Abstract

In Quebec, the father's role has suffered a great deal of transformations, and this, mostly across the last century. Since the 1980's, more and more research studies the concept of paternity. Moreover, paternity has found itself in many Quebec novels since 1850. Gilles Archambault's Un homme plein d'enfance, and Yvon Rivard's Le Siècle de Jeanne, in which the protagonists are Claude and Alexandre, present the stories of two men of the same generation who are similar in several respects. They are both in their fifties and live separated from the mother of their daughter who is an adult herself at the time the story is told. One is a photographer, the other is a writer; however, both have spent much more time working than spending time or caring for their daughter. They are now tormented by remorse, realizing they have been absent during an important period of their daughter's life: childhood. The obvious marked difference between the two characters is the valuable relationship which Alexandre shares with his granddaughter, Jeanne. In their quest to rectify the abandoned childhood of their daughter, Claude, by coming closer to his daughter, and Alexandre, by building a link with his granddaughter Jeanne, will both become able to exonerate the errors of the past. However, Alexandre's grand-parenting will make him victorious in the end. Indeed, while the great In Quebec, the father's role has suffered a great deal of transformations, and this, mostly across the last century. Since the 1980's, more and more research studies the concept of paternity. Moreover, paternity has found itself in many Quebec novels since 1850. Gilles Archambault's Un homme plein d'enfance, and Yvon Rivard's Le Siècle de Jeanne, in which the protagonists are Claude and Alexandre, present the stories of two men of the same generation who are similar in several respects. They are both in their fifties and live separated from the mother of their daughter who is an adult herself at the time the story is told. One is a photographer, the other is a writer; however, both have spent much more time working than spending time or caring for their daughter. They are now tormented by remorse, realizing they have been absent during an important period of their daughter's life: childhood. The obvious marked difference between the two characters is the valuable relationship which Alexandre shares with his granddaughter, Jeanne. In their quest to rectify the abandoned childhood of their daughter, Claude, by coming closer to his daughter, and Alexandre, by building a link with his granddaughter Jeanne, will both become able to exonerate the errors of the past. However, Alexandre's grand-parenting will make him victorious in the end. Indeed, while the great majority of novels published since 1995 offer a distressing image of the father's role, Le Siècle de Jeanne lets us hope that the figure of the father will further evolve positively.