| This thesis explores the fragmented identities of the main characters in Catherine Mavrikakis's Le ciel de Bay City and in Marie-Celie Agnant's Le livre d'Emma. It determines that this fragmentation is rooted in traumatic legacies, namely the Holocaust and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It discusses how, in the novels, these past traumas are silenced or not included into the main narratives available to the heroines, which results in their alienation. It also examines how the deficiencies in the heroines' collective or family histories come to haunt them in their present lives. It explores the different levels of the disruption in the passing on of their legacies. Taking into account feminist, post-colonial and psychoanalytical theories, it investigates ways the heroines attempt to transcend this horrific past, notably by using their body and recovering their collective histories and family memories. Then it discusses the protagonists' use of history in reconstructing their identities and determines whether they come to grips with the horrors they have discovered. It is argued that in spite of this heavy past, its discovery is essential for reconstructing the heroines' identities. Once they reclaimed their stories, they are able to hand it down to their off-springs. This transmission is viewed as a way of re-establishing a lost narrative, as well as a way of reintegrating the normal course of their history; it offers a degree of catharsis and ensures the next generation will be able to endure its past. |
