Date of Award

2011

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Campus-Only Thesis

Language

French

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

French

Advisor

Raymond Pelletier

Second Committee Member

Susan Pinette

Third Committee Member

Kathryn Slott

Abstract

This study examines Acadian novelist France Daigle's last three novels, Pas pire, Un Fin passage, and Petites difficultés d'existence in the context of postmodernism. With this in mind, the study examines four tenets of postmodernism used by Daigle in her novels ; a fragmented and disordered form representative of the plurality of Acadia, characters that reappear in more than one novel that form the basis for an intertextuality between the novels as well as themes and symbols that are both traditional and representative of future change, and the three languages used by Acadians today, particularly Chiac, the regional dialect spoken in New Brunswick. Through this study I propose that France Daigle's last three novels represent the next step in Acadian literature, the postmodern Acadian novel.

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