130,000 Canadian soldiers were wounded or made ill in the First World War and this is reflected in Canadian fiction of the interwar years. The portrayal of wounded servicemen in fiction went beyond the usual stereotypes of the disabled as either victims or monsters. The First World War is often claimed as the defining moment of English-speaking Canadian history. The country’s national myth asserts that Canadians’ toil and sacrifice in the fields of Flanders commanded international respect, promoted patriotic pride and assured its status as an independent country. Both the men who gave up their health for the attainment of these goals, and the literature that documented those events have been given short shrift in literary analysis. This thesis hopes to partially redress that imbalance. The impact of enlistment, trauma, moral and physical danger and civilian disability affected wounded soldiers’ identity formation. The disabled soldier’s body challenged the construction of masculinity, heroism and male and female roles at a period in history when gender relations were perceived as intensely changeable. Authors used disabled soldiers to express the struggle to construct a national identity while Canada was caught between “mother” England and “big brother” United States. Representations of disability exposed exclusionary attitudes to non-white immigrants and indigenous populations. Despite the racist attitudes of the Anglo-Saxon elite, that same group claimed nationhood and moral authority based upon Canada’s treatment of the returned soldier. Myths of Canadian landscape informed the portrayal of the healing powers of the bush, reinforcing notions of Canada as wilderness. Just as Canadian citizens in the postwar years were confronted with limping, coughing, blinded or even paralyzed young men in the streets of their cities, Canadian authors exposed these same injuries in the pages of their novels. For a period in Canadian literature, the experiences of the disabled were imagined, again and again. While such imaginings were not always progressive or enlightened, they nonetheless gave a prominent role to disabled people and generally portrayed them in a positive, if not a heroic, light.

Grâce à une méthodologie qualitative s’appuyant sur la Grounded theory et une analyse clinique utilisant la méthode complémentariste, nous avons montré que les individus en situation de précarité, fonctionnent selon une logique de survie psychique. Celle-ci, présente chez tout nourrisson sous forme de violence fondamentale (Bergeret), va perdurer sous l’impact de situations de détresse sans secours adéquat, vécues au cours de leur minorité. Cette logique de survie correspond à l’utilisation par les sujets, de couples d’opposés qui alternent brusquement. Ils remplissent des buts semblables au travers de deux fonctions essentielles que sont la préservation narcissique et la lutte contre la désubjectivation. Celles-ci tendent, plus généralement, vers une recherche de maitrise afin d’éviter un effondrement psychique déjà éprouvé (Winnicott, 1969). Le clivage de l’objet, la fragilité du Moi-peau (Anzieu 1985), l’acting, la tendance à la répétition, mais également la dimension persécutive sont les éléments principaux du modèle de fonctionnement psychique dégagé à partir des données de recherche. Ce modèle n’est pas étranger à des contextes qui ont en commun la paradoxalité (Roussillon 1991). Ainsi la précarité sociale entre en cohérence avec ce fonctionnement voire le fait réémerger. Les sujets tentent de renégocier cette nouvelle situation afin de l’intégrer, en se positionnant comme acteur. Ce modèle de fonctionnement psychique est proche des organisations limites et narcissiques. Nous ne pouvons cependant les assimiler de manière systématique à des fonctionnements pathologiques du fait qu’ils sont adaptés à un contexte où la survie psychique est primordiale. / This qualitative research explores the psychological functioning of individuals living in precariousness. The methodology used is based on grounded theory and clinical analysis referring to the complementarist method. Results show that individuals in precariousness operate on the basis of psychic survival as coined by Bergeret (1984): experienced by all infants as a primary violence, it perseveres in a context of distress without adequate help in the child’s environment. This logic of survival is underpinned by the individuals’ resort to pairs of opposites alternating abruptly. These opposites respond to the same goal of survival throughout a narcissistic preservation and a struggle against desubjectivation, in an attempt to avoid the psychological collapse once experienced (Winnicott, 1969). The core mechanisms animating the model of our participants’ psychological functioning underlined in our results are the following: splitting of the object, fragility of the “Moi-peau” (Anzieu, 1985), the acting, resorting to repetition as well as persecutory aspects. This model is no stranger to contexts that share the element of paradoxical (Roussillon, 1991). Therefore, social precariousness triggers the emergence of this functioning. The participants seemed to renegotiate this new situation and thus to integrate it, by attempting to reposition themselves as actors of their reality. This model of psychic logic described resonates with borderline and narcissistic organizations. However, it is not suggested to systematically assign to it a pathological dimension because it is adapted to a context where psychological survival is paramount.

\ / Doctorat en Langues et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished