Abstract

Love, a universal topic present throughout all times, still preoccupies men and women. The intense effect clearly is a part, may be just a parcel, of our own being. Many words have been spoken and written about love, and in the times of consecutive and numerous relationships, they deal with both fidelity and its counterpart, infidelity. In this thesis, We analyze and study infidelity in seven novels published between 1995 and 2005 by incorporating theories of feminism, psychoanalysis and socio-criticism. While choosing my corpus, We also considered various generations. We wanted to portray infidelity in a way that would allow to compare infidelity in terms of genre and from the perspectives of writers who personally witnessed the turmoil initiated by the feminism of the 1970s. The corpus is composed of novels written by female and male authors. We choose the following books: Folle (2004, Nelly Arcan), Scrapbook (2004, Nadine Bismuth), La Gloire de Cassiodore (2002, Monique LaRue), Marie-Hélène au mois de mars (1998, Maxime-Olivier Moutier), Le Milieu du jour (1995, Yvon Rivard), Carnets de naufrage (2000, Guillaume Vigneault) and Chercher le vent (2001, Guillaume Vigneault). The study of infidelity through a mixed corpus shows that in the realm of privacy, particularly in the situation of adultery, the judgment of women and the one that comes from the women - reflecting on the subject - is more severe, even relentless as it would be for the adulterous men. Feminism, the over-exploitation of sexuality in the media, and generalized individualism are some of the elements that influence the conception of the love relationship in today's Quebec society and that I will examine in this thesis