Abstract

(Re)Garder la route is a research-creation thesis examining contemporary Quebecois road novels and their feminine declination through a hypermedia-driven literary creation.
By studying three novels, Chercher le vent by Guillaume Vigneault (2001), La foi du braconnier by Marc Séguin (2009) and Le fil des kilomètres by Christian Guay-Poliquin (2013), the student seeks to demonstrate that the road quest allows for a form of personal redemption leading the protagonist to find himself, after being lost. This literary subgenre features stylistic devices and narrative strategies that stem film’s take on the original road novel. Consequently, the three novels have been analyzed formally, mytho-poetically and with a particular interest in the visual tropes and the relationships between the protagonist, his immediate environment, and the proverbial “other”.
The resulting creative work is in fact a resonant rewriting of the Québec road novel, as reimagined through a feminine experience, both interactive and literary, of the road. The hypertextual work draws on visual cues and actual lines from the original texts. The resulting creation seeks to subvert the expectations associated with the stereotypically masculine environment of the road by allowing for a strong, creative feminine point of view. The creative work, available online on a platform created specifically for the project, includes visual, textual and auditory material enticing the reader to lose himself, as the protagonist does, on the road.