children’s book The End by David LaRochelle into a play for children demonstrates the potential that lies within the art of theatre to be more than just entertainment. Furthermore, my work on the adaptation of The End was greatly influenced by my research and participation in the production of Pinocchio with Ohio Valley Summer Theatre in the fall of 2008. From this production, I gained considerable knowledge on the topic of Commedia Del’ Arte which impacted my work on my own production The End.