Portrait du personnage d'enfant. Analyse narrative et semiotique de l'enfant-narrateur dans trois romans quebecois contemporains: 'Le souffle de l'Harmattan', 'C'est pas moi, je le jure!' et 'La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes'

The objective of this thesis was to produce a portrait of the child-narrators in the following three contemporary Quebec novels: Le souffle de l'Harmattan, C'est pas moi, je le jure! and La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettes. An initial literature survey was conducted and it showed that there is a close thematic relationship between the three novels being studied and other Quebec works which also feature child-narrators. Secondly, the study of the "essence" of the child, that is his role within the story and also his place as a member of the family, shows that the children feel the same need of belonging after a family breakdown and that they thus recreate a family to fulfill this need. Then the analysis of the narrative quest illustrated the changes which influenced the child from the beginning to the end of the story. It shows that the children follow a same path of loss and reunion and that they end up opening up to others.