In bridging the fields of sound studies, film studies, and Québécois studies, this thesis suggests a novel way of exploring national identity formation within the context of coming-of- age cinematic narratives. In many contemporary Québécois coming-of-age films, protagonists develop imaginary worlds into which they can escape from their oppressive social circumstances, but ultimately fail to reach adulthood in the way they desire. This thesis project applies two key elements in sound studies to the Québécois context: it examines how personal music players (e.g. a Walkman, an iPod, a vinyl player, etc.) and curated soundscapes (the imaginary worlds developed through interaction with said personal music players) are used by protagonists in coming-of-age films set in Québec. This study examines the ways that the personal music player and the curated soundscapes protagonists create are present in three recent coming-of-age films: C.R.A.Z.Y. (dir. Jean-Marc Vallée, 2005), Mommy (dir. Xavier Dolan, 2013) and Les êtres chers (dir. Anne Émond, 2015). Each of these films’ protagonists use the personal music player and the curated soundscape as a means to escape their marginalization in a socially oppressive Québécois society.
This project conceives of the coming-of-age journeys as manifested in Québecois cinema as a process with three nodes. In Chapter 1, this project examines how these protagonists interact with their personal music players and curated soundscapes, creating imaginary worlds which they can control. Chapter 2 explores how these protagonists develop their curated soundscapes so intensely that they recognize they can never be realized in an oppressive Québécois society, revealing the contradictions of the curated soundscape in Québec. Finally, in Chapter 3, this project considers how silence is present in each of these films after these characters abandon their personal music players and curated soundscapes. It argues that they use this silence as a bridge to adulthood, but ultimately fail to reach the ideals they developed within the curated soundscape.