This thesis studies the works of Gabrielle Roy in an attempt to bring to light both the continuity and the evolution that characterize the novelist's writing. To do so, her works have been divided into four groupings. The first, composed of Bonheur d'occasion, La Petite Poule d'Eau and Alexandre Chenevert, identifies the poles of a paradox around which all of Roy's subsequent novels are articulated: disenchanted realism and idyllic chronicle are bridged, in an ironic mode, through the story of the Montreal bank teller. / The second grouping, also governed by this principle of alternation whereby each book seems to be the contrary of the one that precedes it, examines works of autobiographical inspiration (Rue Deschambault and La Route d'Altamont) and allegorical, almost didactic narratives (La Montagne secrete, La Riviere sans repos). / The novels that form the third grouping no longer oppose each other but rather bear the signs of a reconciliation that will only be realised fully in Roy's autobiography, La Detresse et l'Enchantement. Cet ete qui chantait, Un jardin au bout du monde, Ces enfants de ma vie and De quoi t'ennuies-tu, Eveline? combine work of autobiographical inspiration and third-person narratives, eliminating the barriers between the realistic, ironic and idyllic universes. / To each distinct form chosen by the author correpond a particular voice and a specific style of writing, which, although differing from book to book, nonetheless share common elements: doubt and hesitation, oppositions, questionings and interrogations. These are indicative of a new paradox, lodged in the writing itself, and which reveals itself through the co-presence of opposing perspectives. The different voices and the points of views they express reappear in La Detresse et l'Enchantement and Le temps qui m'a manque, which make up the fourth and final grouping. In her autobiography, Roy integrates these voices in order not to merge them into one, but to allow them to express themselves in a first-person plural narrative.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.82873 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Fortier, Dominique, 1972- |
| Contributors | Ricard, Francois (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: 001984600, proquestno: AAINQ88468, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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