Type de document :
Thèse de doctorat / mémoire de maîtriseRésumé / commentaire :
« This dissertation's basic premise is that each novelist or playwright has a catalytic agent, a pattern of signs and anticipations which propels it from its beginning on to its logical closure, an adequate and appropriate conclusion which leaves the reader with a sense that nothing has been omitted. To illustrate this premise, catalytic agents are identified, namely colors (including nudity), black humor and dreams.
Colors serve as symbols in literature and certain colors have fixed meanings; therefore it is easy for the narrator to use these colors alone or in combination to set up a pattern of catalysts leading the reader toward the denouement. Four Zola novels from his Rougon-Macquart series and one Quebec novel, Volkswagen blues, by Jacques Poulin, are examined.
The section on black humor treats this catalyst for closure in Le grand cérémonial, a French post-absurd play by Fernando Arrabal and Les têtes à Papineau, a Quebec novel by Jacques Godbout. Both authors shock their readers into a state of disorientation through black humor.
Dreams are the catalyst in the two Quebec novels discussed in the third section, L'amélanchier by Jacques Ferron and L'enfant chargé de songes by Anne Hebert. The structure of the dreams, who dreams, what they dream about, how often the dreams occur and the relationship between dreams and daydreams all influence their use as signs and anticipations of closure.
This demonstration of how colors, black humor and dreams serve as catalysts for closure hopefully will serve as a tool for literary analysis and lead the reader toward a greater understanding and appreciation of a novel or play. »
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