This thesis pieces together the years of Jacques Ferron's intellectual development, from 1921 to 1949, through both biographical (contextualisation of the author's life) and institutional (emergence strategies and literary creations) approaches, and through an analysis of the autobiographical and of descriptions of childhood memories in his works. / The first section focuses on the writer's childhood. Product of both the liberal bourgeoisie and of a rural society, Jacques Ferron inherits a certain mistrust regarding nationalism; however, born in an era where the elite had a great deal of influence over local culture, he is influenced by this trend. In the second section, the author's adolescence is examined, along with his years of study at College Jean-de-Brebeuf. This period of his life briefly emphasizes his "aristocratic" leanings and accentuates, against the attitude of the time, his predispositions towards individualism. His appreciation of beauty leads to a loss of interest in politics, and his early literary essays take no political stand whatsoever. The third part concerns the tumultuous years which precede the settling down of Dr. Ferron in Longueuil. In 1941, the young man enrolls in medical school at Laval University, and then spends a year in the Canadian army; discharged in 1946, he moves to Gaspesie. His first stories, born of a tension between the two cultural universes that influenced his sensibility, are from this period. Faced with poverty, all around him, he declares himself a Communist and from this moment on, considers it essential that the elite give up their privileges and stand up for the most destitute around them. / The autobiographical, in Ferron's works, will be coloured by these choices made in his youth. The author often evokes his childhood through self-analysis; he does not speak willingly of his years of study, nor of his stay in the army, but deals abundantly with his years in Gaspesie. It turns out, all things considered, that this literary "revisionism" is the very form of literary creation found in this author's works. The journey of young Ferron illustrate the paradox of a man born in a well-to-do family, taught to appreciate fine art, predestined to an uneventful career, and who one day turns away from this destiny owing to his social convictions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28876 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Olscamp, Marcel |
| Contributors | Lamonde, Yvan (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001459562, proquestno: NN05771, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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