| Quebecois writer Francine Noel is the author of three novels, Maryse, Myriam premiere and Babel, prise deux ou Nous avons tous decouvert l' Amerique. In a three novels, reality and fiction intermingle and collide, creating a rich intertextual network.;While few observers and experts in Quebec question Francine Noel's feminist commitment, critics on the other hand do not readily see in her work a deeper quest to raise issues dealing with the gender bias in language itself.;From the perspective of feminist literary criticism and the theories of Bakhtin, this thesis argues that the main insight of Francine Noel's work is the ability to grasp, assemble, and contextualise the ideas, images, and symbolic embodiment of feminist and gender thinking in Quebec. Francine Noel's novels then are deeply polyphonic. In fact, it will be shown that beyond the themes, the structure of these novels, especially Maryse and Myriam premiere, transforms the traditional narrative from a monologic and androcentic perspective to a feminist one.;By adopting a feminist approach and by drawing at the same time from Bakhtin's theories, this thesis on Francine Noel's work makes a contribution to feminist literary criticism in Quebec but also, more generally, to the study of feminist narratology. |
