Abstract

This thesis examines three Québec novels: Hubert Aquin's Prochain Épisode (1965), Claude Jasmin's Ethel et le Terroriste (1964), and Michael Basilières' Black Bird (2003). During the 1960s, Québec identity moved away from traditional values--the preservation of religion and the mythology associated with rural life. This change lead to an uncertain literary project which grappled with the view that French-Canadian history was an inadequate base from which to construct a new, authentic, Québécois literary identity. Prochain Épisode and Ethel et le Terroriste are examples of this attempt to construct a new identity. However, both texts are unable separate story and history ( histoire and histoire ). Here, the figure of the terrorist is representative of a new paradoxical state of identity: the terrorist embodies ideas of revolution but is consistently confined by an inability to break free, via narrative, from the constraints of history. Michael Basilières' Black Bird is examined using the gothic mode as well as Charles Taylor's thoughts on G.W.F. Hegel's dialectic relationship between self and other. Though Black Bird employs similar strategies to Prochain Épisode and Ethel et le Terroriste , it acknowledges that both history and literature-- histoire --are inadequate and contradictory; that a constant recognition of this fact best articulates any concept of a future Québec identity.