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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.30224 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Tanguay, Céline. |
| 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 | Master of Arts (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: 001746518, proquestno: MQ64200, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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